Unifi-CARS
Karly Sheehan, a three year old from Benton County, Oregon was beaten to death by her mother’s boyfriend on June 3, 2005. Karly Sheehan’s daycare provider, a mandatory reporter, notified the Department of Human Services (DHS) in 2004 when she noticed that Karly was missing hair. DHS, along with the Corvallis Police Department, Benton County’s Child Abuse Response Team, conducted an investigation and concluded that Karly’s injuries were self inflicted. Photographs submitted by Karly’s father and taken by a DHS worker were misplaced or lost and not circulated as part of the investigation and Karly was not seen by a health practitioner trained in child abuse assessment. 74th Oregon Legislative Assembly – 2007 Regular Session Committee Services form
House bill 3328, commonly known as Karly’s law, is to standardize investigative procedures and protocols related to suspected child abuse. The bill includes an emergency clause that made the changes effective on the date of signing by the Governor on June 27, 2007.
Statutory changes require additional data collection and communication between investigators and the community while adhering to strict timelines.
· Mandatory reporters (licensed professionals that deal with children) who observe a child who has suffered suspicious physical injury must immediately report to DHS or law enforcement agencies.
· A medical assessment of the child within 48 hours of the identification of suspicious physical injuries must be made by a designated medical professional (DMP).
C.A.R.S. was designed to address the requirements passed by HB3328. C.A.R.S. is internet based, allowing rapid and secure reporting of information and access by individuals tasked with reviewing suspected cases. C.A.R.S will ensure information is captured and communicated to the local multidisciplinary team (MDT), and monitor timeframes to ensure cases are being reviewed within the state requirements. In addition, C.A.R.S will allow the secure sharing of documents and information via the internet by team members who may be outside the immediate area. This ensures immediate access to information by those with a need-to-know and reduces time, and the cost of paper, faxing or transporting documents to reviewers.
Following is an explanation of the process flow through C.A.R.S.:
· Law enforcement agencies (LEA), Child Protective Services (CPS), or medical community suspects child abuse (submitter)
o Photograph injuries
o Access a secure internet website and upload any notes and photographs.
· C.A.R.S. electronically notifies the MDT-DMP that a case has been submitted and notes the date and time of the report.
· The MDT-DMP reviews the information and conducts a medical assessment within 48 hours or reviews reports submitted by medical community within 72 hours.
o Online forms will be available for input and reviewing purposes.
· The MDT-DMP makes recommendations as required by law and electronically forwards all pertinent information as required to applicable evaluation teams.
· Evaluation teams will have access to pertinent information reported as part of their assigned investigative works
o The teams will utilize online forms to document their evaluations.
· All case related information, photos, forms, directives will be permanently stored electronically and accessible for viewing by those with a “need-to-know”.
Electronic storage of all case-related information will allow the system to automatically notify users if a case involving a specific child was reported at any time in the past.
C.A.R.S is also monitoring alleged offender (AO) information input into the system. The system is identifying and recording the alleged offender(s) (AO) name and available personal information for each case reported. As subsequent cases are reported, C.A.R.S. automatically cross-references the reported AO against the database of names already captured. In the event a possible repeat offender is identified, the system immediately notifies authorities. This is virtually impossible using current paper documents.
Information provided by Oregon State Legislative document.
www.leg.state.or.us/comm/sms/sms07/hb3328bshhs05-09-2007.pdf
www.doj.state.or.us/crimev/pdf/hb_3328_summary.pdf
