University of Michigan forms new policy for staff working with youth

Thousands of minors pass through University of Michigan's campus each year, many of them involved in one of the 170-plus programs run by the university that deal with youth.

In past years there was no overarching policy in place dealing with how university staff interact with the children placed in their care.

Now there is.

U-M on Monday, Jan. 13, put into place a standard practice guide that outlines what staff should and shouldn't do in the presence of minors, mandates a central database of programs that include youth and requires ongoing background checks for employees who work with children.

Prior to the new guidelines, each department dealt with minors in accordance to their own policies, and many units, such as the law school, didn't have a written policy in place.

"The most important thing that we've tried to do is centralize and coordinate so that everyone is operating with the same information and expectations," explained Donika Thomas Varner, associate general counsel at U-M and co-chair of steering committee that developed the new policy.

Raynette Kempf helps her granddaughter, Abbigail, 6, make a snowflake during the Snowflake Making Workshop in the Taubman Health Center's north lobby in Ann Arbor on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2014. Patrick Record | The Ann Arbor News

The set of policies was developed over a two-year period by a steering committee, tasked with the job in November 2011, after the Penn State sex abuse scandal broke and also after U-M learned that one of its pediatric residents working in the health system had been caught looking at child porn but wasn't reported to police for six months.

"Both of those really highlighted gaps in child protection," explained U-M social work professor Kathleen Faller (NASW Member), who is facilitating a yearlong lecture series at the Ann Arbor campus focused on minors at universities.

The Penn State scandal caught the higher education industry by surprise. Despite the liability institutions who work with children face, the vast majority of colleges didn't have a central policy in place for dealing with children.

"One of the things that became quite apparent is that a gap [in policies] existed, at that point, in virtually all institutions," Faller said. "Even though it's surprising, it's not unique to the University of Michigan."

That month, U-M president Mary Sue Coleman called for a review addressing "gaps in our policies and procedures and how might we address the gaps," "policy and procedures for identifying and recording abuse," and "trainings (and) screenings" staff and volunteers undergo before and while working with children.

The result of the review is a policy that, for the first time, requires ongoing background checks of staff and faculty who work with children. They will undergo an initial background check when hired, like all employees, and then undergo at least one background check every two years, according to the policy.

University of Michigan kinesiology professor Deanna Gates talks to Amari Gullat, a 5th grade student from Ypsilanti, about how the brain controls muscles at the U-M FEMMES event to bring science to local girls November 16. Brianne Bowen | The Ann Arbor News

The policy also creates a roster of groups that work with children. At least 170 such groups exist on U-M's campuses, their mission ranging from athletic camps for youth with disabilities to medical school outreach programs that work with urban youth.

The policy also offers guidelines for working with children.

For example, staff are instructed not to be alone with minors unless it's part of their job as a counselor or instructor; and if so staff are instructed to meet with minors in open spaces that are either public or have windows. In another guideline, staff are forbidden from giving gifts to minors and cautioned from interacting with minors on social media.

In developing the policy, Varner and other committee members interviewed more than 60 university employees and examined the policies of about 20 other institutions, including Duke University, Georgetown University and Auburn University.

The policy took effect Monday, Jan. 13, but officials expect it to take at least a year for units to fully implement the changes.

U-M will begin auditing programs in May 2015, Varner said.

This article was reposted from http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/01/university_of_michigan_creates_1.html