OAR 137-087-0080: Personnel Standards

(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.]