PIERRE, S.D. (Seth Tupper and John Hult / South Dakota Searchlight) – Debates about which types of authority figures should be mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect ended in one proposal’s failure and another’s advancement Wednesday at the South Dakota Capitol in Pierre.

The state House of Representatives approved a bill that would add coaches of school activities to a list of mandatory reporters in state law that includes teachers, health care providers, child care workers and others. The bill’s next stop is a state Senate committee.

The legislation’s sponsor, Rep. Mary Fitzgerald, R-Saint Onge, was not fully happy despite the 66-0 vote in favor of the measure.

Her initial draft sought to add the term “coach” to the mandatory reporters list. A committee amendment narrowed the language to high school coaches. Fitzgerald unsuccessfully sought Wednesday to amend the bill back to her original language.

“I just cannot imagine why we would go out of our way to not protect kids,” she said.

Other representatives said the word “coach” is too broad. An amendment moved Wednesday as a compromise by Rep. Drew Peterson, R-Salem, changed the language to “coach of a school activity.”

Peterson said he wanted to broaden the bill beyond the language approved by the committee, but didn’t want to put potential criminal liability on impromptu volunteers, citing the example of a parent who helps a little league team once for 20 minutes. He said such a person could have qualified as a “coach” under the original language and been prosecuted for failing to make a report.

Fitzgerald criticized the resistance to her language, saying “it’s a sad day here in South Dakota.”

Attempt to add clergy fails

Earlier Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee voted 8-3 to defeat a bill that would have added clergy to the list of mandatory reporters.

House Bill 1216, from Sioux Falls Democratic Rep. Erin Healy, was modeled in part after a law in Washington state. The bill had the support of the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota and the South Dakota Network Against Family Violence and Sexual Assault.

Opponents came from the South Dakota Catholic Conference, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and religious liberty organizations.

The state of Washington agreed not to enforce a provision of its law that required reporting of abuse and neglect disclosed during Catholic confession as part of a settlement in a lawsuit brought against the state.

Catholic practice bars the disclosure of anything divulged in the confessional.

Michael Pauley of the South Dakota Catholic Conference said the bill would create “a legal obligation to report information in violation of church law.”

Other church opponents said requiring faith leaders to make “subjective” calls on whether difficult life circumstances or poverty amount to reportable abuse or neglect would interfere with the clergy-parishioner relationship, and run afoul of First Amendment protections for religious liberty.

Healy told the committee that disclosure during confession could be exempted, as it was in Washington. She said mandatory reporting is a backstop to ensure “bad actors” in the church who ignore abuse are held accountable.

“Complex” questions about the role of the clergy and their role in parishioners’ lives, Healy said, “must always be weighed against our responsibility to protect children.”