Senate Children and Youth and House Aging, Children and Youth

Members it's one o'clock Phyllis finish up our conversations and have a seat please. And welcome everybody on this hot day good to see everybody I know we've been a little more relaxed in our summer meetings but let's remember to just ask one question and then if you need to do a follow up ask about doing a follow up and that will keep the meeting going in a more timely manner and give everybody a chance to ask the questions. So do you have any comments today Senator not yet when you need to make that comment just let me know and we'll we'll recognize you. The first item on the agenda is consideration to approve the minutes of the June tenth twenty twenty meeting that's exhibit see in your packet do I see a motion. And the second. Okay we have a motion the second so and that is approved next item is D. and this is the again as exhibit D. in your packet from the Arkansas department of Human Services division of child and family services this is a rule for review and you've all had a chance to look at that so miss Harper if you will come to the table and introduce yourself and tell us about why this rule change is needed thank you. Good afternoon my name is Kristen Harper and assistant director with the division of children and family services. Into your might just a little bit more please appellate toward you can thank you. Our will up for review today is specific to private licensed placement agency resource homes were commonly referred to as P. L. P. a foster homes the rule itself is new the P. L. P. A. homes are not new sure system at all. And however until this point we did not have any formal guidance and policy for staff regarding the utilization of and referral process to peel PA homes. He'll be a homes must meet all of the same minimum licensing standards and DCFS policies as out of foster homes recruited by DCFS and the difference is. Evening and that the P. L. B. A. homes to provide a little bit of extra support to the children placed there in the foster parents because there is a P. L. P. H. case manager assigned to them in addition to the DCFS caseworker and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. I'm not seeing any questions of my missing anyone. Representative Burch. Thank you madam chair just a question is there any difference in the reimbursement for these first as a regular foster home. So within the PLP per P. L. P. eight providers we have that payment plans process varies so these are private agencies as the name suggests often faith based so we have some actually they do not receive any payment from the division others on his foster parents get a direct for payment from the division at the same rate as as our DCFS foster homes in certain ones have contracts with the division which have the higher level of performance indicators in terms of the type of children they accept and so they receive a contract payment the division so there is a range Fulham all of them to yes these regionally plastered a complicated somewhere in the state there so we have six to seven providers state wide and then they are in the state and so these are home you may be familiar with some of them so what we're talking about here are for example at children's home ink which was for formally Paragould children's him thirty children home now sparrows promise an Arkansas Baptist children's homes so those are the type of providers we're talking about when we're speaking to about P. LPA okay thank you minister thank you. Absent a Springer. Thank you good afternoon just one question wanted to know if you've share at this particular rule with the children and FOR Arkansas children and family services or the Arkansas advocates yes and once again and I have we have not directly reach out to them they are very familiar with our publication process and as with all of our rules that went to the public notice period and that I'll be happy to follow up this Ferguson specifically to to share this with her alright thank. Thank you Mr. Seeing no further questions thank you without objection this rule will be considered reviewed thank you. Next on our agenda exhibit II we have the Arkansas department of Human Services mission Martin the director if you will come forward please and present the family preservation services report for twenty twenty. Good afternoon and represent fight if you don't mind since I'm doing two presentations today I was wondering if it be okay if I did the next presentation first because it actually might help everyone understand the numbers of the first presentation I think that is an excellent idea please do that director Martin and I had talked about having a presentation based on the questions that were asked last meeting to describing sadly what happens when that first call comes in either to the hotline are to DCFS about a child who is a possibly in danger of a report of neglect our abuse and so she's going to walk through that with us and I think the handout will be extremely useful as well. Correct I'm not sure exactly how it's labeled but it's a process map and we'll start there and I think it will also help everyone understand when I go through the family preservation numbers how those numbers relate to her actual process so as you can see this again this is a very high level there's a lot of additional details in this this process map is not use for management it was specifically put together for you ought to try and help you understand the process and what we're really happens from the time that somebody calls the hotline and because there's several different processes going on so I just want to walk through this so an individual all our calls in all our process is start with the call to the hotline now there is one exception law enforcement this call is for emergency calls but that is usually followed that with the cost of the hotline to the process really begins for both DCFS and see a CD with a call to the hop to the child abuse hotline at state police from there once the call is you're talking with the operator the operator is assessing based on and the child maltreatment act in the laws and how tell my treatment as defined whether it meets criteria does not and then it is the there are quite screened out which means it's just documented but not accepted or as you can see it's accepted for a referral based on whether based on our in my you'll see a CD or a policy related to different response the hotline then as signs it and it is a sign in our case management system which you'll hear us call Chris and both see ACT the hotline as well as DCFS uses the same case management system crass. I'm as you can see it can get this on three way see ACT DCFS I'm or DCFS investigation or the DCFS differ interest fines and both of us see ACT and DCFS have a responsibility to respond and see the child within twenty four or seventy two hours depending on the maltreatment how tight and that's really based on the severity of the maltreatment which are all clearly defined in was in the rule that and you guys approved at the last meeting that have three fifty seven so that goes to all the different maltreatment types so once either CCD or DCFS response depending on how to sign and see the victim child the first thing that they have to do is assess safety while see ACT does not assess safety if they believe that there is a safety issue they call DCFS for that safety issue which means it's on the page to. So DCFS has a responsibility at all points and during the case to really continue to SS that safety and we partner with C. ACT so it's an investigation they have a responsibility to determine whether the evidence supports that the child is abused or neglected but at all points here in that case our workers are required to continually assess with that family is this town say at any point you can see there were from safety assessment to the outcome of that safety assessment at any point if that child is in immediate danger then that is when the child is placed into foster care so if say on day one date within that twenty four hours of coming into the hotline if DCFS goes out in the terms of the child is in immediate danger than that talking be placed into foster care the investigation would continue to proceed so now you would have an investigation ongoing as well as we would have initiated a circuit court case for that removal so I'm kind of getting back to the process map on looking at the outcome of that safety SF incessant so if it's immediate danger tells placed in a foster care a petition is filed with the circuit court investigation continues if the child is if their safety issues and I protection plan can be put into place where certain factors can be mitigated that the town can remain with the protection plan then DCFS can put a protection plan in place if that protection plan in any way restrict the parents rights or has been ongoing for more than thirty days we then have to file a petition with the circuit court and get that circuit court case going on the third option is you know which you guys seen in our data is many times yes there's child abuse or neglect but it does not rise to the level of immediate danger the investigation continues and as you see moving to the. Left here as the investigation continues the CFS assesses the family and starts to offer services to ensure that the child can remain in the home I'll just remind you we serve more children in home than we do in foster care so the majority of the investigations that we get through the hotline DO result in in home case with an investigation. So as we're continuing that investigation you have forty five days to do the investigation and your that what the investigators interviewing collateral collaterals collecting evidence trying to determine whether the maltreatment happen or not and whether there's evidence to support that by the conclusion of the forty forty five days the investigator whether DCFS oversee ACT must make a determination if a true determination is made that's wearing on page four. If a tree determination is made then that is all about the offender and the central registry so if a true finding is made so saying that more likely than not by a preponderance of evidence amount treatment occurred the offender is sent certified notice of that finding and they are told in that certify notice that they have a right to appeal to the office of appeals and hearings at DHS all they have to do is call of the office of appeals and hearings and say I want to appeal and then it will be set for a hearing at the office of appeals and hearings if they do not call and ask for appeal within those thirty days their name goes on the registry and offenders name does not go on the central registry unless they have received notice and it's documented in our Crysis Sam. If they sell order I guess that were and what they it is pending the appeals hearing so if they ask for an appeal they we wait until the conclusion of that hearing if the office of appeals and hearings commonly referred to as Ellie eight upholds are finding then at that point that they go on they go on the central registry so they have to have their due process before they go on the registry at the same time that that whole investigative process in central registry process is going on you could have on and you do have on many cases that also the circuit court and the foster care case going online because DCFS if you look at page three I've outlined the process FOR foster care cases so if a child was removed and placed in foster care a petition is filed with the circuit court and then D. D. H. S. must prove add an adjudication hearing in front of the circuit court whether the bees are neglect happened whether the child continues to be at risk to remain in foster care typically if there is a foster care case on going we would stay the A. H. hearing until all the evidence has been presented at the GT cation and then take that order and evidence and percent to L. A. H. related to the offender but the questions are a little bit different for circuit court did the abuse happen is the child still at risk for L. H. the question is a little bit different did the offender do this and should their name B. on the central registry I am so that's that is the process and I just make one more comment about that friend in with investigators so when we get that call tell hotline and investigator has multiple responsibilities they have a responsibility to assess the safety they have a responsibility to determine whether that be Sir neglect happen and whether there's evidence to support it and they have a responsibility to start engaging in working with that family to keep the child at home so in my opinion our investigators have the tough. His job of anyone at the CFS and probably across the board because they hold these dual responsibilities of not only like like law enforcement only proving whether it happened or not but also then trying to figure out is this child in immediate danger in my assessing safety what what needs is family have and how do I link them up with services are community supports to try to prevent future amount treatment and then there's a second hand out and I believe that you have do you have a second hand out yes okay it's not my pack that you have a second hand out in front of you and that really does that really goes over the difference between at risk and safety and many I would say all all the families who have who are involved in a child maltreatment allegation with the sub sing it to finding have a lot of risk around them risk factors for future maltreatment risk factors four you know that they need to strengthen their family to increase their protective factors but just because there's a risk with the family does that mean that that child is in immediate danger to come into foster care so our workers are trained and you can see through that through the additional hand out that our workers are really ensuring train to assess what is the level of risk and does it rise to the point of immediate danger because we really only want to put children in foster care as a last result to protecting their safety ultimately we want to be able to work with the family and ensure that that child can safely remain with their appearance and so that's the conclusion do you would you like me to take questions now I move on to my other report yes this ask questions about this part and then we'll go to the report Representative Burch. Thank you mentor young of my questions I apologize this is great and I really appreciate it and I wholeheartedly agree with the toughest jobs or the social workers are going on the house my question is back to the protection plan so there was a previous time when the protection plans could be very onerous and Probably unconstitutional if you really get down to some of the things are going on you mentioned that after thirty days the petition is filed now who was reviewing the protection plans how often are they being reviewed and how quickly after one is initiated does it to someone get eyes on an administrative level represent bridge absolutely agree with you one of that one of the things that I am in protection plans were put into place before I became director and we did a hundred percent review I believe when I was still in legal and because I had concerns about the quality of this protection plans protection plans continue to make me nervous we have partnered with the national crime and delinquency in CCD and we're doing a full complete and safety risk reassessment and part of that is implementing and training staff on how to do protection plans right now protection plans there are approved all the way at two program administrators at the regional level to ensure a quality we are not doing them like like we were doing them back when it like to the M. number right we're not out there pushing protection plans it is an option but for the most part if that not for the most part if a child is in immediate danger our message now is that child needs to come in the foster care if their safety issues that don't rise to the level of immediate danger and there's ways to mitigate that through a protection plan without infringing on the parents rights then they can implement our protection plan but I do actually very much agree with you about concerns about protection plans and we have increased oversight and we have been limiting training on that because we want to make sure that if we go across the state with protection plans again it's done in the right way. Thank you director Martin and if you would now move to the that and. Present day the presentation yes thank you. Thank you. So what you will see here and the preservation services is a lot of the similar the item eighty sorry is said the wrong thing I to me so I don't get everybody makes to tie represent it's a lot of the similar data that you see when I am at present the quarterly and annual report but the difference on this preservation that it is that it's all the way down to county so I just want to start by I'm going to go through by areas but if you'll go ahead and flip to the appendix especially if you're very curious about what counties you represent and what they look like those are every data that I talk about on the page is broken down by county and then pending so you can flip through and look at the back of course I would be here all day if I went county by county but you can look through this specific counties as I go page by page and see how your area are jurisdiction is doing in the particular topics in so it's a lot more detail data then I provided the quarterly or annual report that starts with accepted child maltreatment and calls to the hot line so I again I talked about earlier when a call comes to the hotline at the their meets criteria or it screened out so this number is the number of calls that was screened in for an investigation or different all respondents you can see a slight decrease in this year but it's a very slight decrease to twenty eight thousand six hundred and forty five again on the bottom of page two you can see that break out by area but if you'd like to get down bycounty you can go to the appendix. Child maltreatment investigations as I previously mentioned we have twenty four seventy two hours initiating depend on them out treatment tight we had eighty four percent initiation rate. This past year which is a slight increase in the initiation rite which means that we saw the victim child. Timely completion of investigations we did have a slight decrease in that though I will let you know that I'm as of last minute we only had nine over days across the state so just to put that in context twenty eight thousand investigations and last month we had only nine across the state that were over date we will probably always have some overseas there's always a situation where we're waiting on autopsy or waiting on some additional piece of evidence where we want to do what's right for kids and if we need that piece of evidence and we're gonna hold it out passes sixty days. Person is in the sense of substantiation for DCFS twenty one percent so what that means is from the total number of investigations if we investigate twenty eight thousand calls twenty one for which we don't need the full twenty ACA city as a piece of this but of the of the investigation that DeCSS investigates twenty one percent are found trade. Moving on to page six are reoccurrence of maltreatment and let me defined that reoccurrence of maltreatment is measured by examining all child victims of maltreatment during a twelve month period and identifying how many were victimized within the next twelve months so for example for calendar year twenty nineteen all child victims of maltreatment during calendar twenty eighteen or track to see whether they were victims of a subsequent are a future maltreatment within twelve months we are below the national standard at six percent for calendar year twenty nineteen. I'm differential response which is on page seven that is our it's it's lower level amount treatments and we do not handle them in the same way that we handle investigations it's more of an engaging a bridge where we go to the family we I'm trying to assess the safety but we're also assisting the family needs an example of that would be at an environmental neglect case so we have a call that the home is in poor condition and that you know there's young children in the home so we go out and we really say okay what can we do to support you is this a party issue is this that you know what are you having some mental health issues that you need assistance with R. their community support like if the pantry and so instead of investigating and put in that person on the top on the central registry we're trying to really engage in work with the family to provide services within the community. And you can see there timeliness of initiating sixty eight percent and and that that it all initiation for as they're seeing the victim child timeliness of completing on page eight we did see a slight decrease I'm not as worried about that because really different responses all about engaging with the family and we're not wishing to be rushing to close that if families need of services from ice. Moving on to page nine when when after we have a true finding and and hopefully we've already been offering some services to the family but if we have it if there is a tree finding at it is at that point that we open what we call an in home protective service case so this is just telling you how many protective services cases we had across the state and calendar year twenty nineteen. What I do like about this report which is separate from our annual and our quarterly reports that are present to you on page nine after each section you can see our strengths and our weaknesses for the division. I'm coming on over those as I went three but you can assess really gives a good detailed these are put together from our contract provider in CCD as well not not my staff but our contract provider. Moving on to our permanency section if you look at our numbers of children in foster care we have seen a decline over the past two years I mentioned to you guys at the last meeting that we did see an uptick when the public health emergency started again not not contribute available to removals that really because of a decline in discharges from foster care and we have started to see that number trend downwards again as the courts have gotten up and running in a really partnering with us to have hearings and move children to permanency. Proximity of children's placement this is a real positive here that we are getting kids closer to home we still struggle with placement visual C. as we move on that placement stability here and here in a second but we've done a lot of work around placement and children in foster care not only getting them closer to home but with their siblings and more stable and their placements. I am on page thirteen this is about child removal after a tree finding I don't pay isn't close of attention to this number because again we should be assessing and removing children if they're an immediate danger before the conclusion of investigation we would never I would hope we would never I shouldn't speak so broadly but I would hope that we would never have a child in immediate danger and she's not to remove what we're just waiting on the investigation to close if we're out there and a child in immediate danger we should remove continue our investigation we clearly have to have evidence to support that removal but we should present that to the circuit court judge for him to sign off on emergency Cassidy but continue together back faxing complete the investigation. Placement with relatives page fourteen and I talk about this with you guys often we are very focused on safe and appropriate relatives which is also helped with placement stability as well as our children with relatives are less likely to suffer maltreatment and any other type of placement and so relatives have we as a division have really stepped up and looked at safe and appropriate relatives and you can see that in twenty nineteen we saw an increase to thirty three percent which was our goal that we had set. I'm placement stability page fifteen of the last two years even though we had a slight uptick for calendar twenty nineteen our state has seen six a significant improvements over the last few years but it is still way above the national average and specifically something that we need to focus on I will note that some of our areas just like other parts of the state are arm are suffering or are having more challenges I should say are having more challenges than other areas and that's noted and the Blue Ribbon and so areas four six eight and ten have experienced the highest number of meat so we have pockets around the state her doing really well with place instabilities and then we have pockets of this state who are clearly struggling more than others. Achieving permanency within twelve months on page sixteen and we are above the national average which is good means more of our children are getting to permanency within twelve months than the national average so that's a good thing three entries is at seven point eight which is a below the national standard so that also history. And the number of finalized adoptions which you can't see on page eighteen is if we go back and another three years are are adoptions were in the six or seven hundred and we have excelled in the last three years with finalizing adoptions at DCFS I wish we almost had like a a seventy eight year period there to it so that you could really see this significant progress that we have done on finalizing adoptions again you can go over strength and weaknesses on page nineteen I've covered for the most part the highlights is that went three but their strengths and weaknesses are there on page nineteen and then moving into well being which is our last section the two things that it covers is our our workers visiting on in home cases are they visiting on foster home cases you can see that we have made in home cases a priority and I think of an extremely even see that take up a lot more and each year we are continuing to increase on our in home visits I have a weekly DCFS saw as even that I do with staff across the state and I think I say it every single week and they're tired of hearing it but are most vulnerable population is our in home cases and so we have to make it a priority to see those kids while the public sometimes talks about foster care and they think we are foster care we have more more in home cases and those children have suffered some type amount treatment and really need our time and attention maybe even more so than our foster care cases. Visitation on foster children continuing to increase we met our goal of eighty five percent that is a goal that we set for self if a a few years back and then pages twenty two is the strength and weaknesses again there and the rest is really the appendix of the counties and hope that you'll take some time to look at your areas and see how your counties are delaying I'm sure like many organizations we have really strong areas and we have some areas that are weaker than other areas and and different and different particular measures I'm happy to take questions. Thank you Representative garner. Thank you very much madam chair I just have a question quickly on page twenty and talking about the in home visits. Where area wine which I happen to be interested in is only sixty six percent is most of that because we don't have the staff or yes. Definitely I would say the aerial aerial one continues to be and and just for the others area one is Washington Madison Carol and been an aerial one is our area at that is still even that their cases are coming down I'm excited about that and they have the positions of finding and keeping staff is a struggle it's a competitive job market up there so it's even harder to recreate staff that we have an amazing team up there but that is one of the reasons that they're and numbers are lower and I'll say for Washington County that has been our our county in crisis lately so their hat they have the high if you also look one of the interesting things about area one is me make sure I can find it really quick. Page two they have the highest number of accepted calls in this state yes they are more populated that compared to the other areas it's pretty significant so they have more investigations they're also struggling with work force in case leads but I think things are headed in the right direction of there but that is issue anything we can do to help. recreate tort for the CFS. We have the positions you guys and we're so great as a few years ago and give us additional positions and finding so it's not an issue of funding our positions it really is an issue a finding staffing keeping staff we've done mass tires in Washington County is more than anywhere across the state and so finding in recruiting and area one it is our biggest challenge right now. Representative Wooten. What we call a family service worker I use the term investigator but technically all of our case workers are a position caught a family service workers so if you are a family service worker once we hire you you can do anything from investigations and a foster care case to providing case management on in home so the qualifications for a case worker are the same it does require a bachelor's degree and so we have specific bachelor's degrees that we included but because the recruitment and retention issues we have opened it up to greater array of bachelor's degrees based on whether I approve on it but there is specific and I can't give you the list off the top of my head but I'd be happy to follow up with you with the that list of bachelor's degree but we do you we have included criminal justice and some other degrees to try and open up the category for more candidates. Up. Yes. I think your microphone went on. I promise I didn't do it. Okay now you're back on thank you. It was pointed out. At a recent committee meeting not this committee of the my questioning can be of aggressive. Antagonistic. even rude. Of and I don't apologize for that. Of. The. You sure that wasn't your evil twin no that's me intend to get to the truth and cut through the crap to get there. Of and I do partly develop that reputation. through an investigation into the CFS. And so it's only fair that I should say. Of how pleased I am with the leadership of the director. Of the transparency the way she works with the legislature of that when I call so I can only assume that it's true with others that if there is truly something one this drop into the cracks that she cares that show override everybody that if I call the number on. She does she's transparent she will share all the details and then tell me tell the state senator while he's wrong. Over and over and over of. But the of and we need somebody that's as nice as she is and as tough as she is that cares as much as she cares I wish I had this much trust in every agency very much appreciated thank you for the time thank you for those comments and I would second that I have had very good response from this director and Preciado very much the work that you do for the children of our state thank you that means a lot Senator Clark thank you. And I don't believe we have any additional questions at this time so thank you for this presentation. And we have the comment from the Senate chair. Is a grant Hodges in here. I just sign what I don't know if everybody knows but this is grants last day in the legislature he's moving on to some greener pastures not just want us to recognize and they will be able to say thank you good service. Representative Hodges thank you for being here and we will miss you we hope you'll be coming back to visit us. Senator Chesterfield that you have I'm sorry I didn't see this till now the no Senator Stubblefield excuse me did you have a question. Yes you're recognized and it's senator Chesterfield thank you so much madam chair I know I'm not a member of the committee but baby face is leaving. And I do call him that but I have truly appreciated working with this young man his leadership has been exceptional and to work with him has been a complete joy we don't always agree philosophically but we have always agree to disagree pleasantly I shall miss you I shall miss your leadership and I wish you Godspeed on your journey. On thank you thank you. All right last item of business pretty dang is seven crimes against children division the quarterly oversight report major Jeff drew commander of the Arkansas state police. Asian will present this to us. A day. Members this is exhibit F.. Hello everyone likes them may Jeff drive a give you a call a report for January through March. Hello we'll start with would page three which would be the The call volume. And for this quarter we see some seventeen thousand one and sixty five calls seven thousand eight hundred sixty one those were accepted see ACT handled one thousand three hundred and seventy those. four thousand nine hundred and one of those. With the CF and fifteen on one thousand five hundred eighty two or a differential responses. On page four it'll be a breakdown by month by allegation type does investigated by see ACT. And if you flip to page six it'll be the monthly rate down of the case is open and closed for three month time period. There were one thousand four hundred ninety four cases open. Hello one thousand six hundred and thirty three there were closed. F. one hundred. I'm sorry under the the the fourteen hundred ninety four cases that will close five hundred and fifty two of those were found true which gave us is of substantiation rate of thirty four percent. Presently have one thousand seven hundred fifty seven cases that are still active with fifty five of those been over the forty eight forty five the time period. Homepage seven and eight will be a break down. By county of the cases the sign. Page nine will reflect back on the call that we received from the mandate reporters. Okay just ten eleven or effect allegation types and the victim age groups. And your review pages twelve through twenty eight discussion relationship between the the offenders and victims and age groups of the offenders. Then begin on page twenty nine through thirty six we're sorry the prosecuting attorneys the judicial districts and the cases that were submitted to the prosecutors. Breaking them down between the client filed and pending. And at the bottom of page forty six social we submit it two hundred and sixty one forty six of those were decline. It is sixty seven charges were filed I will present have forty eight that is still pending. I'll be open for any questions that you may have now. Members did you have any questions for major drew I see Representative Burch. You know I do thank you madam chair. So this is a lot of numbers in a lot of specific data is there any part of this report the keeps you up at night for the last three months. Look it is going to be the call volume that we have them. The investigators again out doing it making contact making sure we're doing a thorough job thank goodness from the last session we were able to put some more positions in place to take care of it AT those my biggest worry but I think we've done a pretty good job allocation will with those additional positions. Thank you thank you. Senator Chesterfield thank you madam chair I'm I'm looking on page thirty three at the number of cases that were declined do you guys follow it to that level of prosecutorial declinations and do you have some feeling for why these cases were declined insufficient evidence what what do you in your knowledge your will house know about lattice declination to place right is says I I was is a preponderance and so we have a a lower level of of Spanish true as opposed to been prosecuted some things just may be. At the prosecuted and feel which that just came up in the last meeting then felis prosecutable they don't have enough evidence to pursue what they think is a winnable case so the client to pursue it sometimes I'm sorry if I've asked of non I'm rolled over the. I hold this and being a roll this area mental thank you so much I appreciate this information and I I hope we will continue to work without prosecutors to determine what we need to do better in order to make sure that if these cases are brought and they are prosecuted. You can't prosecute them that they will be for the good of these could children thank you so much thank you madam chair. Senator Clark. Yes commander of. These new positions no it came out in the investigation and of. The. Legislative oversight. That We were short handed and the you'll have been forbidden to ask for those positions do you have enough now. We can never have enough people that the the get in and get everything done and a valuable part of it I mean with us having the well I and I didn't ask you that question to get you in trouble either but. Of. We can talk about it off line but do we have a. Are we meeting fully the demand of the calls were made the demands of the calls up wanted be concerned with with the personnel issue. What was case overload make sure we have you know bill move the cases all around make sure don't have too many cases don't want investor that with the trying to get one investigation done to jump to the next and sometimes some steps. May not be given as much time as they should in order to try to meet that deadline but now with notice the case load is the decrease once since we've got those positions and we get more thorough investigations yes Sir with this body wants to make sure you have what you need. Thank you. Representative Mayberry. Try that again there we go I have not heard of this taking place in Arkansas but I do know that this took place elsewhere and. Hopefully doesn't take place here but someone has thrown some coalbed nineteen parties basically someone is infected with it and they throw a party to see who gets it first. Yes the unheard of happens every day But it brings the question at what point are there criminal charges even if someone doesn't go to that extent you know at what point do we say is there any type of outlined based on any other type of disease that's out there at what point does a parent cross the line when they bring a child that might be around someone else with co that nineteen are there any guidelines currently into we need to start thinking about those guidelines to protect parents to protect kids. I think we we have a. Maybe not anything specific criminally have civil we have the the threat of harm Fay to protect that we can use from from our end of it I we can present what we'd have to law enforcement maybe the prosecutors if there's something that they want to pursue with that. Sent to a group. In on okay. I'm a new Representative so some things I don't understand and maybe I should but am I correct in that the the of the calls received only half of member or accepted so can you tell me a little bit of wine and then on the other page one is is that out of Sixteen hundred only five hundred fifty were found to be true. Could you talk to me a little bit on them explain it to me. Sometimes when the calls come in the person may not have enough information One thing's it simple enough of you may know something this occurrence somebody but you can't tell us how to make contact with them then that that phone phone call will be accepted Their their guidelines that we got for each individual allegation that we have to meet before we can assign it out and if you don't meet those areas then then I'll be screened out I won't be accepted. Thank you. That was. Senator Clark did you have an additional question. Cation. Of the Representative Mayberry ask about. Call with nineteen was at the. And criminal consequences for exposing kids. And it could may I point out hi bill or do some research for me but I'll be glad to share I shared it with the governor's office of I got the desks total deaths across the country by age under one. One before five to ten I think ten to fifteen fifteen to twenty four except for a. Of children have a less chance of dying from covert then they do the flow. in any other year are they are thirty times more likely to drown than to die from cope with nineteen so if you're worried about kids being exposed at the beach the Watson make sure they don't drown and I could be there I could tell you how many times more likely they are to be murdered except for a. Elderly people sick people are very much in danger from and cover nineteen is very dangerous it is not dangerous for young people as a group compared to other things thank. Representative wouldn't did you have a question. Yes madam chairman thank you. Major only This is a simple questions more for me a clarification of are these investigators that you're using a Les certified law enforcement officer or the troopers no Sir and and certify nine commission. So so they're not they're not troopers million no Sir. Okay what what what what all at present of wooden yes please from What. What qualifications do they have degree winds and and Of professional choice in that type thing hello what do you feel comfortable with the qualifications that you're having the labor under. Yes Sir I'll write investigate is a pretty much the same as the surface if it's W. workers that they have to have a bachelor's degree will one the social studies programs criminal justice and then once we get a we will provide additional change training To get on the focus on an interrogation methods and says so what we're doing pretty good with that yes Sir okay thank you madam chairman. I'm not seeing any additional questions so thank you for this presentation. Thank you. Members that was our final item for today unless someone has send business they need to bring forward at this time and the watching the schedule to see when our next meeting will be. With that we are adjourned thank you.