The Oregon Senate gave final approval Friday to a bill that expands the sorts of people that are required by law to report child abuse.

, which adds higher education employees, coaches and others, came in direct response to the

. There, the school's former defensive coordinator was charged with abusing children repeatedly over many years.

"There was a very, very shocking and horrifying incident well east of us," said Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward. "Somebody who was very trusted with children was alleged, on multiple occasions, to be witnessed abusing children."

But, she said, his behavior was not reported to the proper officials or fully investigated.

Last year, Penn State assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky was charged with more than 40 counts of child sex abuse involving multiple boys over a 15-year period. His supervisor, longtime coach Joe Paterno, was fired.

Under current law, there are already a number of professionals required to report child abuse, including K-12 employees, social workers –even legislators themselves.

people in higher education, such as community college professors, as well as secretaries and others, Steiner Hayword said. Initially, the bill was written to include volunteers of certain organizations but that provision was removed in the House.

"All of us recognize our duty to protect vulnerable children," Steiner Hayward said.

Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson was the only other senator to speak on the legislation. She called the mandatory reporter system "a very important rule" and noted that 75 percent of the child abuse reports made in 2010 were made by those required to report by law.

The bill passed unanimously and now goes to the governor for his signature.

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