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DCFS annual report: calls, foster‑care trends and Garrett's Law findings presented to committee
Summary
The Division of Children and Family Services reported 31,142 accepted hotline calls, steady investigation timeliness, a slight uptick in foster‑care counts tied to pandemic-related discharge delays, and hundreds of Garrett's Law reports with a high substantiation rate; DCFS emphasized services (Safe Care) aimed at keeping infants with parents when safe.
Sha Martin, director of the Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS), presented the agency’s annual report covering state fiscal year 2019–2020 and summarized caseloads, timeliness metrics and special reviews.
Martin reported the child abuse hotline accepted 31,142 calls and DCFS handled 25,547 investigations or differential responses during the year. Differential responses yielded a combined substantiation rate of about 24% for accepted calls. Over the fiscal year DCFS provided in‑home services to 11,490 children and recorded 7,568 children served in foster care for the year; on the last day of the fiscal year DCFS reported 4,391 children in foster care and said the number was about 4,600 the day before the hearing.
Martin said timeliness for priority‑1 investigations improved to 88% initiation within required timeframes and that foster‑care permanency within 12 months stood at 47%, slightly above national standards but down from prior years—a decline she attributed in part to pandemic‑related service interruptions and court slowdowns early in COVID‑19. She urged courts and partners to allow reasonable additional time where services were delayed.
On Garrett’s Law (substance exposure at birth), Martin said reports accepted for investigation have risen over 15 years; for the most recent state fiscal year she cited approximately 1,350 Garrett’s Law reports with a 94% substantiation rate. She said marijuana was the most frequently cited substance (73% of Garrett’s Law mentions), followed by amphetamines/methamphetamine (27%) and opioids (11%). DCFS noted a targeted home‑visiting intervention, called Safe Care, for families identified under Garrett’s Law; Martin said Safe Care has helped reduce removals in some service areas and facilitates connection to services for parents and infants.
Committee members asked about service resumption, court operations, and whether lower hotline call volumes during the pandemic reflected reduced reporting rather than less abuse; Martin said hotline calls fell in early pandemic months as children were out of school and had less contact with mandated reporters, and cautioned that some incidents may have been missed. She encouraged members to review county appendices in the annual report for local details.
