Illinois DCFS announces launch of updated Child Abuse Hotline system
(KFVS) - The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services announced the launch Wednesday of a computerized, state-of-the-art Child Abuse Hotline system.
Family Services says the update is in response to complaints that its 30-year-old system was unable to handle the more than 250,000 calls reporting child abuse and neglect that DCFS receives each year.
Last year the department says they received 253,444 calls to its hotline at (800) 25-ABUSE, but the outdated system meant more than 60 percent of callers had to be called back rather than speaking immediately to a child abuse expert. They say the delays meant longer gaps in sending child abuse investigators into the field and getting children and families the help they need, a condition which new DCFS Director Richard Calica called “simply unacceptable.”
