Mapping State Legislative Efforts to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse

Mapping State Legislative Efforts to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse

In June 2021, MassKids/Enough Abuse in collaboration with Prevent Child Abuse America released a national report,  “A Call to Action for Policymakers and Advocates: Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Legislation in the States“. We review five laws aimed at preventing sexual misconduct and abuse through school-based initiatives and provide an overview of each state’s legislative efforts in those areas. We discuss emerging trends and propose a set of recommendations to enhance current state legislative efforts, and to build a national infrastructure to coordinate and support implementation of targeted prevention actions in schools, youth organizations and communities across the states.

As we are committed to updating the field about ongoing progress on this front, we have developed a set of Interactive Maps which provides accurate and regularly updated information about the status of these laws. We hope this resource will help states developing new legislation to benefit from the experiences of other states and that it will encourage states that have not yet addressed the issues to do so more confidently.

Map #1  provides details about the twenty-seven (27) states since 2009 that have passed laws mandating schools to educate personnel and/or students about child sexual abuse and ways to prevent it. Information about the eight (8) states that have passed laws merely allowing or encouraging this education is also included.  In either case, lack of resources to implement the laws, monitor compliance, and hold schools accountable paint a less robust picture of the impact of these laws than the numbers indicate.  Some states have introduced bills in past sessions with no success and so efforts have halted. Only a few states have never introduced legislation on this topic. 

Map #2 identifies the sixteen (16) states that have passed legislation creating task forces to explore the issue of child sexual abuse and to recommend future actions to prevent it. Links are provided to each State Task Force’s report, if it is available.

Map #3 includes information about the twelve (12) states, as well as D.C., which have passed legislation and the one (1) state that has introduced legislation to improve the screening of prospective school employees and address the practice popularly referred to as “passing the trash.”

Map #4 identifies the thirty-nine (39) states, as well as D.C., that have passed legislation criminalizing educator sexual misconduct.

We encourage advocates to contact us at info@masskids.org with any news or updates on state legislative efforts so that we can continue to provide you with the most accurate and timely information available.

Maps