Maine

Gap in Maine’s mandated reporter law raises questions about accountability for missed reports • Maine Morning Star

Published

1 year ago

February 3, 2025

Gap in Maine’s mandated reporter law raises questions about accountability for missed reports • Maine Morning Star

Every year, the Maine Child Death and Serious Injury Review Panel sees multiple instances where unusual injuries in infants go unreported or appropriately acted upon.

While a 2021 report from the panel explored the problem in-depth, it continues to be an issue, as was discussed at the most recent child welfare quarterly update with the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee.

Maine has a mandated reporter law for situations like this. It requires professionals who are likely to come in contact with infants and other children to alert the appropriate authorities of potential abuse or neglect. However, there are gaps in the law that leave little to be done when those reports aren’t made — whether or not it’s intentional.

Mark Moran, a licensed clinical social worker who chairs the panel, said he suspects cases go unreported because of a lack of awareness that Maine law requires those sorts of injuries to be reported even if abuse isn’t suspected. Often, the missed reports come to light because someone else makes a report later on. For example, an emergency room provider may fail to report an injury that a primary care doctor notices later during a follow up visit.

As the panel’s most recent annual report notes, not every injured infant will end up a victim of abuse, but “every young child with a sentinel injury should receive a careful, multidisciplinary evaluation.”

While Moran said the intention behind the mandated reporter law is not to jump to conclusions and sever parental rights, research shows that children with certain injuries are at risk of more serious injuries or even worse outcomes. So, the goal is to identify those children early enough to prevent potential future harm.

“We’re looking to identify what the problem is, fix the problem and put the family back together,” Moran said.

Maine’s mandated reporter law

Maine’s mandated reporter statute dates back to 1965. As it currently reads, certain professionals — doctors, dentists, teachers, social workers, law enforcement — are required to immediately report known or suspected abuse, neglect or suspicious deaths of children.

When it was first adopted, the law outlined a $100 fine, up to six months in prison or both for failing to report. By 1977, the potential penalty increased to a $500 fine and was changed from a misdemeanor to a civil violation without the chance of prison time, according to a review of the law’s history.

The potential penalty for failing to make a mandated report in today’s law is still a civil violation of up to $500. It reads: “A person who knowingly violates a provision of this chapter commits a civil violation for which a forfeiture of not more than $500 may be adjudged.”

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It is not clear how much underreporting is occurring in the state because “if nobody reports it, we don’t know about it,” said state Sen. Tim Nangle (D-Cumberland). The law gives reporters discretion, which may lead one person to report a scenario that another may not. Experts have said that Maine’s definition of neglect is also easily conflated with poverty.

Despite those nuances, there is one aspect of the law that does not leave room for discretion: Mandated reporters are required to report babies with fractures, burns, multiple bruises, poisoning and other severe injuries regardless of whether abuse or neglect is suspected.

This stemmed from a 2013 bill introduced on behalf of then-Gov. Paul LePage that required reporting of such injuries to children under 6 months old or otherwise unable to walk on their own.

The original text of the bill also proposed that any failure to make this sort of report be a Class E crime, which is a misdemeanor. However, that language was removed before the bill was adopted into law. An exception was also added a couple years later for injuries sustained during the delivery of the child.

The gap in the reporter statute

During a recent meeting with the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee, Moran said he wasn’t aware of the penalty for failing to make a mandated report ever being enforced.

“I wonder why we have the civil penalty if no one’s ever going to be held accountable,” Nangle said during that discussion.

The part of the statute that relies on individual discretion is harder to prosecute, Moran said, because it becomes a question of whether someone intentionally failed to report. Whereas he noted that the section about babies with specific injuries has more opportunities to hold people accountable because there’s no question of discretion.

Moran also pointed out that there isn’t a clear enforcement mechanism. The statute doesn’t say who is responsible for assessing the fine or investigating missed reports.

Had he known about this confusion earlier, Nangle told Maine Morning Star he probably would have introduced legislation this session to direct the Office of the Maine Attorney General to investigate these instances and decide an appropriate recourse.

Moran also said that enforcing the penalty could logically fall to the Attorney General, since that is the prosecutorial entity normally responsible for civil violations.

To punish or to educate? Both.

However, the ambiguity raises a bigger question of how to balance punishment with education. Moran said the panel is more interested in changing people’s behavior than handing out punishments, but it doesn’t have to be one or the other; it could be both.

During the committee meeting, Nangle said he has “no stomach” for people not reporting, but he also told Maine Morning Star that educating mandated reporters is important to achieve the ultimate goal of keeping children safe.

Rather than paying a fine, he said there could be other penalties that require additional education. State law currently requires mandated reporters to complete training every four years.

Moran also said there have been discussions about filing complaints with licensing boards for people who fail to report, but that sort of disciplinary approach doesn’t provide broader education and awareness unless it is publicized.

The Maine Child Death and Serious Injury Review Panel recommended a different approach in its 2023-24 annual report. The panel suggests the Office of Child and Family Services works with the Attorney General’s office to compose a letter that could be sent to mandated reporters as well as their supervisors or legal counsel when the reporter fails to meet the statutory requirements.

As Moran described it, involving legal counsel or someone’s superior could be more effective than a $500 fine. Not only could the person in violation receive more education about what’s expected of them, but leadership could also take the opportunity to refresh other mandated reporters in the organization.

“We have a responsibility to keep our kids safe,” Moran said. “That’s the bottom line. That’s the baseline that we start from as a society.”

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Maine

Maine inmate arrested after walking off Thomaston jobsite, corrections officers say

Published

6 hours ago

May 9, 2026

Press Room

Maine inmate arrested after walking off Thomaston jobsite, corrections officers say

THOMASTON, Maine (WGME) — A Maine inmate is behind bars after corrections officers say he walked off a jobsite nearly a week ago.

45-year-old Brian Day was arrested.

He was being held at Bolduc Correctional Facility before he left a jobsite in Thomaston on Monday.

45-year-old Candice Fisher was also arrested.

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She was wanted by the Rochester, New Hampshire Police Department.

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Maine

Tuition-free degrees are a boon for Maine | Opinion

Published

18 hours ago

May 9, 2026

Press Room

Tuition-free degrees are a boon for Maine | Opinion

John Baldacci served as Maine’s governor from 2003 to 2011. He led the effort to establish the state’s community college system in 2003. John McKernan was Maine’s 71st governor from 1987 to 1995. He has served as chair of The Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges since its inception in 2010.

Making the Maine Free College Scholarship permanent for the high school graduates of the Class of 2026 and beyond delivers on a promise the two of us made decades ago — and maintained since — to keep a community college education affordable to as many Mainers as possible.

Now Gov. Janet Mills is working to secure that same promise for future generations, by making permanent the Maine Free College Scholarship. Her plan invests $10 million in state funds annually to guarantee recent high school graduates in Maine a tuition-free community college education. It is a sound and profound decision.

If passed by legislators in Augusta, the investment will pay off for not just for students and their families, but for the state’s coffers in the form of more tax revenue, for local businesses in the form of more skilled labor available and for communities that will have more vibrant, engaged and employed residents.

Already, more than 23,000 Maine Free College Scholarship-eligible students have participated since the last-dollar scholarship program began in 2022.

The two of us have worked tirelessly, and across party lines, over the past quarter century to evolve the community colleges. As public leaders, we are partners in helping the state’s public two-year colleges find and secure the resources and tools they need to fulfill their state-ordered mandate of creating the educated, skilled and adaptable workforce Maine needs to fill jobs in Maine’s economy.

That was the vision when Gov. Baldacci led the effort to evolve what were then vocational technical colleges into a true community college system that expanded its academic offerings and offered an affordable pathway to four-year colleges.

At the same time, Gov. McKernan started his tenure as chairman of The Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges, leading fundraising and making connections to strengthen the colleges. To date, the Foundation has raised over $147 million in support of the colleges’ programs, infrastructure, and scholarships — and the Maine Free College Scholarship will allow those philanthropic and grant dollars to stretch even further.

As a state, we committed long ago to making local, affordable access to quality postsecondary education a priority in Maine. Despite having the lowest tuition in New England, affordability remains one of the greatest barriers to higher education for Mainers. Making the Maine Free College Scholarship permanent is the logical, practical and necessary next step to true affordability.

We now applaud and welcome Gov. Mills into our mutual efforts to keep growing and strengthening Maine’s community colleges and making sure they remain affordable and accessible to the largest number of Mainers possible.

We urge today’s lawmakers to support this economic engine for Maine, giving young people the opportunity to pursue a tuition-free degree — while knowing their state believes in them and their potential.

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Maine

Who visited Maine in 2025, and how much did they spend?

Published

1 day ago

May 8, 2026

Press Room

Who visited Maine in 2025, and how much did they spend?

York Beach was packed with people in August 2025 during a stretch of hot, humid weather that brought unusually high temperatures across much of Maine. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)

Fewer visitors came to Maine last year, but those who did spent more than $9 billion in the state.

The Maine Office of Tourism reported there were 14.15 million visitors in 2025, down 4.4% from the year before. Visitors last year spent $9.37 billion, up 1.4% from 2024, according to the agency’s annual report. That number is not adjusted for inflation, Deputy Director Hannah Collins said.

“While overall visitor counts declined, those who did travel tended to stay slightly longer, travel in larger parties, and demonstrate strong spending patterns,” the report said. “This dynamic contributed to total direct spending growth despite fewer arrivals.”

The state conducted more than 4,600 interviews online and in person with visitors at local attractions, parks, hotels, visitor centers, service plazas, shops and other destinations between December 2024 and November 2025 to reach its findings.

So who came to Maine, and where did they go?

Here are four takeaways from the report.

MANY VISITORS WERE ALREADY HERE

Most people drove from the East Coast, although more flew in 2025 than in 2024. Nearly 20% of visitors came by plane, mostly to the Portland International Jetport or Boston Logan International Airport. That percentage has been steadily increasing in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic, the report says. In 2022, just 13% flew.

The state found that more than 80% of visitors to Maine last year came from 16 U.S. states and Canadian provinces. According to the report, 15% of visitors came from Massachusetts. New York and New Hampshire were also high on the list.

Which was the top state? Maine.

Nearly 20% of people, or 2.9 million, counted as visitors last year were residents exploring the state. That’s more than double the number of people who live in Maine because the report counts single trips, not unique visitors.

MANY WERE RETURN VISITORS

Nearly 40% of visitors had been to Maine more than 10 times, the tourism office said. Many return to the same region on every trip. The data shows that 18% of visitors were traveling in Maine for the first time last year. An overwhelming majority — 95% — said they definitely or probably would return for another vacation.

THERE WERE FEWER CANADIAN VISITORS

International travelers account for a small percentage of Maine’s overall tourism.

Less than 5% of visitors came from other countries in 2025, according to the report. Most — 3.6% — came from Canada. That number is down from 2024, a drop attributable to political tensions and economic pressures. In 2024, 5.4% of visitors came from Canada.

A GREATER PERCENTAGE WENT INLAND

Popular regions to visit last year included Greater Portland, the Midcoast, the beaches and islands. More than a quarter visited Down East Maine, including Acadia National Park.

Still, inland regions saw a small increase in their share of visitors, the report shows.

In summer 2024, 3% of the state’s visitors went to Aroostook County, 9% went to the Kennebec Valley and 16% went to the lakes and mountains. Last summer, 7% went to Aroostook County, 12% went to the Kennebec Valley and 20% visited the lakes and mountains.

Across the state, most people said they came to Maine to relax and unwind, the report says. The most popular activities included enjoying ocean views, eating lobster and other seafood, sightseeing, visiting local breweries, driving for pleasure and hiking.

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