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DCFS reports 29,616 child-abuse hotline calls in SFY 2024; officials flag foster-parent recruitment and regional differences
Summary
Division of Children and Family Services Director Tiffany Wright told the Senate Children and Youth Committee that 29,616 reports were accepted by the child-abuse hotline in state fiscal year 2024, 3,553 children were in foster care at year-end and adoptions totaled 730; members pressed the agency on foster-family recruitment and area-level differences in substantiation rates.
Tiffany Wright, director of the Division of Children and Family Services, told the Senate Children and Youth Committee that DCFS received 29,616 reports accepted by the child-abuse hotline in state fiscal year 2024 and that about 24,000 of those routed to DCFS while roughly 5,500 went to the crimes-against-children division.
Wright said the number of children in foster care at the end of the fiscal year was 3,553 and that the state finalized 730 adoptions during the year. "Reunification remains at 42% followed by adoption and then relative custody," Wright said, and she added that overall 92% of children exiting care achieved permanency by returning home, going to relatives or moving to another permanent arrangement. She also noted the state had fewer than 200 children waiting for adoption in November.
Why it matters: the figures frame where the agency has seen progress and where it still faces operational needs. Lawmakers…
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