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HB 4086 panels recommend narrowing CPS jurisdiction, standardizing definitions and improving due process and data systems
Summary
Presenters on HB 4086 recommended 19 measures to strengthen Oregon’s child‑abuse investigation system: expand prevention and alternative response, narrow CPS jurisdiction to caregivers, streamline abuse definitions (including poverty exceptions), raise evidence standard to preponderance for certain findings, and create a transparent repository with expungement criteria; they recommended phased implementation and OHA oversight for training and statewide rollout.
Sylvia De Porto and the HB 4086 jurisdiction committee presented a set of 19 recommendations intended to strengthen child‑abuse investigation pathways by clarifying scope and improving consistency across agencies. Key recommendations included narrowing CPS jurisdiction (limit investigations of third parties without caregiving roles and let law enforcement handle third‑party criminal allegations), naming perpetrators in statute to clarify who qualifies as a caregiver, consolidating multiple statutory abuse definitions into a single streamlined set, and adding a poverty exception to neglect definitions to avoid referrals driven solely by economic conditions.
For investigations, the committee recommended raising the standard of proof from "reasonable cause to believe" to a "preponderance of the evidence" to align with national practice and the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act where appropriate, and to convene workgroups on rights notices for persons under investigation. The report also called for using structured, evidence‑based decision tools across child welfare and OTIS investigations to improve consistency.
In due process, the committee recommended simplifying and consolidating appeals used by CPS and OTIS, creating a transparent repository for founded allegations with prescribed retention and removal rules, and developing expungement criteria. The committee urged phased implementation with an implementation workgroup that includes system partners and stakeholders and proposed an analysis of costs and timelines with options that ODHS can implement without legislative changes where possible.
