Current through Register Vol. 63, No. 9, September 1, 2024
(1) Personnel
Policies. A BIP shall adopt the following written personnel policies and
procedures applicable to program facilitators, managers or supervisors,
administrative staff, volunteers and interns, board members and owners
(collectively referred to as "staff" for purposes of this rule except as
otherwise specifically identified):
(a) Rules
of conduct and standards for ethical practices of staff involved in BIP
services with participants or contact with victims or partners;
(b) Standards for use and abuse of alcohol
and other drugs, and procedures for managing incidents of use and abuse that,
at a minimum, would be sufficient to comply with Drug Free Workplace Standards,
41 U.S.C. § 701 et seq. as described in 45 CFR Part 76 Appendix
C;
(c) Compliance with laws
relating to domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and these rules, and
applicable federal and state personnel regulations including the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 as amended, Equal Pay Act of 1963, the Age Discrimination in
Employment Act of 1967, Title 1 of the Americans With Disabilities Act, and
Oregon civil rights laws related to employment practices;
(d) Policies and procedures relating to the
commission of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking or abuse by any
staff, and providing that the BIP shall terminate employment or volunteer
service for such conduct unless the BIP documents reasons for not doing so in
the personnel file; and
(e)
Policies and procedures relating to discipline of staff for misuse or
unauthorized disclosure of information obtained from or about participants,
partners or victims.
(2)
Background Checks for Facilitators. A BIP shall use an appropriate method to
obtain and review a fingerprint-based state and federal criminal record check
for facilitators.
(a) A BIP may ask an
applicant, as a condition of employment or volunteer service, to certify
whether he or she is, or has been, a respondent in any civil enforcement
proceeding, including but not limited to a protection order, delinquent child
support order or if the applicant has been held responsible for battering or
child abuse/neglect behavior in a juvenile or family court or held responsible
for elder abuse. Failure to disclose the existence of any of the above shall
constitute grounds for dismissal or grounds not to rehire.
(b) An applicant shall be disqualified from
employment or volunteer service if the individual has ever been convicted of
any crime or has been subjected to a protection order or if the applicant has
been held responsible for battering or child abuse/neglect behavior in a
juvenile or family court or held responsible for elder abuse. The BIP may make
an exception to this disqualification if the BIP can document reasons for
hiring or retaining the individual consistent with factors in section (5)(d) of
this rule. If the facts underlying the conviction were related to domestic
violence, the applicant must have completed a BIP with standards similar to
these rules, including length of intervention and implementation of an
Accountability Plan, and the applicant must have maintained child support and
alimony payments, if any. In addition, a period of more than five years shall
have passed since the conviction of the crime or expiration of a court order
including a protection order, the individual shall have complied with all the
terms of his or her sentence or court order, and the individual shall be in
compliance with all other qualifications as a facilitator. The BIP shall
provide this documentation to the Council for review and comment before hire or
continuation of employment, document the response of the Council, and place
documentation of the reasons for hiring or retention, and of the Council's
response, in the applicant's or employee's personnel file for permanent
retention.
(c) A facilitator has an
ongoing responsibility to inform the BIP within three working days of any
changes in his or her history, including new arrests, convictions, protection
orders or rehabilitation services.
(3) Qualifications of Facilitators. A BIP
shall adopt the following minimum qualification standards for facilitators, and
as a condition of employment or volunteer services at a BIP, a facilitator
shall provide the BIP documentation of compliance with the BIP standards.
(a) Facilitator Experience. A facilitator
shall document completion of a minimum of 200 hours of face-to-face contact
co-facilitating BIP groups or classes with a facilitator who has met all the
facilitator qualification requirements in these rules using a model consistent
with these rules. A facilitator shall document that this experience was
obtained over a period of at least one year. A maximum total amount of 100
hours of this requirement can also be satisfied in one or more of the following
ways:
(A) By up to 50 hours of supervised
face-to-face contact facilitating victim or survivor support or education
classes, or up to 50 hours of working with a caseload primarily of domestic
violence offenders on probation or parole;
(B) By up to 50 hours of facilitating
offender-related non-domestic violence groups or classes;
(C) By earning a bachelor's degree (50 hours
credit for required experience) or master's degree (100 hours credit for
required experience) in women's studies, social work, criminal justice,
psychology, sociology or other related field from an accredited institution of
higher education. The facilitator shall document receipt of the required
degree.
(b) Facilitator
Training. A facilitator shall document completion of eighty (80) hours of
training regarding domestic violence specific issues. Forty (40) hours of the
training must be provided by a nongovernmental victim advocacy program approved
by the local Council or in the absence of a Council, the LSA or MSA. For
purposes of this section, "local" refers to a program that is located in or
serves victims in the county in which the facilitator is applying to work. When
the required training has been or will be provided by a nongovernmental victim
advocacy program that is not local, at least eight (8) of the forty (40) hours
shall be provided by a local nongovernmental victim advocacy program, if one
exists. The remaining forty (40) hours of required training can be provided by
the hiring BIP or another BIP that adheres to these standards.
(A) Training to be included in the forty (40)
hours that shall be provided by a local nongovernmental victim advocacy program
is as follows:
(i) Dynamics of domestic
violence, including sexual assault and stalking, and power and control
models;
(ii) Effects on children of
exposure to a battering parent and to battering directed at their mothers,
including but not limited to, the incompatibility of the battering with the
child's well-being, the damage done to children witnessing battering, the
child's need for a close mother-child bond, and how abusers use children to
gain and maintain control;
(iii)
Historical views and social attitudes about male dominance, domestic violence
including sexual assault and stalking, and the status of women;
(iv) Risk factors for future or additional
battering, aggressive or controlling behavior;
(v) Cultural competence as it relates to
domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and abuse.
(B) Training to be included in the (forty) 40
hours coordinated by the hiring BIP or a BIP adhering to the standards is as
follows, but the BIP need not deliver all of the training below if a partner
agency has developed appropriate curriculum or has presentation expertise and
can deliver the training:
(i) An overview of
current state and federal domestic violence laws, including sexual abuse,
sexual assault, stalking, child custody and visitation;
(ii) An overview of battering behavior and
tactics, including sexual abuse and stalking;
(iii) Risk of facilitator and system
collusion with the BIP participant;
(iv) Appropriate safety guidelines for BIP
contact with victims;
(v) An
overview of the criminal justice system;
(vi) State and local requirements for BIPs,
including intervention curriculum requirements in OAR 137-087-0050;
and
(vii) Importance and elements
of a coordinated community response to domestic violence and methods of
collaborating with community programs and services.
(c) Culturally Informed
Intervention. To satisfy the training requirements in section 3((A)v) of this
rule, a facilitator shall document completion of seven hours of training in
oppression theory, cultural factors and anti-racism as it relates to domestic
violence.
(d) Interviewing skills
requirement. In addition to the experience and training requirements in
sections 3(a) and (b) of this rule, a facilitator shall document completion of
at least 18 hours of training in basic interviewing and group facilitation
skills.
(e) Additional training
requirement. In addition to the training requirements in section 3(b) of this
rule, a facilitator shall document completion of at least 18 hours of training
in substance abuse identification and screening, and at least 12 hours of
training in mental health identification and screening.
(f) Documentation requirements. A facilitator
shall provide the BIP with documentation of his or her training for each of the
topics required by sections 3(b)-(e) of this rule, and shall include the number
of hours and dates of training for each specific topic. If the training in any
specific topic was received more than five years before the employment
application date and the applicant has not been continuously engaged in the
domestic violence field either as a BIP provider, victim advocate or probation
officer supervising domestic violence offenders for a five year period, the
facilitator must also document completion of additional training in the
specific topic(s) during the five years prior to the application date, equal to
a minimum of 25 percent of the required hours in that topic. Additional
training may be needed to ensure sufficient knowledge.
(4) Continuing Education for Facilitators.
After a facilitator has met the basic qualification standards in section (3) of
this rule, the facilitator shall document a minimum of 32 hours over a two
calendar-year period of continuing education or training in topics related to
the training requirements under sections 3(b)-(e) of this rule. Not more than
eight hours of in-program training, or eight hours of internet or
correspondence training, may be used annually to satisfy this biennial
requirement.
(5) Background Checks
for Staff other than Facilitators. Before employment or volunteer service, a
BIP shall use an appropriate method to obtain and review background information
for staff and applicants other than facilitators, as follows:
(a) By having the applicant, as a condition
of employment or volunteer service, apply for and receive a criminal history
check from a local Oregon State Police office and furnish a copy of it to the
BIP; or
(b) By having the
applicant, as a condition of employment or volunteer service, sign an
authorization for the BIP to contact the local Oregon State Police office for
an "Oregon only" criminal history check on the individual.
(c) The BIP may ask the applicant to certify
whether he or she is, or has been, a respondent in any civil enforcement
proceeding, including but not limited to:
(A)
A protection order as defined in these rules;
(B) A delinquent child support order;
and
(C) Failure to disclose the
existence of a protection order or delinquent child support order constitutes
grounds for dismissal or grounds not to hire or to allow volunteer
service.
(d) The BIP
shall establish policies to evaluate criminal history, if any, in determining
whether an applicant shall be hired. The policies shall consider:
(A) The severity and nature of the
crime(s);
(B) The number of
criminal offenses;
(C) The time
elapsed since commission of the crime(s);
(D) The facts of the crime(s);
(E) The applicant's participation in
intervention or rehabilitation programs, counseling, therapy, or education
evidencing a sustained change in behavior; and
(F) A review of the police or arrest report
confirming the applicant's explanation of the crime(s).
(e) If the applicant has been convicted of a
crime, the BIP shall determine whether the person poses a risk to the BIP's
staff, participants, victims or partners, and whether the criminal history
indicates a propensity to engage in collusion with batterers. If the BIP
intends to hire the applicant, the BIP shall confirm in writing the reasons for
doing so. These reasons shall address the applicant's suitability to work with
the BIP's staff or participants or to have contact with victims or partners in
a safe and trustworthy manner. The BIP shall place this information in the
staff's personnel file for permanent retention.
(f) BIP staff have an ongoing responsibility
to inform the BIP within three working days of any changes in their history,
including new arrests, convictions, protection orders, or delinquent child
support orders, rehabilitation services or if the applicant has been held
responsible for battering or child abuse/neglect behavior in a juvenile or
family court or held responsible for elder abuse.
(6) Professional Standards for Staff. A BIP
shall include the following professional standards in personnel policies to
ensure that staff maintain their professional objectivity and to minimize
collusion or any appearance of favoritism or impropriety by the BIP or its
staff:
(a) Staff shall not be delinquent in
paying any required child support or spousal support;
(b) Staff shall not be involved in any
criminal activity;
(c) Staff shall
not be under the influence of alcohol or controlled substances while providing
BIP services;
(d) Staff shall not
use their position to secure special privilege or advantage with
participants;
(e) Staff shall not
in any way collude with participants by implicitly or explicitly acting in a
manner that minimizes or excuses the battering or joins into the batterer's
system of denial or rationalization for the abuse. Collusion includes but is
not limited to: legitimizing participants' use of abuse against partners;
defending their abusive actions for any reason; laughing at jokes about women,
wives, girlfriends, partners or violence; and supporting participants'
distortions, disparagement or contempt of their partners by omission (not
interrupting) or by commission (actively engaging in supporting or affirming).
Staff shall not imply that any victim deserves abuse nor show disrespect of any
victim or any woman;
(f) Staff
shall not allow personal interest to impair performance of professional
duties;
(g) Staff shall not act as
a facilitator for a group or class that includes a family member, personal
friend, or past or current business associate of the staff member;
(h) Staff shall not accept any gift or favor
from current or former participants, or enter into any business contract or
association with participants currently enrolled with the BIP. Cultural or
traditional values and customs shall at all times be balanced against this
principle;
(i) Staff shall report
any potential conflict of interest to BIP supervisors; and
(j) Staff shall immediately report to an
appropriate licensing authority, or to the MA or LSA, any unethical or illegal
behavior by other staff. A BIP shall not take retaliatory action against a
staff person making such report.
(7) Prohibition of Sexual Harassment or
Sexual Exploitation. A BIP shall adopt a written policy prohibiting sexual
harassment and sexual exploitation, and shall document in each staff member's
file that he or she has reviewed the policy and agreed to comply with it. The
policy shall include disciplinary steps available to the BIP if a staff person
violates the policy.
(8)
Maintenance of Qualification Records. A BIP shall maintain a record documenting
each staff member's compliance with applicable qualification standards. The BIP
shall maintain the record for three years after the departure of a staff
member.
(9) Mentoring and
Internships. A BIP is encouraged to provide mentoring or internship
opportunities between its staff and staff of other BIPs or VPs to promote
professionalism, to provide experienced role models for less experienced staff,
interns or volunteers, and to provide cross-training for the BIP's staff.
Interns or those being mentored shall be required to comply with all of the
supervising BIP's policies and procedures and instruction of the supervising
BIP staff.
(10) Facilitators in
Training. Individuals in training who have not met all the training and
experience requirements applicable to facilitators under these rules may
co-facilitate under the active supervision of a facilitator who meets these
standards. Facilitator-trainees can co-facilitate under this status for up to
two years from the start of the co-facilitating. The facilitator-trainee is
immediately responsible for compliance with all other requirements of these
rules applicable to a facilitator.
(11) The BIP program may request an exemption
to the co-facilitation requirement if in consultation with the MA and the LSA
it is determined that the program is unable to meet this requirement and
unlikely to be able to meet the requirement in the future.
Publications: Publications referenced are available from the
agency.
Stat. Auth.: ORS
180.070 -
180.710
Stats. Implemented: ORS
180.070 -
180.710
