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Senate committee hears reports showing pandemic drop in hotline calls and differing 'true' finding rates; DHS advances rule to clarify maltreatment determations
Summary
Arkansas State Police and the Division of Children and Family Services told the Senate Children and Youth Committee that child-abuse hotline calls fell during the pandemic and that agencies use different standards: CACD reported a 34% substantiation rate for its closed cases, while DCFS reported a combined true-finding rate of 23%. The committee reviewed a rule (Pub 357) to clarify legal elements for true findings.
The Senate Children and Youth Committee on the floor heard two related reports Tuesday on child-protection operations, data trends and a proposed rule to clarify how investigators determine when maltreatment has occurred.
Major Jeff Drew of the Arkansas State Police told the committee the CACD annual/quarterly report showed a modest year-to-year decline and that hotline volumes have fallen during the COVID-19 pandemic. "The calls have decreased on average," Major Drew said, estimating weekly call volume had dropped from roughly 1,200–1,500 calls to about 400–600. For 2019, he said the report listed 37,591 accepted calls and that CACD closed 5,513 investigations with 1,851 found true — a substantiation rate he described around 34%.
The panel pressed for more breakdowns by allegation type and county. Representative Birch asked whether the roughly 1,200 call decline from 2018 to 2019 was concentrated in particular categories; Major Drew said he would need to pull monthly, categorical data to answer and offered to provide it.
Director Martin of the Division of Children and Family Services and Kristen Harper, assistant director,…
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