The mission of the Professional Standards Office (PSO) is to help eliminate organizational conditions which may foster, permit, or encourage inappropriate behavior by OYA employees. PSO ensures that the integrity of the agency is maintained through a system of fair, objective, and impartial administrative investigation and review.
PSO's responsibilities include:
- enhancing OYA youth access to reporting abuse by administering the OYA Hotline, youth safety surveys, and an online electronic complaint form
- investigating allegations of staff misconduct (ethics/boundary/relationship issues), or any other investigation as requested by the director or designee
- ensuring OYA's continued compliance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA)
- coordinating the agency’s complaint process by receiving, recording, tracking, and referring to the appropriate entity youth safety complaints made against the agency or its employees
- assisting with staff training in the areas of ethics, boundaries, and other applicable policies
- providing reports that summarize the nature and disposition of all youth safety complaints received by the agency
- analyzing trends to identify and correct organizational conditions that may allow misconduct to occur