GA SB355

Expands Georgia's mandatory child abuse reporting law (Code Section 19-7-5) by adding "child service organization personnel" — employees or volunteers of any public, private, for-profit, or nonprofit organization providing care, education, training, supervision, coaching, counseling, recreation, or shelter to children — to the list of mandatory reporters

Requires any adult who directly witnesses child abuse or receives reliable information from a witness to make an oral report to law enforcement within 72 hours; failure to do so is a misdemeanor

Defines "clergy" (ministers, priests, rabbis, imams, or similar functionaries) and includes them among those covered by reporting obligations, but exempts communications received solely within the context of confession or similar doctrinally confidential communications

Establishes that even when a clergy member receives a confession, if they also receive information about the same abuse from any other source, they must comply with reporting requirements

Broadens the statute's stated purpose from protecting children harmed specifically by their caretakers to protecting children from abuse generally, and adds an attorney-client privilege exception for the new witness-reporting requirement