For months, a Washington state bill generated controversy over two critical interests: protecting children from abuse and protecting the freedom of religion. Signed by the governor in May 2025, SB ...

Washington state has dropped its efforts to require clergy to report child abuse or neglect when the information is revealed during the rite of confession, but left other provisions intact, ...

Gov. Bob Ferguson, at podium, goes to shake hands with state Sen. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, at the signing of a bill to make clergy mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect, on May 2, 2025 in ...

In May, the state Legislature passed a bill requiring clergy to report child abuse, bringing Washington in line with most of the rest of the country after previous efforts to hold church abuse ...

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington state reached an agreement on Friday that will allow an exception for clergy members within the state's mandatory reporting law. The Washington State Attorney General's ...

Officials in Washington state have agreed to back off a controversial effort to force priests there to violate the seal of confession as part of a mandatory abuse reporting law. A motion filed in ...

(THE CONVERSATION) For months, a Washington state bill generated controversy over two critical interests: protecting children from abuse and protecting the freedom of religion. Signed by the governor ...