Section 214-RICR-20-00-1.6 - Reporting Child Abuse and NeglectA. Any person who has reasonable cause to know or suspect that any child has been abused or neglected, sex trafficked, commercially sexually exploited, human trafficked, or is a victim of sexual abuse by another child, must report that information to the Department's Child Protective Services (CPS) Hotline within 24 hours.B. Any sexual abuse, sexually harassing or voyeuristic behavior by any Department provider, vendor, contractor, volunteer or staff toward a child/youth is reported to the CPS Hotline within 24 hours and investigated by a Child Protective Investigator (CPI).C. Any person who has reasonable cause to know or suspect that any child has been the victim of sexual abuse by an employee, agent, contractor, or volunteer of an educational program must report that information to the Hotline within 24 hours.D. Any physician or duly certified registered nurse practitioner that determines that a child under the age of twelve (12) is suffering from any sexually transmitted disease must report that information to the Hotline within 24 hours.E. Any person who has knowledge or suspicion of medical neglect or withholding of medical indicated treatment from a child must report that information to the Hotline within 24 hours.F. Immediate notification must be made to the CPS Hotline in any instance where parent(s) of an infant have requested deprivation of nutrition that is necessary to sustain life and/or who have requested deprivation of medical or surgical intervention that is necessary to remedy or ameliorate a life-threatening medical condition, if the nutrition or medical or surgical intervention is generally provided to similar nutritional, medical, or surgical conditioned infants, whether disabled or not.G. Any entity designated under R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 23-13.1 (hospital, open medical emergency facility, fire station, or police station), that receives an infant under the provisions of the Safe Haven for Infants Act must notify the Hotline immediately after taking physical possession of the infant.H. All reports to the Hotline are electronically recorded and maintained for a minimum of three (3) years in a central registry.1. Any person who has been reported for child abuse and/or neglect (CA/N) and who has been determined not to have neglected and/or abused a child, will have his or her record, relative to that incident, expunged three years after that determination.2. Additionally, any report made to the Hotline that does not meet the criteria for a CPS investigation is expunged after three (3) years.214 R.I. Code R. 214-RICR-20-00-1.6
Amended effective 1/20/2021