Draft Training Transcript

DRAFT TRAINING TRANSCRIPT

SLIDE 1

Prior to beginning this training, please visit ______and download or print the document entitled “Training Documents.pdf”; we will refer to these documents throughout the training session. Also, please gather all current forms currently used by the youth programs in your area, for example, permission forms, medical releases, waivers of liability and other similar documents.

On March 1, 2013 the OSU A&M Board of Regents approved policy 1-0135 regarding minors participating in OSU related activities and programs. The purpose of this policy and today’s presentation is to address the universitycommunity’s obligations to protecting youth who participate in activities and programs on university property, in university facilities, or under the authority and direction of the university at other locations, including branch campuses.

SLIDE 2

After today’s presentation, I would encourage you to review OSU’s minors on campus policy website which is located at ______, especially the Frequently Asked Questions page. If, after reviewing this presentation and other information on the website you have questions about the policy, please contact _____ at ______.

Today’s session will take approximately 30 minutes and will include a thorough review of the policy including who is a minor, recordkeeping requirements, what behavior is expected by university personnel or third parties who interact with minors while on our campus, the reporting process and requirements when you have concerns regarding interactions with a minor, and the ramifications of violating this policy.

SLIDE 3

To start out – it is important to note whether this policy applies to your activities.

SLIDE 4

OSU expects that faculty, staff, and students who interact with youth (which in Oklahoma is defined as individuals under the age of 18) do so appropriately and in accordance with university policy. This includes all interactions with youth participating in athletic or academic camps, summer activities sponsored or housed on campus, and in all other programs or activities taking place in university facilities or under the authority or direction of the university. The recordkeeping portions of the policy do not apply to students or applicants enrolled in OSU courses who happen to be under 18 years of age.

SLIDE 5

For those of you who do not frequently work with youth, the number of forms we are suggesting may be surprising, please know that in today’s climate schools, day cares, large youth organizations, even religious groups require such documentation and this is in line with current best practices.

SLIDE 6

If your unit approves a program oris used as a facility for a program involving minors there are a number of recordkeeping requirements that apply. These recordkeeping requirements can be divided into three areas:

• Individual participant records
• Program records and
• Training records

Regarding individual participant records - the policy requires that your program have for each student appropriate forms including permission forms, medical contact information, liability waivers, plans regarding first aid and medical treatment, and transportation.

In order to ensure consistency with the implementation of this policy, the Office of Legal Counsel has created and approved eight sample forms for you to use if your program does not currently use these types of forms. These forms are available at ______. There is an instruction sheet attached to the forms to help guide the parents or guardians who will need to complete the forms. These instructions specifically state that parents or guardians need to sign and complete all forms and return them prior to the event.

In order for you to better understand how each of these forms fulfills the various policy requirements, we will review each form briefly. Please refer to the training document you downloaded or printed prior to beginning this training. For all of the forms we will be discussing today it is important to know that each form must be signed and dated by the parent or legal guardian of the child participating in the program.

SLIDE 7

The first form we will review is Form 1. This is the informed consent and liability waiver form for participants. This waiver provides additional protection for the university, its faculty and staff, including program leaders and program staff. If your program already uses a similar informed consent and liability waiver form, please take a few minutes and review Form 1 to ensure that it is consistent with what you are already using.

Form 2, Rules and Disciplinary Procedures, is a model Code of Conduct for participants and includes the prohibition of alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs, and addresses curfews for overnight programs.

Form 3 is the photo and media release form. If your program plans on taking photos or videos to use in brochures or other promotional materials, including your website and/or Facebook page, you need to ensure that the parent or legal guardian of the participant complete and sign this form.

This release does not address participants taking photos and videos of other participants.

Forms 4, 5, and 6 are all medical-related forms. Form 4 provides emergency contact and medical information including the authorization to seek emergency medical care if necessary. This form is particularly important if participants have food allergies. Forms 5 and 6 are to allow the self-administration of prescription and over the counter medicine. If a participant needs to self-administer prescription medication, please note that Form 5 requires the signature of the treating or prescribing medical professional.

Form 7 is a travel and transportation acknowledgement form, which a program could use to gather information about how participants are arriving and departing from the program.

If your program already utilizes similar forms, please take a few minutes and review the model forms to ensure that they are consistent with what you are already using. I would be very mindful in reviewing the behavior and transportation forms numbers 2 and 7.

SLIDE 8

Moving on to programmatic recordkeeping – the policy requires that the sponsoring university entity must maintain a current list of programswhich involve minors. This listing needs to include several pieces of information like the dates of the program, times, locations, emergency contact and other information. Many groups already keep this information as part of their programmatic registration process. If your program keeps this data in another format, please review the policy and the model charts and make sure there are no additional data points that you need to add to your current documentation.

The Office of Legal Counsel has created two charts to aid with this recordkeeping requirement; one of them prints letter sized and is two pages, the other prints legal sized and is one page. Either of these can also be completed and maintained electronically. Your program may choose to use either of these in order to keep the necessary information mandated by the policy. Printouts of each version are included on pages 15-17 of the training document. The electronic version of the charts can be found at _____.

The policy has a number of documentation requirements, both for participants and for program staff. To help you keep track of these, the Office of Legal Counsel created Form 8, which is intended to be a simple checklist so that you can double check and ensure that all required documentation is in order for each of your programs. The policy does not require that you complete the checklist; however in light of the number of documents required to be compliant, the checklist may prove very helpful.

Next we will review training information.

All personnel who will be working with minors in activities covered under this policy need to complete the training you are currently watching or something similar that your individual program will create. The training you are currently watching was created to be a floor not a ceiling and covers the policy – but does not address the individual issues that each program may choose to address in additional or supplementary training– therefore each university unit can –if they choose – create their own training that expounds upon what you are seeing here. Please be sure to keep records of completion of this training as well.

SLIDE 9

Although it is rare, if your group enters into a contractual agreement with third parties to conduct camps or other activities involving minors, your contracts must include compliance with this policy as a term of the contract. Please review your contracts, and determine if you have any that meet these criteria. If you do, please review the document titled Independent Contractor Insurance Requirements, which provides guidance about required contractual language and other relevant issues. If you have any questions please contact Risk & Property Management at 744-7337.

SLIDE 10

So far we have reviewed to whom this policy applies and its recordkeeping requirements. The next sections discuss appropriate behaviors and what conduct we expect of adults interacting with minors.

As adults, we should all be positive role models for youth, and should interact with youth in a caring, honest, respectful, and responsible manner. The University’s policy outlines expectations for interactions with youth.

SLIDE 11

It is the expectation of the University that one-on-one contact outside of the presence of others is ill advised, appropriate adult supervision is critical to the success of all of our programs with youth. This supervision should be provided in open, well lit environments, preferable with doors that do not lock on the inside only.

SLIDE 12

Being contentious of how you provide supervision is critical particularly when you are transporting or driving minors. When transporting minors either more than one adult from the program must be present in the vehicle or multiple minors must be in the vehicle. It is not advised to be alone in a car with a minor, who is not your child. We fully recognize that this may require programmatic changes; however this is a best practice for youth serving organizations operating successfully today. It is a good idea to avoid using personal vehicles if possible. Transportation Services has additional information about the use of state and personal vehicles which is available at ______.

SLIDE 13

Do not meet with minors outside of established times for program activities. For example, do not invite individual minors to your home. Any exceptions to this will require written parental authorization and must include more than one adult from the program – if the parent is not present.

SLIDE 14

Do not touch minors in a manner that a reasonable person could interpret as inappropriate. Touching should generally only be in the open and in response to the minor's needs, for a purpose that is consistent with the Program's mission and culture, or for a clear educational, developmental, or health related purpose, for example the treatment of an injury. Any resistance from the minor should be respected.

SLIDE 15

Do not engage in any abusive conduct of any kind toward, or in the presence of, a minor. If restraint is necessary to protect a minor or other minors from harm, all incidents must be documented and disclosed to the Program Director and the minor's parent/guardian.

SLIDE 16

Do not shower, bathe, or undress with or in the presence of minors.

SLIDE 17

If your program utilizes social media be aware of how your staff and youth are interacting via social media and that it is all appropriate. Although the policy does not address the use of social media with youth, your program can address this and we would encourage you to. Additionally, the program may also want to consider whether it allows staff to text youth and if a youth’s parent should be copied on the text or seek permission from the youth’s parents for this form of contact.

SLIDE 18

Do not use, possess, or be under the influence of alcohol, tobacco, or drugs in the presence of minors.

SLIDE 19

Not only do you have an obligation as an adult working with youth to maintain the utmost professionalism and decorum when working with youth – you may also become aware of a youth’s personal circumstances while working with them. You need to be aware that Oklahoma law makes the reporting of known or suspected child abuse or neglect mandatory for all individuals who may become aware of such behavior.

SLIDE 20

It is the university’s position that, all university personnel and volunteers who have a reasonable cause to suspect that a child is being abused or neglected should immediately make a report. Neither Oklahoma law nor any university policy allows you to delegate the duty to report child abuse or neglect.

If you know or suspect that a child is a victim of child abuse or neglect, you must act. In deciding whether or not to report an incident or situation of suspected child abuse or neglect, it is not required that the university personnel have proof that abuse has occurred. Any uncertainty in deciding to report suspected abuse should be resolved in favor of making a report.

In making a report, your actions should be as follows:

First, immediately report the information to Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) Abuse and Neglect Hotline at 1-800-522-3511 and to local law enforcement authorities. If a child is in imminent danger, the employee should contact police at 911 to obtain immediate protection for the child and then immediately call OKDHS.

The non-emergency number for OSU Police Department is 744-6523.

When contacting local law enforcement you should include all available information regarding the known or suspected abuse or neglect, including, but not limited to, the name of the child, his whereabouts, the names and addresses of the parents, guardian, or caretaker and the character and extent of the injuries. The report should also contain, if known, any evidence of previous injuries to said child and any other pertinent information that might establish the cause of such injury or injuries, and the identity of the person or persons responsible for the same.

Do not delay making a report in order to gather evidence; the law enforcement agency to whom you make the report will determine whether such an investigation is warranted. It is better to report without all relevant information than to delay a report to collect information.

Do not directly question or solicit information from the child or from the person suspected of improper behavior. That is not your role; the role of investigation lies with city, county, and state officials not with you.

SLIDE 21

Third, in addition to making a report with local law enforcement, within 24 hours after making the foregoing report, an employee shall report the information to his/her immediate supervisor and to the OSU Police Department (OSUPD) Chief of Police who will notify university officials of the suspected child abuse and will coordinate the investigation with local law enforcement.

SLIDE 22

As per Oklahoma law, any person who knowingly fails to make the report shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a sentence of not more than six months' imprisonment or a fine of not more than $500.00

Any university personnel who makes a good faith report of child abuse may not be subjected to retaliation in employment with the university.

Any university personnel who willfully fails to report a case of suspected child abuse is subject to disciplinary action, up to and including, dismissal.

SLIDE 23

As you talk with other staff members about their reporting obligations, please review the reporting of child abuse guidelines which are located on page 19 of the training document and online at _____. The Office of Legal Counsel created this document to aid you in these types of discussions.

SLIDE 24

One of our missions as a land grant university is to provide outreach and we want to ensure these critical and important outreach activities are in line with best practices for interacting with youth. We want all of our youth to have encouraging and positive experiences with all of their activities here at OSU. We believe that this policy - and its appropriate implementation – can ensure that everyone interacting with youth on our campus clearly understands this expectation and acts accordingly. Your efforts in creating a safe and productive environment for our youth are critical and the university appreciates your commitment to this shared goal.

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DRAFT