S.B. No. 196 Summary

• Establishes a testimonial privilege for communications between qualified advocates and victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, menacing by stalking, or sexual violence in civil, criminal, administrative, and education discipline proceedings.

• Exempts qualified advocates from reporting privileged communications to law enforcement under the failure to report crime statute, while still requiring them to report knowledge of child abuse or neglect except for privileged communications.

• Defines "qualified advocate" as a person with at least 40 hours of training in advocacy for victims of covered crimes who works for a qualified victim services program (nongovernmental nonprofit or rape crisis program).

• Specifies that victims waive privilege protections when communications voluntarily reveal information in nonprivileged contexts or involve child abuse or neglect of the victim, except when abuse arises from parental notification requirements for abortion.

• Adds definitions of domestic violence, human trafficking, menacing by stalking, sexual violence, and victim to establish scope of the privilege and reporting exceptions in Ohio Revised Code sections 2151.421, 2317.02, and 2921.22.