Reporting Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect
All Northwestern University employees (including faculty, staff, and student employees) regardless of position or assignment, are required by law and by University policy to report suspected cases of child abuse and/or neglect. 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 employee 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.
- Log into myHR.
- Click the Attestations tile.
- Select My Child Abuse Prevention Form.
- 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, complete the printable form below and return it to your manager (not to HR). Your manager will electronically record your acknowledgement in myHR and will retain the paper form in your department for their records (forms should not be sent to HR for processing or storage).
- Paper Acknowledgement of Mandated Reporter Status (Printable PDF)
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.