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Ore. college child abuse reporting law goes into effect

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Barran Liebman [5]
Oregon Law Firm

New College & University Child Abuse Reporting Law Takes Effect January 1

 Oregon is one of many states that acted in the wake of the Penn State child abuse tragedy to pass a new child abuse reporting law applicable to all employees of colleges and universities. The new requirements take effect January 1, 2013. Although the law does not appear to require new policies, procedures or training, institutions of higher education would benefit from taking steps to ensure employees are aware of their new legal responsibilities. Those responsibilities are set out in 2012 HB 4016 (now 2012 Oregon Laws, Ch. 92), which amends ORS 419B.005’s list of mandatory child abuse reporters by including all employees of higher education institutions instead of just certain identified categories of employees. Understanding the new responsibilities takes a few steps.

First: Who are the affected employers? Any “higher education institution” means:

Second: Which employees are affected?

Third: What is the reporting duty?

Fourth: To what degree is this responsibility an individual responsibility?

These are important responsibilities and will be new and confusing for some employees. We recommend that employers in higher education revise any existing reporting policies, put reporting policies in place if they do not have them, and promptly communicate the new responsibilities to all employees through training, notices, newsletters, paycheck enclosure, and/or signage.

We have posted the text of 2012 Oregon Laws, Ch. 92 on our website, along with ORS 419B.005 (which outlines how to make a report). You can download them here: