Mandatory Reporting Requirements: Children
Oregon

• Any “public or private official,” which means:
• Physician or physician assistant licensed under ORS chapter 677 or naturopathic physician, including any intern or resident;
• Dentist;
• School employee (including an employee of a higher education institution);
• Licensed practical nurse or registered nurse;
• Nurse practitioner;
• Nurse’s aide;
• Home health aide or employee of an in-home health service;
• Employee of the Department of Human Services, Oregon Health Authority, Early Learning Division, Youth Development Division, Office of Child Care, the Oregon Youth Authority, a local health department, a community mental health program, a community developmental disabilities program, a county juvenile department, a child-caring agency or an alcohol and drug treatment program;
• Peace officer;
• Psychologist;
• Member of the clergy;
• Regulated social worker;
• Optometrist;
• Chiropractor;
• Certified provider of foster care (or an employee thereof);
• Attorney;
• Licensed professional counselor;
• Licensed marriage and family therapist;
• Firefighter or emergency medical technician;
• Court-appointed special advocate;
• Registered or certified child care provider;
• Elected official of a branch of government of Oregon or a state agency, board, commission or department of a branch of government of this state or of a city, county or other political subdivision of Oregon;
• Physical, speech or occupational therapist;
• Audiologist;
• Speech-language pathologist;
• Employee of the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission directly involved in investigations or discipline by the commission;
• Pharmacist;
• Operator of a preschool recorded program;
• Operator of a school-age recorded program;
• Employee of a private agency or organization facilitating the provision of respite services for parents pursuant to a properly executed power of attorney;
• Coach, assistant coach or trainer of an amateur, semiprofessional or professional athlete, if compensated and if the athlete is a child;
• Personal support worker;
• Home care worker;
• Animal control officer;
• Member of a school district board, an education service board or a public charter school governing body;
• Individual who is paid by a public body to provide a service identified in an individualized written service plan of a child with a developmental disability;
• Referral agent;
• Parole and probation officer;
• Licensed behavior analyst, assistant behavior analyst or behavior analysis interventionist; and
• Employee of a public or private organization providing child-related services or activities, which include, but are not limited to, youth groups or centers, scout groups or camps, summer or day camps, survival camps or groups, centers or camps operated under the guidance, supervision or auspices of a religious, public or private educational system or a community service organization.
• Specifically excluded are employees of a qualified victim services program (as defined below) that provides confidential, direct services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking or human trafficking.
• “Qualified victim services program” means (A) a nongovernmental, nonprofit, community-based program receiving moneys administered by the state Department of Human Services or the Oregon or United States Department of Justice, or a program administered by a tribal government, that offers safety planning, counseling, support or advocacy services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking; or (B) a sexual assault center, victim advocacy office, women’s center, student affairs center, health center or other program providing safety planning, counseling, support or advocacy services to victims that is on the campus of or affiliated with a two-year or four-year post-secondary institution that enrolls one or more students who receive an Oregon Opportunity Grant.
• Certain exceptions to the obligation of mandatory reporters to report are set forth under “Anything else I should know?” below.

When is a report required?

• Reasonable cause to believe that any child with whom the reporter comes in contact has suffered abuse or that any person with whom the reporter comes in contact has abused a child.
• “Reasonable cause” is a legal standard that means reasonable suspicion, which is a very low evidentiary threshold for deciding that a complaint is founded. Meier v. Salem-Keizer School District 392 P.3d 796 (2017), review denied 406 P.3d 608.

Notwithstanding the foregoing:

• Psychiatrists, psychologists, members of the clergy, attorneys, and guardians ad litem are not required to report information communicated by a person if the communication is privileged.
• An attorney is not required to make a report by reason of information communicated to the attorney in the course of representing a client if disclosure of the information would be detrimental to the client.
• A report need not be made if the public or private official acquires information relating to abuse by reason of a report, or by reason of a proceeding arising out of a report, and the public or private official reasonably believes that the information is already known by a law enforcement agency or the Department of Human Services.

Where does it go?

• Voluntary reports of child abuse are to be made to the Department of Human Services by telephone to the child abuse reporting hotline (call 1-855-503-SAFE (7233)). This toll-free number allows you to report abuse or neglect of any child or adult to the Department of Human Services.
• Required reports of child abuse are to be made to the Department of Human Services through Oregon’s centralized child abuse reporting system (which consists of the hotline and a website for electronic reports of suspected child abuse, which is to be established by the department) or to a local police department, county sheriff, county juvenile department, or Oregon State Police (within the county where the person making the report is located at the time of the contact).
• When a report of alleged child abuse is received by the department, the department shall notify a law enforcement agency within the county where the alleged abuse occurred or, if that county is unknown, the county where the child resides or, if that county is unknown, the county where the reporter came into contact with the child or the alleged perpetrator of the abuse.
• When a report of alleged child abuse is received by a law enforcement agency, the agency shall notify the department by making a report of the alleged child abuse to the centralized child abuse reporting system.

• “Abuse” of a child means any assault or physical injury that has been caused by non-accidental means, including any injury that appears to be at variance with the explanation given for the injury; any mental injury to a child, which shall include only cruel or unconscionable acts or statements made, or threatened to be made, to a child if the acts, statements or threats result in severe harm to the child’s psychological, cognitive, emotional or social well-being and functioning; rape (which includes, but is not limited to, rape, sodomy, unlawful sexual penetration and incest); sexual abuse; sexual exploitation (which includes, but is not limited to, contributing to the sexual delinquency of a minor and any other conduct that allows, employs, authorizes, permits, induces or encourages a child to engage in the performing for people to observe or the photographing, filming, tape recording or other exhibition that depicts sexual conduct or contact, sexual abuse involving a child or rape of a child or allowing, permitting, encouraging or hiring a child to engage in prostitution or a commercial sex act or to purchase sex with a minor or to engage in commercial sexual solicitation); negligent treatment or maltreatment, including, but not limited to, the failure to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter or medical care that is likely to endanger the health or welfare of the child; threatened harm (which means subjecting a child to a substantial risk of harm to the child’s health or welfare); buying or selling of a person under 18 years of age; permitting a person under 18 years of age to enter or remain in or upon premises where methamphetamines are being manufactured; unlawful exposure to a controlled substance or to the unlawful manufacturing of a cannabinoid extract that subjects a child to a substantial risk of harm to the child’s health or safety; the restraint or seclusion of a child; and the infliction of corporal punishment on a child.
• “Abuse” does not include reasonable discipline unless the discipline results in one of the conditions described above.
• “Child” means an unmarried person who is under 18 years of age or is under 21 years of age and residing in or receiving care or services at a child-caring agency.
• “Child-Caring Agency” means (A) any private school, private agency, private organization or county program providing (1) day treatment for children with emotional disturbances, (2) adoption placement services, (3) residential care, including, but not limited to, foster care or residential treatment for children, (4) residential care in combination with academic education and therapeutic care, including, but not limited to, treatment for emotional, behavioral or mental health disturbances, (5) outdoor youth programs or (6) other similar care or services for children, (B) any private organization or person that provides secure transportation during any segment of a child’s trip to or from a child-caring agency, certified foster home or developmental disabilities residential facility if the route of the child’s trip begins or ends in Oregon, and (C) any of the following (1) a shelter-care home that is not a foster home, (2) an independent residence facility, (3) a private residential boarding school, (4) a child-caring facility, and (5) a secure nonemergency medical transportation provider.
• A “child-caring agency” does not include residential facilities or foster care homes certified or licensed by the Department of Human Services for children receiving developmental disability services, any private agency or organization facilitating the provision of respite services (the voluntary assumption of short-term care and control of a minor child without compensation or reimbursement of expenses for the purpose of providing a parent in crisis with relief from the demands of ongoing care of the parent’s child) for parents pursuant to a properly executed power of attorney, a youth job development organization, a shelter-care home that is a foster home, a foster home, a facility that exclusively serves individuals 18 years of age and older, or a facility that primarily serves both adults and children but requires that any child must be accompanied at all times by at least one custodial parent or guardian.
• “Child-caring facility” means a residence or building used by an agency to provide substitute residential care for children.

• Reports must be made immediately. Voluntary reports should be made orally to the Department of Human Services by telephone to the child abuse reporting hotline. Required reports should be made to the Department of Human Services through the centralized child abuse reporting system established by the department or to a law enforcement agency within the county where the person making the reports is located.

• If known, the report must contain:
• The names and addresses of the child and the parents of the child or other persons responsible for care of the child;
• The child’s age;
• The nature and extent of the abuse (including any evidence of previous abuse);
• The explanation given for the abuse; and
• Any other information that the reporter believes might be helpful in establishing the cause of the abuse and the identity of the perpetrator.

• The duty to report is personal to the public or private official alone, regardless of whether the official is employed by, a volunteer of or a representative or agent for any type of entity or organization that employs persons or uses persons as volunteers who are public or private officials in its operations.
• The duty to report exists regardless of whether the entity or organization that employs the public or private official or uses the official as a volunteer has its own procedures or policies for reporting abuse internally within the entity or organization.
• Anyone who violates the mandatory reporting statute commits a Class A violation.
• Anyone participating in good faith in the making of a report of child abuse and who has reasonable grounds for the making thereof shall have immunity from any liability, civil or criminal, that might otherwise be incurred or imposed with respect to the making or content of such report. Any such participant shall have the same immunity with respect to participating in any judicial proceeding resulting from such report.
• When a report of alleged child abuse is received by the department or by a law enforcement agency, the department or law enforcement agency, or both, may collect information concerning the military status of the parent or guardian of the child who is the subject of the report and may share the information with the appropriate military authorities.
• When a report alleging that a child or ward in substitute care may have been subjected to abuse is received by the department, the department shall notify the attorney for the child or ward, the child’s or ward’s court appointed special advocate, the parents of the child or ward and any attorney representing a parent of the child or ward that a report has been received.

Or. Rev. Stat. §§ 147.600, 418.205, 418.950, 419B.005, 419B.010, 419B.015, 419B.025.