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Reporting Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect

Any individual receiving a payment, stipend, or award from Northwestern University that is processed through HR, regardless of the type of payment, position, or assignment, is required by law and/or by University policy to report suspected cases of child abuse and/or neglect. Unpaid students, volunteers, and third-party contractors are also required by University policy to report suspected cases of child abuse and/or neglect.

Mandated Reporters attestation

Each individual receiving a payment, stipend, or award processed through HR must acknowledge their status as a Mandated Reporter by completing one of the two options below:

• Acknowledge electronically in myHR: If you have an active NetID and access to myHR, you must attest electronically.  
  1. Log into myHR.
  2. Click the Attestations tile.
  3. Select My Child Abuse Prevention Form.
  4. Review the acknowledgement and click the Attest button to digitally sign the form.
• Acknowledge on paper; your manager records it electronically: If you are not able to access myHR, if you are being paid retroactively, or if your engagement with Northwestern does not include access to a myHR account (e.g., an award or Special Pay payment), you must attest on paper.
  1. Complete the printable form: Acknowledgement of Mandated Reporter Status
  2. Return the form to your supervisor, hiring manager, or department contact (not to HR). 
  3. A myHR Administrator in your department must electronically record your acknowledgement in myHR following these instructions.  They will retain the paper form in your department for their records.
     
     Note for Administrators: Paper forms should not be sent to HR for processing or storage. If you cannot record the attestation in myHR, simply retain the paper form in departmental records. 

Training and Certification

All employees who have regular contact with children through their affiliation with Northwestern are strongly encouraged to take the DCFS Online Training for Mandated Reporters, which is available anytime and takes 60-90 minutes to complete. Employees will need to register for an account on the DCFS training page upon their first visit to the training module.