ORR Incident Reporting System: To Ensure the safety of minors in HHS Custody

Key Points/Objectives

- Provide information to the ORR describing incident reports involving sexual conduct with minors in UC facility care ranging in different types and severity.

-Identify challenges in ORR's incident reporting process

-Identify challanges that UC facilities faced in Preventing, Detecting & Reporting incidents.

Departments in legal custody of UC Children under 18:

HHS: The Department of Health and Human Services

ACF: Administration for Children and Families

ORR: Office of Refugee Resettlement

ORR Responsabilities

TYPES OF ORR FUNDED FACILITIES

ORR Incident Reporting System: Failure to properly collect data to ensure the safety of minors in HHS Custody

• The ORR is responsible for providing a safe environment to address the needs of children in it's custody.
• The ORR funds facilities to provide housing, food, medical care, mentalhealth services, educational services, & recreational services.
• The ORR requires that ALL facilities report to ORR any significant incidents that affect the child's health, well-being, or safety.

• Shelter
• Staff Secure
• Secure
• Residential Treatment
• Influx
• Transitional Foster Care

ORR'S Incident Reporting system

Sexual Abuse is the category used for the most egregious incidents which includes actual or simulated sexual intercourse, intentional touching , lascivious exposure of the genitals

-To ensure the saftey of a UC in ORR care, facilities must document details of incidents that occur . These incidents are generally detected by facility staff, including youthcare workers, clinicians, and case managers who interact closley with minors with a description.

Steps to Identify & Report an SA/SIR

Office of Inspector General (OIG)

Internal Review Report

Steps to Identify & Report an SIR

• When to report an SIR

Wide range of events, like medical emergencies, physical or verbal aggression between minors, self-harm and incidents of a sexual nature should be reported to ensure all issues are elevated to the ORR.

• How to report an SIR

SIR's must be reported within 4 hrs of incident through the UC PORTAL with a detailed descritption about events (Who, What, Where,When) that occured before or while in ORR custody.

Sexual Harassment includes repeated and unwelcome sexual advances and actions of a derogatory or offensive sexual nature

ORR policy directs facility to report any knowledge, suspicion, or information regarding an incident of a sexual nature.

Facilities are directed to categorize the incident into one of three categories:

There was a total of 21,858 incident reports submitted by the ORR during Janurary 1, 2018 to July 31, 2018.

761 unique reports showed incidents that involved sexual conduct. (704) of these incidents involved conduct between minors,(48) of these incidents involved conduct by an adult against a minor, and (9) Incidents involved an unknown perpetrator.

Office of Inspector General (OIG)

-OIG's mission is to protect the integraty of the HHS program, taken upon nationwide audits, investigations & inspections.

-Due to allegations of sexual and physical abuse of minors in ORR-funded facilities, The OIG completed a large investigation in August 2018 through September 2018 throughout 10 states in 45 care provider facilities of incident reports that took place between Janurary 1, 2018 and July 31, 2018 related to the child health & saftey .

-The OIG found that the ORR lacks designated fields to capture efficent reporting information about the actions that care provider facilities took to protect minors in response to reported incidents.

-The care provider facilities described challanges in PREVENTING, DETECTING & REPORTING these incidents.

CHALLENGES ORR FACES DUE TO INEFFICENT SIR RESPONSE

Inappropiate Sexual Behavior is behavior that does not meet the definition of sexual abuse or sexual harassment but is sexual in nature

• Staff cannot easily access the information to elevate incidents that require immediate attention.
• The abcence of a designated fields indicating whether an incident took place while in ORR custody and specify location
• The SIR process lacks a designated field to attach such video if any pertaining to the incident.
• Confusion between ORR policy as to "what should be reported," miscomunication, & inconsistent information during meetings between federal feild specialists and ORR.
• Staff shoratges of YCW can affect facilities to Prevent, Detect, & Report incidents scine they provide direct supervision to the minors. YCW described these challenges as "stressful, overworked, exhausting" which could affect the YCW to PREVENT, DETECT & REPORT.

ACF RESPONSE

OIG RECOMENDATIONS

• ACF reported that its efforts are underway to replace the UC Portal to be called UC Path that will include more designated fields for more efficent documentation
• ACF reported that ORR expanded the PSA (Prevention of Sexual Abuse) team in efforts to track data related to SA/SIRs & SIRs.
• ACF commited to support staff with resilience training & guidence to censure compliance.
• ACF ecourages ORR to intergarte efforts to improve consistent reporting for all significant incidents into the develpment of the new UC Path System.

• Work with the ACF to track data and follow up with facilities to see if they have taken on the proper procedures and saftey plan for the minors
• Aim to IMPROVE the incident reporting system and reduce the challenges that facilities face.
• Collect key information about incidents for more efficent and effective oversight
• Track and trend incident reports information to identify opportunities to better safeguard minors
• Work with facilities to address staff shortages, develpoe startagies to recruit and retain YCW
• Improve its trainings and guidence to help facilities better identify and report significant incidents.