G2400 - Reporting Child Abuse

Oregon Revised Statues (ORS 419B.010) requires any school employee having reasonable cause to believe that any child with whom he or she comes in contact has suffered abuse or that any person with whom he or she comes in contact has abused a child to immediately report it by telephone or otherwise to the local office of the Department of Human Services or to a law enforcement agency within the county where the person making the report is located at the time of the contact. The report shall contain, if known, 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 person making the report believes might be helpful in establishing the cause of the abuse and the identity of the perpetrator.

Abuse is defined in the statute as:

1. Any assault of a child and any physical injury to a child which has been caused by other than accidental means, including any injury which appears to be at variance with the explanation given of the injury;
2. Any mental injury to a child, which shall include only observable and substantial impairment of the child’s mental or psychological ability to function caused by cruelty to the child, with due regard to the culture of the child;
3. Rape of a child, sexual abuse, or sexual exploitation;
4. Negligent treatment or maltreatment of a child, 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;
5. Threatened harm to a child, which means subjecting a child to a substantial risk of harm to the child’s health or welfare;
6. Buying or selling a person under 18 years of age;
7. Permitting a person under 18 years of age to enter or remain in or upon premises where methamphetamines are being manufactured; and,
8. Unlawful exposure to a controlled substance that subjects a child to a substantial risk of harm to the child’s health or safety.