Imagine you are providing individual therapy to an adult client.
During the session, your client tells you, “My daughter told me that a family member has been touching her sexually.”
The child is not your client. You have never met her. You did not hear the disclosure directly from her.
Do you have a mandatory reporting responsibility?
Beginning October 1, 2026, Alabama’s mandatory reporting law makes the importance of that question much clearer.
When I train counselors on mandatory reporting, third-party information is one area I think deserves the most attention. Therapists often picture mandatory reporting as something triggered by a direct disclosure from a child client, but real clinical practice is rarely that clean. Information about a child’s safety may surface during an adult session, family work, collateral contact, or a conversation about someone who is not even the identified client.
A Child Does Not Have to Be Your Client
Alabama Act No. 2026-375 amends Ala. Code § 26-14-3 and expressly identifies receiving a third-party report that a child is or is suspected of being abused or neglected as a reporting trigger.
For LPCs, LICSWs, social workers, therapists, and other mental health professionals, this matters because information about children comes up in all kinds of counseling.
You might hear concerning information from:
- An adult client talking about their child.
- A parent discussing something their child disclosed.
- A sibling talking about another sibling.
- A family member.
- A collateral contact.
- A client talking about a child outside their immediate family.
The child does not have to be sitting in your counseling office for mandatory reporting requirements to apply. That is something I would want every clinician in a mental health practice to understand clearly.
“But I Haven’t Talked to the Child Yet”
This is where a counselor’s clinical instincts can work against them. We are trained to assess. We want context. We want to understand the whole story. We want to ask follow-up questions and make sure we are interpreting the situation correctly.
Those are good clinical skills in many situations. But once the reporting threshold has been reached, the counselor’s job is not to turn the therapy session into an investigation.
In the example above, the counselor should not delay a required report until the child can be interviewed or until the adult client provides additional proof.
The point I emphasize with clinicians is simple: Secondhand does not mean insignificant.
A report can come to you through another person and still create a legal obligation.
This Can Come Up in Adult Therapy
Counselors who primarily work with adults should pay particular attention to this change. It is easy to mentally categorize mandatory reporting under “child and adolescent counseling.” That is a mistake.
An adult client may tell you about:
- Their own child.
- A niece or nephew.
- A younger sibling.
- A partner’s child.
- A neighbor’s child.
- Another minor they are concerned about.
Depending on what is disclosed, your reporting duty may be triggered even though you have never provided treatment to that child. That means updated mandatory reporting training should not be limited to clinicians who specialize in children. It belongs in every mental health practice.
What Happens When the Reporting Threshold Is Reached?
Beginning October 1, a qualifying oral report must be made immediately to Alabama DHR or a law-enforcement official. The written report must be submitted within 72 hours. Do not delay a required report to interview the child yourself, gather evidence, obtain supervisor approval, or conduct an internal investigation.
The principle is straightforward: You do not have to personally verify a third-party report before making a report that is legally required.
Investigation is not your role.
Why This Matters Clinically
This is not just a legal technicality. It changes what therapists need to listen for in session.
A counselor may be focused on the adult client in front of them and miss that the client just disclosed information about a child who may be unsafe. The information may have nothing to do with the client’s original presenting problem. That does not make it clinically or legally insignificant.
For LPCs, LICSWs, social workers, therapists, and other mental health counselors in Alabama, that is one of the most important practical implications of the October 1 change.
Want to Work Through More Clinical Examples?
Third-party information is only one part of Alabama’s updated mandatory reporting law.
Through Brave Play, I offer Alabama Mandatory Reporting: Legal and Ethical Responsibilities for Professional Counselors, a 1-hour Legal & Ethics continuing education training that works through third-party reports, the reasonable-person standard, confidentiality, supervision and consultation, documentation, and real-world clinical scenarios.
The course provides 1 Legal & Ethics continuing education hour for eligible counselors.
References
Alabama Act No. 2026-375, amending Ala. Code § 26-14-3, effective October 1, 2026.
Alabama Department of Human Resources. Child Abuse/Neglect Reporting.
Ala. Code § 26-14-3.
This article provides general educational information and is not legal advice.
About the Author: Dr. Ashley Garrett, PhD, LPCS, RPTS, ACS is the founder of Brave Play and Garrett Counseling. Dr. Garrett has worked in the counseling field for more than 20 years, with extensive experience supervising and training counseling professionals. Garrett Counseling is an Alabama-based outpatient counseling practice serving children, adolescents, adults, and families across multiple locations, while Brave Play provides continuing education and professional training for counselors and other mental health professionals.
