| From the HSLDA E-lert Service: |
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| Date: From: Subject: | 5/23/2011 11:08:56 AM Home School Legal Defense Association Oregon--Please Call Now to Help Pass Good Bill! |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== Oregon--Please Call Now to Help Pass Good Bill! Dear HSLDA Members and Friends, We understand the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to have a public hearing and possibly a work session on House Bill 2183A on Wednesday. As you may remember from earlier e-lerts, this bill would make it a violation for any person to knowingly make a false report of child abuse. The bill passed the House 37-23 and has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee. As we pointed out earlier, false reports of child abuse cause innocent families to be placed under suspicion and investigated by the Department of Human Services (DHS). When these families are investigated, child protective services (CPS) workers often demand to be allowed into their homes and want to interview their children for something they haven't done. Additionally, these false reports waste the valuable time of CPS workers trying to do their job investigating legitimate allegations of abuse or neglect. Currently, 31 states have some type of penalty for making a false report of child abuse and/or neglect. Please contact the Senate Judiciary Committee members listed below and urge them to support House Bill 2183A. The committee is scheduled to hear this bill and others on Wednesday, May 25, at 8:00 a.m. in Room 343. REQUESTED ACTION 1) Please call and/or email the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee listed below with the following message in your own words: "Please support House Bill 2183A. I support making it a violation to falsely report child abuse. DHS workers' efforts to investigate child abuse should not be complicated by having to investigate false reports. Nor should parents have to face an unnecessary investigation because of a false report. Please vote in favor of House Bill 2183A." If your senator is on this committee, please let him or her know that you are a constituent. To find the name of your senator, use HSLDA's Legislative Toolbox at http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=11282 . You do not need to tell the committee members that you are a homeschooler. Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Floyd Prozanski (D), Chair Phone: 503-986-1704 Email: sen.floydprozanski@state.or.us Sen. Jeff Kruse (R), Vice-Chair (testified in support of bill in House, so you can thank him for his support.) Phone: 503-986-1701 Email: sen.jeffkruse@state.or.us Sen. Suzanne Bonamici (D) Phone: 503-986-1717 Email: sen.suzannebonamici@state.or.us Sen. Jackie Dingfelder (D) Phone: 503-986-1723 Email: sen.jackiedingfelder@state.or.us Sen. Doug Whitsett (R) Phone: 503-986-1728 Email: sen.dougwhitsett@state.or.us 2) Please consider supporting OCEANetwork as they work to monitor legislation on the ground in Oregon as well as support, protect and promote home education across the state. HSLDA works closely with OCEANetwork to ensure that homeschool freedom and parental rights are protected in Oregon. If you would like to support them in the vital work they do please visit: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=11283 . BACKGROUND House Bill 2183A would make it illegal to falsely report child abuse to the Department of Human Service or a law enforcement officer, if the person making the report knows that it is false. A person would also be guilty if he or she knowingly made the false report to a public or private official, as defined under the mandatory reporting law in Oregon, with the intent of having that official make a report to DHS or a law enforcement agency. House Bill 2183A was amended in the House Judiciary Committee, hence the "A" after the bill number. A person convicted of a Class A violation would face a fine of $720. As originally written, House Bill 2183A would have permitted a person making a false report to be convicted of a Class A misdemeanor. A Class A misdemeanor carries a stiffer penalty and a person convicted would have faced a maximum of one year in prison, a $6,250 fine, or both. While House Bill 2183A reduces the potential penalty for making a false report, it is a step in right direction- penalizing false reports of child abuse. According the DHS, 67,885 allegations of abuse and neglect were made in 2009. Of those allegations, only 28,584 actually were investigated. Of the allegations actually investigated, 21,344 were found to be unfounded or listed as "unable to determine." While Oregon doesn't have a category for "false" reports, these numbers mean that nearly 75% of the reports investigated were not found to be true. Almost 90% of all reports made in 2009 were either not investigated because they didn't meet the threshold of abuse/neglect or they were found to be untrue. To see the annual reports on abuse and neglect statistics in Oregon you can go to: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=10784 To see more information on this and other bills HSLDA is monitoring in Oregon, visit our website at: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=10785 . If you are not already a member, please consider joining HSLDA and help support home education freedom in Oregon and beyond. You can join online at: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=10786 . Sincerely, Thomas J. (Tj) Schmidt HSLDA Staff Attorney ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> Can you call your attorney at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning? Our members can get in touch with their attorney even after business hours, when they have a legal emergency. Wouldn't you like this level of service? 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If this is an invalid email address or you have other problems, please reply to webmaster@hslda.org. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER: This is considered a private and confidential message from HSLDA to its bonafide HSLDA E-lert Service subscribers. HSLDA cannot attest to the authenticity of copies posted, forwarded, or sent by any party other than HSLDA. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: Please do not reply or otherwise use this email address; hslda@hslda.org is for broadcast purposes only and is not intended to receive incoming messages. We cannot reply to any email sent to this address. If you have comments or questions, please send email to info@hslda.org or call HSLDA at 540-338-5600. HSLDA members can also email staff directly through the Members website at http://members.hslda.org/contact.asp. Thank you for your cooperation. ====================================================================== | |
