Children & Youth Committee- Senate & Aging, Children & Youth, and Legislative Affairs- House
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- October 2, 2026
Speaker 11
2:25
Good afternoon Cher see a quorum. thank you for being here for the joint
Chair
Unverified
2:30
meeting of the senate and house agging Children youth Committee first on our agenda today we need to approve the September 2025 meeting minutes do I have a motion to approve those? have a motion do I have a second? Thank you all in favor say aye opposed no thank you.inutes have been adopted we also need a motion to confirm Senator Allan Clark to the child
maltreatment investigation oversight committee as have a motion to have a second Yes thank you as one of two members of the general assembly who are members of the House Committee on agging Children and youth and Legislative affairs or Senate interimittee on Children and youth all in favor say aye opposed congratulations you have now been appointed again to the child maltreatmentation
oversight committee OK, moving right along. Next we are considering an ISp and I'm going to spare you reading that entire title since you can see it before you umpresentative Bentley, you are recognized to present your ISP.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
4:00
thank you chairman thank you committee I think that all of us are aware of some situations that we've got at our call center and taking care of our abused children is really nothing nothing more important in this state that we take care of the kids in our our state that have possibly been abused and I'm very very concerned that we're just kind of tinkering around the edges and I think it's time for us to do a thorough deep dive into what our maltreatment code is and to what we're doing with our call centers and what we're doing across the board to take care of our kids. I would like to bring us ok chairman
someone to come and testify about some concerns I've got that's going on here. I would
Unknown speaker
4:33
like to Kim andlouise to foia and their daughter to come and testify please.
Kimberly Tafoya
Unverified
5:04
Would you please introduce yourself through the mic for the record my name is
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
5:22
Kimberly Tafoya Luuis Tafoya OK Ki would you just share some some things that happened with that you'd like to share
Speaker 28
5:28
with the committee yes back in February where we took our daughter Frea to her five year checkup.
We noticed she had some warts on her hand and there was a bump on her bottom he went ahead and put a referral in at Arkansas Children's Hospital dermatology. and why we're at the first appointment there they treated the warts on her hand, said the spot on her bottom was the molluscum. and we d the cryotherapy on her hand went back in six weeks there was the wart
Speaker 29
5:53
had spread up her hand so we'd gone from her nail bed up to the hand. I'm sorry to interrupt you
Chair
Unverified
5:59
could you please pull the mic a little closer to you
partly I'm old awesome my ears are very congested today but I don't think I'm the only one that was having difficulty hearing you and we do want to hear what
Speaker 28
6:13
you're saying. thank you. Sorry. went to her second appointment they refroze the warts on her hand. they had spread from her nail bed up to her finger we went back in six weeks for her third appointment so this has been about six months from the initial appointment. The warts had spread up her hand like from her fingers all the way up to her hand and we had noticed she now had more spots on her bottom. took her back to her appointment
and we told the doctor this. He asked if he could take a look at her bottom and we said yes that's why we're here he took a look at her, looked at us and said these look like warts? and I said yes that's what we're here for you're treating her for warts and you left the room abruptly. I didn't think anything of it but he was gone about45 minutes. he and another nurse came in with a social worker didn't know it was a social worker at the time, said the nurses stay in there with Freya. We left with him and the social workers in their room. he said based on that she now has warts
on her bottom. we had to call social workers and make a report. and I was like why would we do that you're treating her for warts we brought her to you for warts and he said well these warts don't get there from skin to skin contact. that's how they spread but he was very adamant that these warts were not from her own hand as a five year old learning to wipe her bottom that she could have spread the warts on her own body. so that was
a Monday Tuesday morning I'm sorry let me back up that afternoon the social worker at childrenldren said it'd be a very quick conversation with Freya. it'd be case closed, it wouldn't go any further. Tuesday we get the phone call from the Wade Knox Center Tanyaross I believe is the lady who called us to set up the appointment for Freya found that we had more than one child so then it turned into just a conversation with Freya to all four of our children at
the Wa Knox Center we were there for over4 hours being interviewed at the end of the interview they pulled me and my
husband back for ours and we talked maybe30ish minutes with them and during that conversation informed them that everybody in the house that had a wart at some point in time and at that given point in time there were 4 of us under the care of a dermatology for different issues
the cabot police department detective said as far as he was concerned after talking with us, case closed there was nothing to indicate
that something had happened to our daughter. so at that point in time I'm thinking we're done and then Miss Cross tells me that children's is now requesting that frey undergoes an essay exam. even though I have the investigators in front of me saying as far as they're concerned nothing has happened. I didn't want to agree to the exam
because my daughter had never been touched inappropriately or anything has never happened to my daughter but I felt like I was back into a corner by all the agencies because cabot the cabot department detective told me that you're going to still want to get your daughter treated correct and I said yes. He asked if I would take them back to childrenldren's I said children's will never touch my children ever again he said soir you're going to need to get a new doctor and I said well of course
because so what's to stop that next dermatologist from making the same phone call and the whole process starting over because you did not consent to having your daughter undergo an essay exam. even though I have these detectives in front of me telling me they have no reasonson to believe anything has happened to my daughter that she spread it from her hand to her her own body. so I agreed to take a phone call from the the sane nurse with the tea carenter. the next day
and she explained that you know this would be the definitive test to prove and you know it would get we'd get the letter saying that nothing had happened to our daughter and that way if another call was made they'd be like no this is not what happened with this child and go from there so we gre I agreed to the test to take her to the tea car center we went that was Thursday now we're going to teaarenter inercy, Arkansas. we get there and I go back to fill out some paperwork while Freya and my husband are in the family waiting room
and while I'm in there they informed me not only does children now want the essay exam. they want swabs, they want a urine sample and they want it videoed. so I have to sit back there while my daughter who's never been touched inappropriately has to undergo an essay exam with it being recorded so the doctors at childrenldren's can verify everything. when I thought the purpose of this specially trained nurse at this center that was her job to look for
these in like anything to happen to my daughter and then she comes back and tells me there's no indication of any current past healed any trauma to my
daughter. but I had to sit there at the foot of the bed in the very small room away from
my daughter while there's a giant screen above the table where she's being examined with the imaging of my daughter's genitalia all over the screen. can't sit by her can't hold her hand. can't give my daughter any comfort.
and during the examination when she says o mammy that hurts I'm nowhere now nowhere allowed my near my daughter and I have to sit there and watch everything so I have to let in essence my daughter be violated to prove she's never been violated. because we took her to the doctor to treat her for warts
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
12:21
Thank you so much for sharing your story. I think that
I want to make sure that this is not happening again in our state that a child that when the when there's absolutely no reason when the investigation is proven that there's no findings that this should not have ever happened to this little girl that she's been violated by the very people that are supposed to be protecting her so that's one of the reasons I wanted to bring forth this interim study today that we can make sure we have protocols in place does anybody here you feel free to answer questions I was
chairman I wouldn't but the colleagues won't ask any questions before I go any
Chair
Unverified
12:51
further. are there questions for this witness by the committee? are you doing this or ok uhpeaker Evans you are
Speaker 41
13:07
recognized thank you madam chairir and I appreciate the leanency is not a member
Representative Brian S. Evans
Unverified
13:11
of this committee which is very compelling and as you listen to the testimony Mr. Ffoia had mentioned that they lived in
cabot this family lives in my
district and so as they came and visited with me early on about this I was very moved not only by the story but also in the fact that both Mr. Miss Defoia uhfoya's works at the littleRock Air Force Base and then took off work came and visited with me and the first thing that they said was we're not we're
not looking for anything to to help benefit
us we're here to tell our story because we want to make sure that this never happens to another family again and I believe wholeheartedly that the trauma that they experienced when she says that my daughter was violated by the same people who were trying to prove that she
had been violated Mister foyer you mentioned that they took her when you went to this tea
car center that you that they were they they took her into an examination room
you were not allowed to sit bedside with her who was in the room while this exam was taking place there was a service
Speaker 28
14:37
animal to the right of her there was the service animal handler to the left of the bed and then there were the two nurses at the foot of the bed and then I was in a chair by the
Speaker 45
14:47
door. so two medical professionals i e nurses who were there to do this
Representative Brian S. Evans
Unverified
14:57
inspection of her private parts but also a service animal handler so a service animal I'm assuming that's a dog or was brought into the room to give comfort to the to
your daughter but yet you were not allowed to give comfort to your daughter it seems
like a very interesting concept one by which I don't know that I approve of this video that was taken do
you know where that video where
Speaker 28
15:28
it is today No I do do not know where that video was at. I don't know if it was
Speaker 51
15:38
destroyed if it's in her file I don't know or
Representative Brian S. Evans
Unverified
15:41
who has access to it correct I have no idea who has access to this seemed like I recently remember seeing a case somewhere where criminal charges were brought against an employee of a facility very similar to this because they had taken access had taken access to videos such
as this taking them home and put them out there on the worldwide web for people to see that would be very terrifying to a family to know that their daughter very was out there like that in the public so when you did you feel I know you said that you did not you felt like you were very leveraged. you were in between a rock and a hard place it had you denied not giving consent
to this exam what do you feel like would have been the consequences of you not doing that if you had you said no we're not we're just
not going to do that we're going home what
Speaker 28
16:42
do you feel like would have happened next? I feel like we would still be under investigation that you it's almost like with this system you are guilty until you are proved innocent. It's that's not how it's supposed to be. I was put in a corner and felt
like I was strong armed but if I did not consent to keep letting them have more and more and more but it was going to
Representative Brian S. Evans
Unverified
17:08
keep going. Was this a verbal consent or did you have to sign some
Speaker 28
17:12
type of consent forms verbal consent at the Wade Knock Center, for the nurse to call me and then once I got to the tea car center inersey. I had to sign some forms there and why I was signing that is when the two nurses informed me that children's wanted it videoed not just an exam done and I don't
what is the purpose of these nurses that are have this specialized training for these cases if we if what they're saying is not taken as factual. like why do we have to go one
step further. if there was evidence of some kind of trauma to my daughter I could understand like if you needed a picture of it or then you needed some type of video evidence but when the nurses are saying there there's no past present healed. there's no trauma to this little girl. why do we need a video of
Representative Brian S. Evans
Unverified
18:03
it? So an investigator said there's nothing here a detective from the Cabot police department said there's nothing here nurses who looked at her said there's nothing here but yet childrenldren's hospitalspital made the determination that they wanted this exam on a five year old's genitalia videotaped and sent to them for someone else who was not there to take a look at of your five year old daughter
and when when was this you remind me
Speaker 28
18:38
when this all happened this started on I believe her appointment was July twenty1st was the checkup
at children's the 22nd we were at Wade Knoxx the 23rd I talked to the nurse to schedule thetear appointment and then the 20 24 th we were at the teaarenter in Stersei. Has your home been visited for any type of inspections?
Representative Brian S. Evans
Unverified
18:56
No we were told we were going to have
Speaker 28
18:58
to have a home visit and we put our lives on hold waiting for that for a couple more weeks
to make sure the kids were available and they would have access to the house and we never got that visit I on July31st I received the letter from the state saying it was an unsubstantiated claim and the case was
Representative Brian S. Evans
Unverified
19:22
closed. and I believe that you shared with me also when you came for the visit that and I think it's important that
that the committee understands this as well that both you and your husband both carry a
probablybably going to use the wrong medical term so forgive me if I'm saying this incorrectly but you and your husband both carry a genetic disorder that causes these warts and that both you and your husband both have these correct yes he has them on his hands
Speaker 51
19:53
yes and all of your children all of our
Speaker 28
19:56
children have had them our 16 year old had a planters were on his foot. Our14y year old had one on his elbow our eight year old had them on her feet and her in her nail beds so the base treated her feet, sent her to a dermatologist for her hands because she had
to get shots into her nail beds into the warts and she was in kindergarten during that time also when I was a teenager I had a planter's wart but I also have the strain of it that causes all those cervical issues and I had enough of those that I was actually able to get the boys vaccinated early because I was having enough issues with it and then she had warts on her hand and
at the same time frame of kindergarten I remember you saying
Representative Brian S. Evans
Unverified
20:34
also that you it's not like a school nurse had told you hey you need to take her to the doctor
something's wrong here voluntarily because she was about to start kindergarten you took her back for a follow up because you did not want her to you wanted to try to get this cleared up before she started kindergarten because you did not want other kids or teachers to worry about the fact that that she had these and so you were getting that cleared up so madam chair thank you very much for your leniency and to the Tafoia family I applaud your bravery
you've come in and sharing your story. I know this is very difficult. but and I know that you're intent is to be a part of the process to make sure that something like this never happens to another family again so I I I thank
Chair
Unverified
21:25
you for coming today thank you senator lark you're recognized
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
21:31
for a question thank you madam chair we say this each time that we want to see that this never happens again but the zeal
and I appreciate the zeal for wanting to prevent abuse of children I don't appreciate what how it affects families innocent families and then we keep doing it could you please line out for me the timeline again the and when it was timeline what agencies heard the cabbot police department I heard children's what
you went to the doctor sir and he called the
Speaker 77
22:18
he or she called the hotline yes sir as far as I know I
Speaker 28
22:23
had to go in and request her medical records because they weren't her clinic notes weren't in her my chart that
was the only visit missing I had to go
request that. it was I believe later that evening when they made the phone call childrenren's made the phone call to the hotline there were you went to
to pick up her records because I wanted to see her clinical notes after the fact. OK
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
22:49
you went to the doctor but it u but you when you went after the records children's called the hotline I'm confused so she went we
Speaker 28
22:58
went to children's on July twenty1st for her checkup. that's the day that they called the hotline by the 22nd is when I had a phone call fromtanya Cross umd yes sir heard that name many times
to meet with her at the Wadeknox Center in loannoke County. so we met her the way Knox center or loanoke County and there was from what I remember there wastaaross with CACd there was another lady I think with state police there was a detective from the Cabot police department. at this in our room with us for our interview. and at that day on the second day that's when Cabot came back and said as far as we're concerned nothing has happened case closed on our end.
so I was feeling better but then after he told me that is when Miss Cross told me that now
childrenn's is requesting she undergoes the examination also. and so I got the phone call on Wednesday from the nurse to schedule her essay exam and then we were there on Thursday so it's a four day period when all this happened. and then after that hursday we were left in limbo waiting for the home visit which never happened and then until we got that
letter on the ir1st of July from the state police saying
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
24:22
it was unsubstantiated. OK so the home visit that you were waiting for I assume never heard you say it never happened but that was would have been from DCFs do you know do not know for sure
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
24:36
who it would have been from. I would have assumed so
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
24:39
the home visit I would think would be from DCFS and I would assume that the fact that they didn't without questioning them yet that they didn't come would say
that they didn't see a problem like the cabinet police otherwise I think they would have they would have definitely been there for a home visit so the children's from what you said children's or the nurse at children's pretty much insisted that you have this examination from what was told by M Cross yes so you heard from Missross and not from children's OK so Missross communicated to
you with CHCd that children's was insisting so so you believe that they insisted correct but and the reason for recording this was according to what you understand was so that the doctors could examine it at childrenldren's could verify so your understanding is from CACd that children's and was insisting
that you do this so they thought it was important right if they were assisting that it be done they thought this was very important would that be what you what you assumed from that surely they wouldn't have forced your
daughter to go through this if they didn't think it was very I mean not
Speaker 28
26:18
necessarily cause I have a hard time believing is
because they thought it was so necessary when the
doctor or the APR in Allan atchildren's who had been seeing my daughter for six months was very adamant that yes warts spread skin to skin contact? but there was absolutely no way that the warts that were on her bottom were a result of the ones that were spreading up her hand as a five year old as you're freezing them they're blistering they're rupturing we have a live virus spreading there's no way that it could have spread her own body. I'm familiar with that at
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
26:56
with things that are rare especially but my question what I'm trying to dig into is you would not have had the examination had they not insisted correct and so if they
insisted we would assume they thought it was really important I guess from a medical standpoint
Speaker 28
27:18
when you're trying to cover all your bases so if they thought it was really
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
27:23
important I wonder why it wasn't important enough for a doctor to be there
Speaker 28
27:27
if a doctor was who needed to see it I would agree with that I do know childrenn's was one of the places that they offered for me to go for the exam, but as I told the nurse on the phone, I was like I will never take my children back to that hospital ever again, which is a huge thing for me because they actually saved one of my children's lives years ago and
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
27:52
tragic freak accident we have an investigative committee that meets behind closed doors that can question all of the people concerned
would you be interested in appearing before that committee? where
we can ask children's and other questions that have come up here yes sir thank you thank
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
28:17
you madam chair Senator Johnson you're recognized for a question thank you madamir and Mr Ms Deoy we want to apologize to you for anything that could have happened that like this that was wrong I I think we tend to trust clinicians but that's
why legislators are here in the committee that that senator clark referred to as part of that oversight process I I was going to ask if anyone from children's hospitalspital is here to respond but I think that would be a more appropriate thing in the committee that senator Cclark was referring to that that can meet behind closed doors but on behalf of the state of Arkansas I want to apologize to all three of you for this and
I wanna thank my friend representative bentley for helping bring this Ip and so we can look a little deeper we we tend to trust these people I just you and you just mentioned it in previous situation they helped one of your children and that's and that's fine and I mean we're all they're dealing with individuals but I've seen I've had two friends who
one's a former member of the legisla this legislative body I named him most people in this room knew him personally had a situation with his child he and his wife had a situation with his child it's was many years ago but it was a similar situation that they and maybe they were being overly cautious but they did mention it at one point that they're they made a comm the the clinician made a comment
about the particular church that they went to that perhaps was more and it was about a a a corporal punishment type issue so anytime I mean you mentioned you and your husband both have a a a genetic disposition for warts because of something obviously you ne i ther one of you have anything to do with but but the fact that this kind of thing can happen we we've just got to stay on top of it so I know it wasn't easy to come. I want to thank you for
for coming today and and also for agreeing to appear before a committee that senator clark
is a member of and thank you and thank you madam chair
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
30:48
Senator Love you're recognized for a question thank you madam
chair this is a very sensitive situation and topic and so you know I'm I'm a little reluctant to ask some questions but I just want to better understand and so
first you this is a a just a regular doctor's visit with your child to children's hospital?
Speaker 28
31:15
It was a referral that we had from her normal pediatrician to have her seen children's at the dermatology clinic. OK so your
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
31:22
pediatrician referred you to children and and and these are I guess you say warts she had warts on her right index finger and
Speaker 28
31:33
then she had well we thought
initially we thought she had a mole on her bottom then I wasn't sure because then there were two bumps and then it went back to one bump and I said maybe it's a molluscum. I said I didn't know. So her pediatrician looked and he said I'm pretty sure it's a molluskin contagium. um, which a lot of children get, it's a very common virus that has that can cause bumps also so I want we wanted to get her treated for it if that's what it was cause with her being in school that's what it was and if it would rupture in the bathroom and she used the
bathroom on the toilet like it would spread so we wanted to get it treated but because it was on her bottom and the skin is more sensitive. he wasn't comfortable in his office treating it because of how sensitive the skin is in that area and just
the higher risk of infection he didn't know what children's would have in their arsenal of ok so
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
32:32
you're you're your pediatrician sent you to childrenn's to get this so he he your pediatrician decided that he couldn't treat it so he sent
you to childrenn's is that ok right I'm
just trying to and so this was your first visit to children's correct or
Speaker 28
32:49
no the phone call was made on her third visit so it
was her 2nd follow up visit. Children had been following her for six months
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
32:59
before they made the phone call. so OK
and so your your first visit they didn't report anything
then you then you your subsequent visits someone reported was on the3rd visit
Speaker 28
33:18
the first two visits it was just APR and Allan that would come in the room to see us and her. and then on that
Speaker 108
33:25
third visit it was APr and Allan and then there was a student
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
33:31
doctor with him so then tell me this so I I guess I'm I'm trying to think about the progression of of things and so did they did they report that they saw something the third time that they didn't see the
first time is that and so was it what was it these warts on her bottom I guess I'm just trying to ok so they
didn't see that the first time but they saw it the third time what ended up
Speaker 28
33:57
being the molluscum he confirmed was the molluscum on her bottom. he didn't check her the second visit and then we went in for the third visit. I said, you know the warts has spread up now to the top of her hand and that's like and also like her bottom broke out really bad Is is your child homeschooled?
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
34:17
no now she's in kindergarten. so you so but she had never been to daycare so she's never been to daycare that's interesting I'm a stay at
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
34:39
home parent so she was with me from the time she was born till the time she started school. Interesting OK Um, umm, I guess this this is an interesting case because now I'm I'm hearing what you're saying
in regards to the fact you know the facts it would have been good to have children here I mean because I wanted to kind of know the process that they take
and I don't know if if anyone out here cause I see state police is the process because here's here's here's what I am saying. We I mean we have cases on cases to where children have been reported to the hotline and this the same committee
we say hey nothing's being done and then in this case we're looking at and we're saying something was done but I think I can't say whether it was too much not enough but a family does feel violated and and then that's the kind of thing that we want we want to protect from but at the same time Iu I will tell you why I do feel what you're saying we always tend to err on the
side of protecting the child, not saying that the you know this is just a very complex issue but I I do want to say that I do understand now where you're coming from it's just a very sensitive. this is this this is something that's very sensitive because we have to also err on the side of we have to protect that child and whether the parents are saying
hey there's nothing going on in our household that would endanger our child I think we would we would be on we would be on children's back if something did happen and nobody did anything about it and so it's just I don't know I don't know madam chairir I'll I'll get out of the queue but this is a very sensitive issue and I think that we just need to tread carefully because we want to make sure that families are protected but
we also want to make sure that our little
ones are protected and so I would say my heart goes out to this family because I can see both sides so thank you
Chair
Unverified
37:01
well and you hit a nail on the head when you asked about the processes and I think that's
what this ISP is is mainly about so Representative Duke, you are recognized for a question thank you madam Chair and thank you all for being
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
37:14
here and sharing what I can't even imagine the pain that you've been through and that you're gonna
continue to go through through this. it was very courageous. I just wanted to say I'm I appreciate their propos the study and that you're that you brought this to our attention and but when we
investigate we need and we and we do this to a little one we better be pretty d gumm sure when we asked them to go through a procedure like that that we need to do it because that's a traumatic thing that's a
traumatic thing for the mom and dad to have to sit there and know their child's going through that and knowing that their child didn't need to go through that and for her to have to do that and so I I understand we're on this committee many of us are we don't to be off this committee because our seniority allows us to choose a different committee we remain on this committee because we care about kids and we want to make sure they're protected and not just the children but the elderly and all the other pieces of this committee but we also have to make sure we protect them from people who may
be intend to do right but this was not right and this was something that if you're going to make that decision to have that child go through that type of invasive procedure at the age of5 ma'am holy smokes you better be certain and when you've got enough people saying hey we think we don't think we need to do this we don't think we need to do this we don't think we need to do this then somebody needs to hold up and
stop and make sure before you make a child go through something like that at5 years old. Somebody should have put the brakes on that it wouldn't have it wouldn't have killed anybody to slow it down a little bit and make sure that that needed to happen and I'm just curious in all of this process were you ever told like do you want to consult an attorney? do you want to talk to anybody to see to get some advice because it seems very overwhelming. I've sat in those hospital rooms and in those different things just as a patient and it's scary and it's
intimidating. Did you get any kind of guidance as far as what your rights were other than if you don't do this this is gonna prolong the process because that's what it seems like it felt like from my perspective for you is the only way you could make it end was to agree.ect now we were never told that we could
Speaker 28
39:40
get any outs like any advice from anybody so I mean I I agree we are on here
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
39:47
to advocate for kids to protect kids and I know we're going to go through some documents right now they're gonna break all of our hearts we
mentioned this before we even started but it also needs to
break our hearts whenever a little one has to go through something like this when there were enough people throwing up red flags saying hey maybe maybe we don't need to be doing this because I'm thankful at5 maybe it's not going to retain with her but it's never going to go out of your mind and I know that as a mom, I get it. and so I am so sorry and thank you Representative Bentley for bringing this to our attention because we do have to do better and I know the people that are working in this space are trying really hard to do what's best
for kids but we can't swing the pendulum so far over the other direction that we do this to somebody either.
Representative Glenn Barnes
Unverified
40:39
Representative Barnes you're recognized thank you chair want to first say thank you all for having the courage to be here I
can imagine how traumatic this is I have one question though you were not allowed in the room while they did the procedure and
I'm wondering is that policy or as far as you know they they didn't tell you otherwise they just didn't let you go back No,
Speaker 28
41:04
I was in the room with her when she had the exam done but I was not
allowed near her You was not allowed to be near her I had to sit in a chair next to the door away from her I was back past the nurses, back past the
Representative Glenn Barnes
Unverified
41:21
table, everything. iss it is that or this is did they tell you that's policy or
Speaker 28
41:29
or what don't remember if they said it was policy or if it was just because they had the service animal area
set up and there weren't very big rooms and it just was a size of the room issue but I was across the room from her when she
was being examined thanks again I hope that you all will heal
Representative Glenn Barnes
Unverified
41:48
from this and that whatever needs to come out of it will do better in the future as a result of you all coming here and sharing with us today. thank you
Chair
Unverified
42:01
thank you for being here as well and I have a question on that service animal so you
weren't allowed near your daughter and a but a service animal was did you request the service animal for comfort? No ma'am. So what if your daughter was terrified of dogs but you can't be with her but the service ana is there so that wasn't addressed at all about how she would feel about the
no it was the service animals are there to provide comfort for whoever's there she liked it or not huh
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
42:32
thank you uhpresentative Brown you're recognized thank you madam chairir. I'm not a member of the committee so I appreciate being allowed to ask a question madam, were you ever do you ever have the feeling or were you ever told that you were under investigation for child abuse? u they
Speaker 28
42:54
wouldn't say person like that we were under it but they were very adamant that something had happened to her
and when I tried to argue with them I was like well she's never been to daycare, doesn't have a babysitter she's always with us then they were still something has still happened to her and did it matter that we told him that nothing has happened to her
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
43:17
but like she had to spread them from herself on her own from her own body. Thank you appreciate your
Unknown speaker
43:27
answer Representative rose you recognized thank you madam Chair
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
43:37
thank you for your your courage to come before this committee today and share your story. I know the sentiment of many of my colleagues just from sitting in the room and I don't know if you've heard it and
you certainly haven't heard it enough, but I just want to extend such great sympathy and I am so sorry that this happened to you and I'm so grateful to Representative Bentley for her work on this and it is our hope I'm certain that it never happens to anybody again but again I am sorry if you haven't heard it enough at least you're
hearing it in a public forum today. This shouldn't have happened
Chair
Unverified
44:14
and we're very sorry. Representative Gonzalezorthen you're
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
44:17
recognized thank you madam Chair I too want to thank you for your bravery. this must have been an extremely extremely difficult traumatic time for not only your daughter but your entire family and it kind of puzzles me knowing that all of your children have this genetic
disorder and it's the and now the youngest one does too and that should have been taken into account immediately. you know this is not anything new to our family but but that also shows why we need to have those procedures a little bit more strict and standardized and I have an overall general question since the study, your study representative bentley is is on the procedures and and all about the child abuse hotline and I wanted to know about language access on the
hotline for example if somebody calls in and they speak Spanish or Marshallesevietnamese how that's handled in the hotline. if it's ok we'll hold that question when I get I'm gonna bring a
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
45:19
director right up here in just a minute it's ok well I'll we'll bring you back
I'm gonna ask that question to her if that's ok. I don't want to just guess I want you to hear it directly from her thank you thank you Representative Vauugt you're
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
45:32
recognized thank you ma'am. um, especially since I'm not on the committee, I want to I mean I want to go back to what senator Love said
How many people had already told y'all that there was no reason to go any further. because I think there was enough, no there's no reason to go any further that children should have taken that into to the equation of whether they wanted to do it or not. I want to say you said cabot policece the two nurses, I remember that so that's3 every step of the way everybody that we had talked to except
Speaker 28
46:07
for at or at Children's the dermatology clinic when they got done talking to us
they said as far as you know as far as we're concerned case closed nothing has happened to your daughter and then when we're at the tea carent I'm talking nurses before we even go into the exam the two nurses that both there were like it really sounds like she spread it on her own body and they were you know you can't consent you know under duress for because you feel like you're backed into a corner that you have to say yes to all these things to prove nothing's happened to your daughter but then as a parent you feel like you're failing to protect your child
from the agencies are supposed to protect your family but when it comes down to it at that point in time, I'm just a mom with my daughter. trying to protect her but I'm going
up against state police I'm going up against a children's hospital and at that point in
time it's like you feel like you have to consent to whatever they're asking for? just so you can clear the name, clear everything and get the letter saying nothing has happened to your child so you
can get your daughter treatment for the initial issue you took her to the doctor
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
47:19
for. So did anyone from those agencies reach out to you and apologize what they put your child through. No ma'am. and
Speaker 28
47:31
how is she doing she's doing good I'm really hoping that she's not going to remember what happened but the mind is
a very mysterious thing so I don't know how it'll affect her later in life right well I
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
47:45
appreciate y'all being here and again I'm like everybody else I am so sorry because I feel like the state failed y'all through agencies and then I'm even more aggravated that after they put your child through something that she should have never gone through to begin with. No one has reached out to you and apologized for what they did to your child and that's heartbreaking as someone who sits here in these chairs to know that our state agencies didn't step up and do what was right and apologize to y'all. so I
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
48:15
apologize. Thank you. Senator Love you recognized just wanted to I I'm speaking merely now on the process are we're going to have someone come up and present the process because I think as we go through this we need to know all the checks and the balances so
Chair
Unverified
48:39
is that we're not addressing the processes today because that's what the
ISp does so that will be a process to
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
48:47
examine the processes. OK cause I would be interested to see if I mean because we're saying that all these checks all these we're saying that all of these like the cabinet police department said no if if everybody signs off on this then I guess just trying
to get a feel of the process. understand and I think
Speaker 156
49:08
that's what needs to be examined the most because I'm not sure anybody's truly clear
Chair
Unverified
49:13
on the exact process and that's that's what why we're addressing
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
49:19
just passing or not passing the ISP today. OK. and then and then let me clarify something because because it was
uhre representing the vault just attributed to me that that I was saying that now I didn't say I didn't say that you know what I'm saying is that we need to check on the process of it and and I would like I said my heart goes out to this family but if we actually know the processes and what was checked off on this case then and then if if they weren't
moving forward then these chicks need to be in place but I would be interested to see even if if state police has a part of this what they are what their take is not on this case per se but on the process of in and of itself so that we will know and so if we can get state police to come up and even just speak to no all right so you're not gonna have anybody speak
on the process period not today because that's what the ISp
Chair
Unverified
50:17
is gonna start to do and we'll do it in a
Speaker 15
50:22
very organized process Everyone in here is is interested in that as as you are
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
50:30
I promise right thank youhuh Representative Rye you're recognized thank you madam Chairman let me ask you all this step one I guess you noticed that this was going on and you took your child to the to a pharmacist I'm not a pharmacist but to a doctor and then once that's done and they refer that child to someone that's
a professional on that particular subject did they send that child to the right doctor. I assume she was sent through our doctor since it
Speaker 28
51:07
was a s a skin issue and they sent her to dermatology and I mean the person that saw her
wasn't a doctor per se. he was an APRN
I don't know if that would have played a difference if she would have seen an actual dermatologist and not just an APRN
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
51:34
I just, I'm not sure about that it's important because the people who actually check
that need to be professional within that particular area and if that wasn't done that's not good thank you
Kimberly Tafoya
Unverified
51:53
OK, seeing no further questions Representative Bentley would you like to close for your ISP if it's OK I'd like to bring
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
51:57
one of the I'd like to let them go and bring one other person up real quick and then I will close I so I appreciate your leni but thank you guys if it's ok I'd like to
bring Tiffanyright, our director up here for just a moment. colleagues the other part of this interim study is going to
be on our hotlines I just want to discuss a couple of things which directorright about the hotline and then we'll ask for a vote on the ISp so thank you for your leniency on this. So director Wright, I know that we've had numerous conversations the committee and
our our whole house and our whole legislature has been concerned about what happened andmountain homel but after that incident I I called you the incident in my own district because I had an individual a constituent call me that had a young boy that they've kept in their house over the weekend because his mom was they were homeless mom and the younger
kids are homeless there was this issue situation with with a boyfriend that was abusive and so my constituent called me because he had the young boy there and they called the hotline and I called you to check on that to make sure that that call had been received and to make sure that those that family was getting there the care they needed that those kids are being taken care of and can you just kind of tell me what what the phone calls like if you remember when I called you on that situation. and
Speaker 15
53:20
I know you know the drill but would you recognize yourself
Speaker 170
53:26
please? yes ma'am and I'm sorry I'm also dealing with an illness today as well I'm
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
53:32
Tiffanyright and I'm the director for the division of Children and Family Services and so yespresentative Billy called me about a concern with the constituent in our community and I got the information and looked at looked that information up to see which agency was involved if I needed to coordinate getting my staff involved if they had already been involved kind of what was occurring
and that's when I was able to see that the report had not been accepted at the haute line and so I made contact with a major Drew andann Mack at the hotline to ask for rereview of that report and upon review of that report it was accepted at the houling so that DCFS could be assigned to get involved to review the to work the child maltreatment investigation thank you so
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
54:28
anyway, I just wanted to so that even after what happened in mountain homeme I had a constituent that was homeless and his momma homeless they had no food there was an abusive boyfriend and yet the call was dropped and it was they were said there was no sign of abuse and neglect so I just want to say that somehow the system is broken we can expect perfection every time but we we've got to do better so I just appreciate you sharing the testimony so again I'm not sure what route we need to go but I want to do this interim stage so we can do a deep dive
and say do we need do we move move the call center what do we need to do because other states are doing a better job than we are and their kids in Arkansas deserve better than I appreciate you correcting that because once you once they received the call the family received the help that they needed and they were taken care of in my constituent who was a young boy terrified of abusive boyfriend and not having food and not knowing what in the world to do that you guys took care of that family so I just want to say thank you that once the right thing was done but we cannot be expected to call you and have you to correct it so I just want to give that as one example I'm not just pulling
things out of thin air that we do have a situation that we need to fix. I guess with that chairman, I'm closed and I would appreciate a good vote on doing this Ip so we can
Chair
Unverified
55:38
get some things fixed in our state and would you like to make a motion I make a motion do pass OK have a motion do pass on the ISp and needed a house member?motion for adoption and I have several seconds on the house side so all in favor of adopting the ISPa Iy opppose no thank you. Your Ip has passed
OK, moving on.rectorwright you get to come back we have several reports from DHS DCfS and I'm gonna leave it up to you as to like I know that for example number 2 annual report probably takes in the quarterly report so you tell us where you're presenting and we will follow.
Speaker 178
56:33
OK. good afternoon again Tiffany wright, director for the division on Children and Familyervices
Speaker 170
56:42
the first report I wanted to start with was the exhibit
Speaker 178
56:47
overturned investigations report this was this report is for child maltreatment investigations from January1st,2024 to December31,2024 and what you have here is a
summary of the number of hauling reports accepted for investigation and then as you follow along the spreadsheet the percentage of those reports that are overturned when when they are appealed and really quick was that number7
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
57:24
is that oh mine doesn't have
Speaker 180
57:27
a number I'm sorry it's the overturned investigations yes sir right
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
57:35
thank you for that presentation do we have
Speaker 170
57:45
any questions from the committee? right see none let you move on. OK thank you. I'm not going to present quarterly
Speaker 178
57:51
performance report firstt quarter Sy2026 because we can see that in the upcoming quarterly report that I'll present as another exhibit wait did to get my purports out of order Sorry hold on I'm sorry
Wrong one. I am not going to present fourth quarter state fiscal year 25 report because we will see that in the first quarter state fiscal year presentation. but next I'm gonna go to the first I'm gonna go to the annual report card which is from state fiscal year 2025. and I'm starting on page one so in state fiscal year 2025
there were a total of32,574 child maltreatment reports accepted at the child abuse hotline 26,407 of those were assigned to the division of Children and Family Services fort investigation and further from there you can see the breakdown of those that were assigned to investigation versus those assigned to differential response as a reminder the blue ribbon on the side will tells you the definition of what a differential response is
on page two the middle chart you will see that the number of true investigations for the year involved6,922 children in our state and that on the bottom chart on the bottom of page 2 that's64% of our reports were founded true for neglect. However, I also want to point out that a child can have more than one allegation. On moving to page four
the top of page four is the timeliness of investigations of initiating investigations you can see the breakdown between a priority one a priority two and then the combined below that you will see the timeliness of completing those investigations and at the end of state fiscal year 25, that rate of completion was75%, which is less than the prior state fiscal year. However, when I get to the quarterly report I'm
going to show you something else related to that the timeliness of closures around differential responses on the bottom of page five where it's how to continue increase to73% focusing in and making concerted efforts around that as well as around investigations which you will also see on the top of page6, you'll see the reoccurrence of
maltreatment both compared from6 and 12 months. the national average remains at 9.1 in Arkansas continues to be steady in the reoccurrence of maltreatment and remaining underneath the national average on the top of page7 you will find that those are the number of in home cases that were opened at the end of the year and the number in children that involved at the end of the year
so thou,502 children were involved in in known cases at the end
Speaker 186
1:01:20
of our at the end of the state fiscal year At the bottom of page 8
Speaker 178
1:01:29
monthly required visits of caseworkers to on our in home cases we ended the year at 81%. on page 10 number of children in foster care we ended the year at3,390
children in foster care we also continue to look at our
injuries and discharges at the bottom of page 10 for
the state fiscal year. about 2100 children entered in 2200 exited foster care in the year and you can see the historical information there at the top of page 11 the number the reasons
for entry into foster care
neglect51% substance abuse is41% and again just a reminder that children can enter foster care for more than one reason. and then the reasons for discharge from foster care42% for reunification,24% for adoption and then overall 91% of children in foster care did exit permanency by going to returning home
to their parents or relatives adoption or another permanent arrangement.
at the middle of page 12 it'll show you the placement types for children in foster care. um,35% of children were placed with a relative 24 replaced with in a nonrelative home but overall77% of our children are placed in a family type some type of family setting on page thir monthly visits to children in foster care for caseworker monthly visits 83% but contact
by any DCfS staff,91% and then siblings placed together we're at74% at the end of the state fiscal year on the bottom of page 14 is information around placement stability which we still do have work around placement stability so this would be maintaining children in their placement their foster placements when we do remove them and put them in foster care.
Um37% of children achieve permanency within 12 months. that was a slight decline from the year before and reentries into foster care after we had discharged them to their families was at5.4%, which means they reentered foster care after we reunified on the top of page six number of children available for adoption
197 however we do a percentage of that because we know that a percentage of kids will be adopted by family members and so our number of children that we're currently doing active recruitment
Speaker 186
1:04:47
for is 178. on the bottom of page 17 the length of time from
Speaker 178
1:04:53
TPR to finalization how to increase we do have some strategic work going on around that through a hyperfocus and continuing to figure out which systems
barriers are preventing us from ensuring timely permanency after after term after termination of parental rights on the top of page 1836% of adoptions finalized during the state fiscal year were with relatives we we finalized546 adoptions and overall total in the state fiscal year we served7,916
children with their parents through in home cases when the year ended for the whole state fiscal
Speaker 186
1:05:42
year. and then on the bottom of page 20 I'll show you again in the quarterly report but we did have a net
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:05:54
after having an A loss at the end of Sy24 and that's what I have for this report
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:06:05
thank you and it looks like we have a couple of questions on this report going
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:06:10
first to House Majority Leader beatty you're recognized thank you Mr chairir. My my question goes back
I guess on page one right where you started talking about the total reports of of maltreatment received during the year can you tell us how many
of those were multiple reports that involve the same child because I I know that past discussions we've had that that
there were there are multiple reports on the same
Speaker 178
1:06:38
child can you can you break that out for us? I actually can but I I need to look it up. I need someone to give me that number I I know
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:06:45
the number so can you can I ask someone to help me and give me the numbers I don't have it you can ask for all the help you want actually hold on I
Speaker 196
1:06:54
might actually have it up here give me one second I'm sorry
Speaker 186
1:07:18
he can I get an assist please Amber come here. Give me just
Speaker 200
1:07:36
one second and she's gonna come back and tell me because I don't have that on the top of my head even though I should can I come back to you
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:07:42
and ifpresentative if you're finished can I move on to someone else in the queue and come back on'll I'll get back in
the queue when I go go ahead and go ahead and get back in if you would all
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:07:55
right Representative Bentley you're recognized thank you chairman thanks. I just want to say thank great great job. I see some really good results and I really like what we're seeing in
the face to face and know you worked really hard to make sure that children are being seen face to face and you've seen a big increase on that but we're just seeing a little bit of increase on the length of time that it's taken for our kids to get out on page 17. is there anything that happened this past year that you think about that maybe on page 17 at the bottom where the length
of time for them to get to permanent see we just seeing
Speaker 170
1:08:26
a little bit of uptake this year just any yeah and so we have done significant work on like
Speaker 178
1:08:31
making some things electronic but also when this number means finalizations and so we actually did this year finalize several children who had been waiting for a long time and so that can also impact this number as well and so we have a hyperfocus going on right now with children that we know are in the placement that are going to
adopt them lastst month we were able to move30 of those kids to adoption and so we know we just keep trying to fine tune that process just as much as we can but last year we did finalize several kids who had been waiting for thousands of days and so that will also impact that number as well. All right. but that's that
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:09:09
explains that for sure thanks and the other quick thing is just on page 14 we just talk about um74% of kids that have siblings are placed together and seems to be a number that we're kind of
stuck at not able to rise above any I know you know we have a second chance ranch in my district doing a great job trying to provide sibling home s but is there anything that we think we can do to maybe add to
Speaker 178
1:09:33
that number or what are your thoughts on that Tiffany and what we could do to I think that continuing to work closely with our partners to be strategic about homes that will take those larger sibling groups yes like your partner seconden rannch we also have Arkansas Baptist who does help with our large sibling groups so continuing to work with
them but also one thing that could impact this number as well is are they separated but with family members and so that could go into that as well cause they wouldn't show they're not placed together right but then just continuing to focus on foster parent recruitment and sharing what our need is but sometimes asking foster parents for room rooms for nine kids is a lot right like when you have a s group of7,8 and 9 that's pretty imposs ible to do. I mean it's not that it doesn't happen but it is so
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:10:22
that's why we have to be strategic in the work we do with our partners in the state for that recruitment. OK
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:10:29
thank you thank you chairman youpresentative uhpresentative Vaughtugt
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
1:10:32
you're recognized thank you Mr Chair. How many how many children do we have in foster care right
Speaker 209
1:10:39
now? can you tell me it's like30 it was like3390 I think when I got the last number and do we have children that are waiting to
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
1:10:47
go to a foster home and if yes how many is there?
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:10:55
waiting to go to a foster home can you clarify that question? like
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
1:11:00
what do you mean by that? well like I know like when children are picked up there's not always somebody immediately ready where they
Speaker 178
1:11:09
can take a child. oh yes ma'am ok so we have so when kids come into foster care
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:11:15
you know first we're looking for safe and appropriate relatives then we're looking for foster homes. we do have limited ability for to utilize emergency shelters based on age and
then but those are not typically the kids that we're getting stuck
in the DHS office with typically we're getting stuck with the older youth who have more complex behavioral issues who have some significant needs that are are kind of scary to be honest and so we don't like we track kids who get stuck in the office and we have teams who meet to try to
treat us those situations so no kids are just sitting forever waiting in the DHS office and then that's why
placement stability doesn't look great because we find foster homes that can help us for one night or two nights and then we move the kids according to what needs to happen next or maybe we find a relative that we
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
1:12:11
weren't able to find days later so that you answered the second part of my question with this with the children
that are needing more therapy a lot more services and they are kind of scary. I know we ran a bill during session Representative Kavanaugh did that opened up prFT beds for those type
children who are a lot more difficult do has that helped y'all with those that are waiting because we know the list was long for beds but I know that we tried to make it where it's Arkansas first. So I'm just wondering has that helped if it hasn't
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:12:54
if it has, then that's great. so to go to a psychiatric residential treatment
facility pRTF you have to qualify which means that
the past has to approve you to go to that placement based on recommendations and so some of these kids do not need that level of care they have come
maybe be completed that treatment or they were treatment failures at that and so we're we're navigating that and so those will be the kids we're getting stuck with in the office and then to be honest some of our kids are really complex that they that some of these places won't won't even consider them because
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:13:35
of their complexities. Thank you you're welcome OK RepresentativeRose, you recognize and and members I'll just keep in mind the time we've been
here a little bit and I know that uhrector Wright's voice is not as strong as it normally is. thank you Mr chairman. Director Wright,
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:13:54
thank you for taking the time to go through these reports page by page with us just a couple of quick questions. I was looking at a
side by side of the numbers of finalized adoptions and which is on page 18 and the number of children available for adoption on page 16. and I think in response topresentative Vaut's
question you said there are roughly correct me30 was it32003300 children that were in foster care can you can you tell us whether that number is less or more than in
previous years the total number that
Speaker 223
1:14:41
are in foster care if you look at the
Speaker 207
1:14:46
top of page tin you'll see state fiscal year 2223,24 and25. so it's a decline. OK that that answers kind of one
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:14:54
of my questions I assume there's just a ratio no matter how good the work you do is at some point you're only gonna be able to get a certain percentage of
the kids that you have in foster care to
be adoption ready or into adopted homes and so I was wondering if we're seeing which looks like good numbers that decrease if that matched the number of children in foster care and so that's correct I had one other question on page 20 there's a note in the upper left corner about the average caseload is at 17 cases per worker and that you guys had a goal to have them at 20 or
fewer could you talk a little bit
about that kind of achieving that goal and what that means
Speaker 178
1:15:47
for the caseworkers in your division so it for us so this is everybody who could carry a caseload within the division that's
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:15:54
assigned cases when we pull the data and so what you're gonna see in the quarterly report is that it's higher again but because that's based on workforce so retaining staff providing good services discharging children from
foster care supporting children in their home, working investigations timely like it's a plug for all of the work that happens and so while we did achieve it and it is an average so some of my counties would tell you that's not right I have more than 20 but it's an average for the whole state it it watching the ability to do the different layers of work and be strategic about it does help retain
Speaker 200
1:16:31
the workforce and that's a critical factor to the workloads. right I appreciate the analysis thank you
Chair
Unverified
1:16:41
thank youpresentative and Representative barnes you're recognized thank you chair my
Representative Glenn Barnes
Unverified
1:16:47
question is how is effective kin catalog how do you catalog they catalog as a relative or
Speaker 186
1:16:53
nonrelative fictive kin is cataloged into the first red chart
Speaker 178
1:16:59
line you see there so it breaks it down it says relative fictive foster homeme 21%. so that it's all concluded we include
Chair
Unverified
1:17:11
relative aspect of kin thank you you're welcome
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
1:17:24
right Representative Springer you're recognized good afternoon thank you chair for the opportunity to address
Miss Wright once again we have these reports every year and I've been on this committee I guess since I've been in the legislature and
I've as you recall I've always asked about workloads of employees because I still receive concerns from
them regarding the massive workloads that they have and so have we come up with a a report similar to this to tell us what the workloads are of each one of these individuals working in your department and how effective assistance is being given to ensure that their workloads are manageable I guess that's my question I think I've been asking this
question for the past several years now about overall workloads they have a lot of responsibilities in each one of these reports and I think that individuals who have these responsibilities we don't know exactly how they're doing with respect to all the things that they're having to do so if we could have some type of disaggregated data with respect to that, I think we would have some improvement with respect to what's going on within the department of of Children
and Family Service s I guess that's a long question
so are we are we am I communicating you follow
Speaker 178
1:18:47
me what I'm saying here yes ma'am and I would remind everyone that online on the DCFA on the DHS website on the DCfs tab there are the reports that we put out every month that are all the way down to the county level and there is a breakdown of each countyle's workload down to the to that specific county so those are on the on the public facing site our monthly charts are that can
show you each county offices workloads now it's not
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:19:18
gonna have the worker's name but it's gonna tell you what's going on
Speaker 178
1:19:25
in that county also in the back we're in the back of here is a area map that also shows which report
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:19:38
the workloads on the annual report card on page 41. that's based on this county
Speaker 207
1:19:49
or by county as well but to see it real time each month it's
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
1:19:57
online on the website So which page are we
Speaker 240
1:20:06
referring to in the 41 that's the annual
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
1:20:09
report Right. I I have it I'm trying to get to41 so so the OK so that so are you saying that
ok for instance pulaski County so you're saying that 23.3 cases
are being held individually by the each person within that
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:20:29
DFO DcO it's an average of the county of the whole county so everybody who carries a type of caseload in the county
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
1:20:40
that's the number that they're have compared to other portions of the state say for instance like Benton
County so theirs this 17.34 yes
and then if we go over to eastern Arkansas Mississippi countunty so that one is 21 57 is that right? Yeah it's an yeah it's an average
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:21:02
for everyone in that county who's carrying a caseload. and a caseload can be any anything that we have assigned staff to. anything ok so
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
1:21:13
I guess that's my point I'm sorry Mr Cha follow up OK so I'm I'm just trying
to understand and I can see why now that you know I I received the
complaints that I do because it appears that pulaski County has the highest case workload poor per employee
Speaker 238
1:21:31
is that correct? Actually there's two counties that are at33 and32 and where are those Cleveland and
Speaker 186
1:21:38
Lafayette Lafayette OK so I guess I have the same question for them I don't hear from them
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
1:21:47
but it appears that that appears to be the same type of problem that they're having there too that
though we so we have three counties where there's a focus of greater workloads than other parts of the state then
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:22:02
is that correct and that would be that's gonna be due to staffing turnover and having to move cases and staff and try to balance out the work and then I guess
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
1:22:12
that follows up my question before we've had the same conversation and then the question is what are we doing in order to address that
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:22:21
to everything we can do every single day which is continue to hire and retain our staff
provide them what they need, train them appropriately to do the work and just continue managing it through leadership and supervision and what's going on in the county office it's all right thank you thank
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:22:40
you representative uhpresentative beatty you're recognized just following up to see if we had
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:22:44
a number yet because then I do have other questions after we get this number let's see
if they have it and if not we'll let you get your other questions.
Speaker 178
1:23:00
of the of the32,000 maltreatment reports,1,831 had multiple reports to the hotline.
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:23:08
you have the do you have the the follow up on that where it breaks down into the other categories from page one can
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:23:21
that's then that that my my question goes in are these multiple reports consolidated into one case when they when they're they're sent
for review or is each one a separate case so as you get these reports coming in if you get a report today for John Doe and then on Friday you get two more reports on John Doe because a lot of times you know mandatory reporting on on a lot of of of institutions and and and providers in the state that would have access or have knowledge so you get all these multiple reports in how how do you consolidate that in are
those consolidateds that start a separate I know it's gonna be a a separate report but does that then flow to the worker that has that caseload to follow your metrics and and policies within the department does that get routed to the same caseworkers that go
Speaker 223
1:24:22
to another another person loaded question lots to unpack there but it can be merged in the two reports could
Speaker 178
1:24:33
be merging together but we'd have to look at the allegations and what's going on with those allegations as well as and then making sure it's do we have multiple counties involved there's a lot of things that have to that go into that so we can merge them together and not
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:24:49
lose any information along the way so
Speaker 217
1:24:52
that we're not assigning multiple people to investigate one family if that answers your question that part of my concern and
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:24:58
then also if if that's not the case
then a lot of your metrics and and
other statistics that you're reporting here would be skewed I don't think it would skew it that much for 2000 unless all 1800 of those were say assigned to CCd our are confined within one category then it could have
an effect especially in in in that small population there so that just some concerns there follow up to umpresentative Springer's line of questioning where you were talking about what you're doing to cause you you
you stated turnover and trying to hire and that that's still an issue and and gonna be an ongoing issue that I think the last time that that you and I spoke in committee we talked about surveys and and what you were doing within the department for employee morale and to see what what the what your division could
do a better job of to make certain that we have happy employees I mean I I can't imagine doing what what what what y'all have to deal with I I I think it's something that
would tear at your heart every day and so how how is that how is
that working and and can you enlighten us
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:26:16
on some of that just briefly yeah so we've been doing we did
a sta this year we did again our staff appreciation banquet and picked areawide winners and then a statewide overall winner to build morale and highlight good work that our staff had done in the year we are
we try to continue to do our ge m award which is going the extra
mile so staff we're going above and beyond we also have them doing everyday champions so people who just get called out by a stakeholder or someone who's done something well to acknowledge that work we also have rolled out across the state some it's called sea sert it's another acronym but it's a trauma informed kind of secondary training response and how do you manage the work and the stress and the balance it
all out right like how do I balance my personal life plus with everything I see going on and we were able to do that and with a mix bucket of staff across the state and then we did it in one specific area last month and we're getting ready to go to another part of the state and do it again so we've got that going on and thenpresentative I think I told you that I had a goal to change new staff training and we're getting very close to that coming in the coming year. we're starting with our supervisor training and
so looking forward to that as well as changing the what our frontline workers get and how we make it more about competency and not just checkboxing and making sure they're actually learning what they need to learn when they're sitting in training so I'm looking forward to getting that going and sharing with you all some of that and as we progress into 2026 and that was one thing we heard from them loud and clear. was that that training was not working and so we've been doing that as well as trying to encourage and
bridge the gap between what we call central office or our main office downtown where a lot of the program managers and assistant directors are to the staff that are out across the state and getting them out in the county offices and just supporting something critical that might be going on in the county office and so we've been doing that as well so just trying to come at it from every angle to support them through this through this work. Well, I appreciate
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:28:38
your answers and I know sometimes that my my questions may be pointed and and
hard. I I don't envy the job that that you and your division have to perform but I do think that out of out of this committee and not just the committee but legislators at the state the the most vulnerable popul part of our state and population our
children that that's that's what you're entrusted with and so we're we're gonna make certain and I know you take that very seriously but it's one thing that'll impassion this group and and have a lot of us whooping and hollering so continued the good work and and keep your people happy and thank you again for your answers thank you
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:29:19
thank you representative uhpresentative gonzalezor than you're recognized thank you
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:29:23
chairman. Yes, I wanted to ask this question while you were here. I asked it earlier and I have a follow up question if I may they're related. so I wanted to know what what the language access services that the hotline might provide if somebody wants to report, um, an incident child maltreatment etc. if they speak another language
other than English and they want to report Spanish and marshallesevietnamese etc. So I feel really bad because
I don't know the answer to that because I don't I'm not in the day to day operations of
the arkansas child abuse hotline state polices and I know they get to come to the table after me so we're both going to learn that I would assume they use an interpretation service that they have just like DCfS does for serving families but I don't want
Speaker 217
1:30:14
to speak for them so I'm gonna let them
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:30:19
answer that question if that's ok may I ask my follow up to that? Yes, so once we know that and I was wondering if we have adequate
staff to handle cases with these multiple languages do you
Speaker 178
1:30:40
have adequate staff? sodhS does allow for pay incentive for staff
who are bilingual and then we alsodHS also has a contract that
DCFS gets to utilize for that we can utilize if we don't have staff so I think I think
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:31:00
the answer is yes but obviously we always need more OK, thank you thank
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:31:10
youpresentative uhpresentative uhnickurkkes not to be confused with Rebecca. thank you Mr chairman so
Speaker 259
1:31:18
we talked about staff retention and training as a way of improving
our quality of service another issue that was brought up in the mountain home incident was lack of documentation have the documentation methods for each report changed specifically because of that incident or are there plans to change? that as it relates to history or or just document like we're always
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:31:45
asking where we always tell them if you don't document it it doesn't happen and so
Speaker 178
1:31:50
we just keep saying that one thing that they do experience though
in all of the things that they have going on transporting a kid, making sure a child is safe documentation is sometimes the last thing
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:32:03
that happens we have to ensure that they're doing thorough documentation so we are working on that we've been messaging that and then making sure that documentation is happening and giving them protected time to do that that's the strategy
is like when you're in your office you could get pulled into other crisis going on and so how do we
manage giving them protected time and so we've been
Speaker 258
1:32:30
working on that. OK right so you're telling me that specifically you're changing the way in which you're going to document the
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:32:37
process as a result of this incident. Well we have we have to enter documentation to move
cases forward within our system so it's not a choice it's just making sure that it's thorough in nature. OK.
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:32:48
thank you. right back to you Representative Spring thank you Mr chairir. I just
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
1:32:58
want to point out in going over this report I just wanted to bring to
your attention madam secretary that we indicated earlier that Lafayette Cleveland county had case loads of32.5 and33 as I look at the services that are being provided in Cleburne County and Lafay 33 cases in Lafayette
looks like total and32 in Cleveland County something
is you know I don't understand that something is wrong there compared to pulaski County that has like over600 so there are not as many cases being handled that's why their caseload averages is about the same as Pulaski County they got fewer cases and and I guess fewer people that are working thank you I just want to point Yes ma'am thank youpresentative
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
1:34:01
uhpresentative Hope Duke you're recognized thank you Mr Chair. Just a real quick question um, that Representativeurkes made me just bring to mind when you are
talking about we need to do a better job of documenting our I don't want to assume this are y'all spot checking them? to make sure that you know that the documentation is happening is somebody actually actively going back periodically and checking the files and making sure that it is happening so
Speaker 178
1:34:33
documentation is how we get this data so like for example if you will ask me why foster care visits go down like we would see that we would know they weren't documenting or it wasn't happening and so that's how we can when we use data analysis we can say like what's going on in this county like the they're in home visits have decre as ed or like what is happening and so is it a
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:34:55
documentation issue it's a workforce issue to have a practice issue are they documenting wrong but also on everything we enter a supervisor
has to click approve. so like if
Speaker 178
1:35:05
I enter in a contact for a family today a supervisor has to approve that contact.
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
1:35:11
so because you what brought what brought it to mind was when you were saying there's a lot of moving parts whenever they're having a case and and that sometimes can be the the the last thing getting done as they're trying to get a kid transported and so forth so my question I guess is when that person is coming in and they've got the child at a place that there's a safe place and they've done all those different things is someone making sure at that
juncture right there that the do because obviously somewhere the documentation didn't happen if that's been an issue so who ' s going back now to make sure that that documentation is taking place before you have to file a report, right? then you have maybe 10 that you're having to go back and make sure that you got all the pieces back put together I
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:35:52
think it's a balance I wouldn't say right at that moment it's probably happening which
Speaker 178
1:35:57
is why we have to be strategic about giving them protected time to get the documentation in but then you also will see it in doing case
reviews and looking at like their specific assignments in our system to know that like this kid hasn't been seen why didn't this kid get seen? did you get your
Speaker 196
1:36:13
documentation and did you do it? we can ask those questions that way. I don't know if I'm making
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
1:36:20
sense. I mean you are I guess I I understand what you're saying it just seems like some of that happens whenever you get to like a deadline and my question is as asu someone who's the supervisor
of those workers are do they periodically just I wanna see
what you did not you just to check them because it's like taking a pop quiz rather than taking the test is someone doing the pop quiz with them to make sure there's that accountability on a more regular basis than whenever the report may actually be due or something like that. I would say probably not 100% of the time
Speaker 178
1:36:52
but I think we have supervisors who historically do that instead of waiting until the last minute when something is due. I think it's something we could continue to work on. I mean I I understand that I think
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
1:37:02
we've also this many of us have said this several times. I
think it's the hardest job in the state in my opinion, dealing with what you guys have to deal with on a day to day basis. And so I I tried to keep that in mind when I ask the questions because we all go home and although it weighs on us in different waystays with you every day and I understand that it just if we are able to maybe from the outside sometimes give some perspectives and if they're not periodically checking that like a pop quiz.
I think that always makes makes students better. it makes teachers better when they get just the not I'm not I'm I'm
coming to observe your class without a warning you know that accountability helps and if if there's not that little piece of the puzzle there, which I get as another thing for someone to do but I I I think that if documentation is such the lifeblood of what you're doing here and protecting whether they're doing it right or doing it wrong, then that periodic accountability of it of check ing it might be something to help improve a little bit
more of their documentation if they never know for sure when someone's going to check. Yeah.
Speaker 276
1:38:12
and I think we we do that but probably just not as consistent as we that we need to do
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:38:22
that instead of waiting until the last minute right thank youpresentative I see no other questions on on this particular item I will remind the committee
we have a few more to go through so take a sip of water everybody if you got more questions we we can be here awhile but I
know that you know we we need to be expeditious on this so director you're recognized thank you
Speaker 178
1:38:45
I'm going now to the quarterly performance report for the first quarter Sy26
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:38:53
and I'm going to do the same thing I did before and just
Speaker 178
1:38:59
go through a few of the pages and then we can do questions is that OK? thank you so in 1st quarter of Sy268,589 reports are accepted at the child abuse
hotline6,954 of those are
assigned to DcfS uh5300 were signed investigation and then 1500 to differential response
if you go to page two same information just a a little different because it's only the quarter but 1692 of those reports true reports involved 1,692 victim children
uh66% of those reports were true for neglect on page four. timeliness of annihi of initiating investigations again total combined at76% what I wanted to point out from the annual report card to this quarter is at the bottom of page four timeliness of closure. we were able to increase
to 80% with some strategic work
and so I just wanted to point that out from the annual report card. timely closures of differential response reports increased to 84% in the quarter on page six at the top of page6 and then the bottom again you also see your reoccurrence of the u of maltreatment within6 and 1el
months. the top of page7 again
at the end of the quarter, we had open in home cases that involved3,500 children
at the bottom of page eight a required home visits to in home cases at 82%. page 10 the number of children at the end of the quarter3,352
at the bottom of page 10 there's your admissions and discharges by the quarter your entries and discharges by the quarter again and I would also tell and share with you
all that on our monthly charts that we have online that you all can access you can see this by the
county as well and in the end at the top of page 11, neglect at52% was the reason why children entered into foster care substance abuse
following with32% and again as a reminder every child may have more than one entry into foster care 45 % of the children reunified this quarter and then 19% were adoption at the bottom of page 11 on page 12 in the middle you can see the placements where children are placed in foster care top of page
13 is the caseworker visits at 83% and then 89% by anydCfS staff siblings placed together75% at the end of the quarter and then you see the permanency within 12 months at the top of page 15 and then on page
16 the number of children available for
adoption. um, when you take 10% it's about 175
and then on the top of page 18 ir5% of adoptions were finalized by relatives in this quarter and then also wanted to just point out that children ages 10 to17 made up34% of
the adoptions that occurred so our older children are getting adopted which has been a goal of the agency
and then on page 20 you'll see the workload information again and at the bottom of 20 again first quarter we had the net
gain of foster homes open right say no questions. OK. I will ask you to move to the next one unless
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:43:46
you'd rather sit here and wait for some no that's
Speaker 178
1:44:00
Ggarrett's laww report so you'll you have two exhibits as it relates to that you have the summary of the referrals is but then you also have the actual data that goes with that. I'm going to focus on the on the summary and walk through the pages of that
with you page one of this document just provides you what the oversight of Garrett's law and the numbers of reports received the top of page two
provides you an actual chart since the start
of Garrett's law legislation from 2006 till 2025. so that was 1,224 Garret's law reports accepted
in the state fiscal year the bottom of page two is the characteristics of Garrick's law reports and how those reports are accepted page three you will see a chart table one the top of page
three it just provides you an age breakdown of the mothers in the garrett's laww reports the table two on page three is the percentage of arrizal reports in which drugs were cited so marijuana at 81% was the number one drug cited for these reports in our state
page4 that chart that table three the gestational age of newborns in arret's lawport. it gives you a summary as well as a
breakdown from 20 the past state fiscal years for you to compare to see full term versus premature
and then a table4 will provide you whether or not the infants had health problems and if that was cited in the report so no health problems
on72% of the Garret's laww reports this year this past state fiscal year and there's a summary about the mothers scid in the arret's laww report at the bottom for you
Speaker 207
1:46:22
all to read around the use of opioids and benzos
Speaker 178
1:46:33
during pregnancy and page5 provides you adCfS response to arrett's laww
reports subs based on substantiation after investigation cases being opened as well as removal from custody so those will be with the following charts are. So
table ive is the substantiation rate by area in the state and if you need a reminder of the areas the front of your report cards have the areas broken down so you know which area of the state by count
OK page6 is table6 the case opening rate on Garrett's law and so we've been having our staff in central office review Garrett's law reports and do strategic coaching with our areas that we felt like we're struggling in the state you can see we have two areas that were about area one was low in 2024. we've been focused in doing some strategic coaching. We also
had area o who was had was at 95% substantiation rate and
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:47:51
had had a decline and so we've been evaluating those reports and getting on calls and coaching
Speaker 178
1:47:58
with staff and reviewing to see kind of what's happened and how we can continue to engage with them around these
these critical reports and then table7 on the top of page7 is I'm sorry table7 starts at the bottom of page six. it's the child removal rate
and then there's a on the very last bottom of page se moving into page8
is a summary of this entire report I would say that we have been strategically working through the Garrett's all reports and really all of
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:48:36
our reports that when we become involved with families that that should be a trigger with our investigation team to immediately start providing and offering services not waiting through the course of an investigation to complete and then assigning it to someone else at DCfS to provide services so we've been working through
that how to navigate that we're giving services to parents and opening cases and supporting
Speaker 178
1:49:00
them along the way even when there's an investigation going on and connecting them to resources because if we don't you know these are our most vulnerable population. they're our younger kids so how do we keep supporting our staff to engage these families appropriately and we've seen staff improvement around their practice engaging in safe sleep
conversations engaging with pcps of these infants and talking with them and kind of seeing what's going on with
Speaker 170
1:49:32
that and then the last appendix is breakdown by the
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:49:38
counties looks like we have a question from uhpresentative Johnny going to you sir thank you Mr
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
1:49:47
Chairman it's probably mentioned here somewhere but I'd just like to ask you a question ma'am from the time that a lady becomes
pregnant until the time that baby is is born are we testing the mothers each time that they're checked at at the doctor DCFS is not no be hard to
Speaker 207
1:50:16
do that probably so yes I can't get involved until there's an actual child and there's been a report to the
Speaker 200
1:50:21
hotline ma'am the reason I ask you that
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
1:50:27
is because the development of the child from the time zero all
the way to 9 months. anytime that there's some kind of foul drug that is thrown into that has a chance of giving that baby some type of a premature or else either brain damage you know things can happen just wondering if we could go that direction. Yeah, I can't, I
Speaker 200
1:50:47
I don't think that's a question that I can answer. I my agency doesn't get to be involved until the child is
actually born and so I can't I actually do anything until the
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:51:02
child is born it might be someone else that can
Speaker 284
1:51:07
answer that thank you thank you Mr Chairman appreciate you
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:51:11
thank you representative all right I see no additional
Speaker 178
1:51:17
questions have one more but I did have a question on this one so this information is calendar year
2024 and so I wasn't sure how deep you wanted me to go
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:51:33
in through all of this information. I think
Speaker 178
1:51:37
without objection give us an executive summary highle what
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:51:41
you will see in this report is the family preservation report. It is calendar year 2024 it but it's art work at DCfS into three bucket safety
Speaker 178
1:51:51
permanency and wellbeing and it breaks it down for you by areas of the state to
review that data and then it gives you a historical look back from 2022 forward in most of the charts on the very end of each subsection there is a strengths and areas for improvement around each one and so I can read the strengths and
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:52:14
improvements I can I think they're all things that we've talked about today it looks like we already have questions in the
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:52:24
queue. are you ready for questions? let's go to questions RepresentativeRose, you were recognized.
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:52:33
you director for walking us through these past several reports starting on page two of this report
I just kind of wanted to walk through a couple of numbers and then see if you could expound upon the the rationales maybe we see from 2223 to24 that we've accepted
roughly 22 or 2300 less maltreatment reports statewide from 22 to24. if you turn to page five we see of those reports we've gone from 22% of those being substantiated down to 19% of those being substantiated umd additionally on page six we have a significantly lower recurrence rate within 12 months then the national standard
and then if you go over to page 10 the report lists that the number of investigations accepted decreased by6%. and the last thing I'll say here is on page 11 we see the children in foster care from 22 to24 is700 blasts roughly than it was at that time don't believe that there are indicators
broadly that there is less child abuse taking place in our state unfortunately but it does look like this report indicates that we are accepting fewer maltreatment reports and we are seeing fewer substantiated investigations can you explain what it's contributing to that trend
in our reporting in report and I
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:54:34
don't, I don't think I can answer for reporting
Speaker 178
1:54:40
I will I do know that we did experience less reporting as we were coming out of COVID and then as that things were have
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:54:46
started to return to normal we've seen reporting increase again so I I know 22 23 was where we really started feeling like things were back kids were all like all back in
Speaker 178
1:54:56
school things were happening right like we were getting back to more normal life than what we had been prior I don't but I don't I can't just say it's just that like I can't
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:55:10
give you just that but I would say maybe this is something we might glean from the ISp that was approved today as well I guess
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:55:18
the sense that I'm getting at is I think if we were seeing broadly like there is less
child abuse right something's working and we're seeing less child abuse we would be celebrating that in some ways but I'm not really hearing it but when we look at the reports we are seeing we have less substantiated cases and we're accepting less maltreatment reports and I'm just wondering if there's any any other
indication for why that's taking place I would think that's a metric we'd want to know
Speaker 217
1:55:47
yes I would say yes and I think that there's probably a different things that are happening that's there's not just one significant thing that's impacting that if that makes sense? Sure and I'm guessing maybe you're still culling
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:56:00
some data and maybe developing and why is this happening and are
there good things happening or are we missing things is that
all right thank you right seeing
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:56:16
no further questions I'm good right just missed thank you director it's like we have
our friends from the state police rogers if you would please come to the table
and without objection we will hear the July through September
Speaker 299
1:56:50
report Good afternoon my name ishalikaRogers. I am the child abuse investigations programme administrator for crimemesgast Children division with state police and before I present this July through September report I do want to answer representative's question regarding the child toby hotline they do use an interpretation service you're welcome
we will be going over the quarterly report for July through September of this year. you can find the hotline call volume on page two our child abuse hotline received 17,000335 contacts 9,559 of those were accepted and CACD handled 1766 of thosedCfS
handled5000881 while 191el were differential responses todCfS. on page three it shows the allegations by the type that were investigated by CACd and that's in a monthly breakdown on page four it will show that cases reported by mandated reporters On5 on page 5 you'll see the
monthly breakdown of the investigations that were open and closed within this three month period there were 1,703 cases opened in 1,421 closed of the 1421 that were closed419 of those were found to be true and that gave us a substantiation rate of30% there were377 investigations active at the end
of this quarter that were over with472 of those being opened over45 days. on pages6 and7 there's a breakdown of the cases by county on pages 9 and 10 that will reflect the reported allegation types and the alleged victim age groups
on pages 11 through 20 that's going to show the relationships between the alleged offender and the alleged victim with the age groups of the alleged offenders and then on pages 21 through 29 will be a breakdown by judicial districts for our prosecuting attorneys and the cases that we submit to the prosecutors and that's broken down by the number declined the number filed
and the total that we're still pending on the bottom of page 29 it's going to show you that we had684 cases submitted to our prosecutors um68 of those were declined442 of those had charges filed and then 175 of those were still pending criminally. that's the end of our quarterly report. OK thank you. looks like we've got some questions
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
2:00:21
so starting with the residentbeatatty.
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
2:00:26
thank you Mr chairir I I'm over here yes sir my question more is related to the staff
Speaker 305
2:00:37
or your division how many employees do you have in the division? we currently have72 of73 investigator positions
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
2:00:46
fielded are you just investigators? I mean are there other folks in this division who mans your hotline?
Speaker 299
2:00:51
We do have our child abuse hotline has one administrator it has5
Speaker 306
2:00:58
supervisors and 30 of35 operators so35 operators looking
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
2:01:00
back at this the the number you had in here for
that three month period you had 17,000 calls and and and30 operators sir all right I'll get back in. I've I've got some other questions on that
but I'll get I'll I'll get back in the queue thank
Unknown speaker
2:01:22
you Representative Duke you're recognized thank you Mr Chair. thank you
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
2:01:29
for being here today and for this information. my questions's kind of
go around what you do with with this data. so what we can do with this data I guess is part of it
so on the crimes against children that are sexual in nature are you are you all compiling the data in any more comprehensive I guess maybe fashion than just foster parent great grandparent mother I mean I guess what I would like to see is how many of these children who are being violated
is by a biological parent. do you is it is I mean I know you have the data is there a way that we can
Speaker 299
2:02:09
break it down further yes I can get back with you on that we can we
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
2:02:13
can check to see if we can do that. thank you and along those lines on these crimes against the
children that are sexual in nature. have they do you have the information I guess as far as I I would like to know maybe other members would that if techno the technology pieces that may be a part of this crime with the
child and also if that crime against a child drug related as well. how how often is are those together hand in hand we've got a child being abused sexually in some fashion and there's alcohol drugs of some nature that are also in place with that as well. I'm assuming that dad is there I don't know if it's in a place where you can easily get it together but Iu I would like to see that I think that would be helpful for us as far as policy goes forward or conversations that take place in
the future, in regards to other policies whether how much those are
hand in hand and those things and can you also see like the trends in the past because obviously is a new piece that wasn't part of our lives years ago but also there's been a lot of changes it's just in our society and culture so can you see the if there are trends that are happening within our with our children and with our families and with our culture in relationship to the sexual
crimes it seems to me that it just seems to be exploding every time I open up the paper there's another crime against a child that's in evolving sex and I can't even believe are conversations that I'm having you know but that that's the reality we're living in and so I would just like to know what are factors that are contributing to this that maybe we as a society need to address or maybe we as legislators need to address. So
if you could get that data to us I think that that
Speaker 312
2:04:10
would be helpful if you don't know it I'm I'm gonna guess
Speaker 313
2:04:14
you don't know that offhand. No, no ma'am. could you just speculate? do you see from what from Ual's
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
2:04:19
work with this and you nodded your head when I said it seems like the crimes against the sex crimes against children seem to be rising. I don't think it's just a matter of they're being reported more I know thatOVId had an impact on it. Is there anything that just you guys are are catching your eye of wow these seem to go hand in hand. Well,
Speaker 299
2:04:39
approximately 80% of what CCd investigates as sexual abuse so the majority of the things that we investigate as sexual abuse and so I can't really pinpoint that technology or any one thing has you know a bigger factor, you know on these cases that we're seeing but that's that's something that can be looked into Well I guess what I'm wondering is whenever this
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
2:05:02
is being reported is and I realize it depends on the nature of it and those types of things and where the reporter
is what's happened at school or whether it's at a doctor or whatever but I I guess I'm curious if sometimes some of this abuse is taking place because we've got parents who also have or family members or people that have been brought into the home for a variety of different reasons that are also have a drug addiction that is part of the problem or have a I mean I think the pornography addiction goes hand in hand right? but that's I guess I feel like the conversations besides just having the data knowing what else is going on whenever that
accusation is being made and then it's being investigated. does this person also have an alcohol problem that is contributing to poor judgment and things like that that's that's what I'm trying to see cause I'm not just looking for solutions policy wise I'm looking for solutions that I can take back home as a community and what can we work on to better support and help and make a difference so these kids are not being you
Speaker 315
2:06:04
know the numbers actually go down for real legitimate reasons excuse me
Speaker 317
2:06:13
majorjorjeffrewcomander CCD right now there's nothing present in our reporting system the way we could separate that data if it's included it would be included in the narrative part of it which wetu we would not be able to extract from
Speaker 318
2:06:25
the system like that because it's not reported separately so if there was if those
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
2:06:33
were contributing factors maybe or something if a parent is under the influence of something and then they're also committing not just a parent because that's one of the things I'm curious about
is how how much of this is family and I'm also curious how far back did the the the family member's crimes against their children is it rising or is that staying the same from what it used to be in past years are we seeing a higher number of actual biological parents committing crimes against their children or is this kind of just staying you know level in the years going back but there's no way for you to see or know for us to know if a kid under the influence of cocaine did something against this child or or
Speaker 317
2:07:16
right now the reporting system does not show a contributing factor it's a
Speaker 318
2:07:19
little bit different let's say like an accident report it's gonna show all those different things contributing factors whether they were sleep under the influence and all that that particular information is not captured on our reports so if it's not captured on the reports as it's
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
2:07:34
being investigated and our parents or I gonna say I don't want
to see his parents because a lot of a lot of these are not parents.
is there a way to extract I guess that there is another issue going on here as well there's a really big one here and I don't know that fixing this issue fix this this issue that's a deviant issue here but is that something that is pursued and ok well they've got an an addiction as well as this behavior here that has got them
Speaker 299
2:08:09
and reported. I think that information may come out during the investigation that may be gathered but it's not in our reporting system it's not
a check boxx or anything that will separate or create data to where we can pull it and say ok this many investigations involved drug abuse or this many investigations involved certain things so that information may come out in that investigation and be documented in the narrative but not necessarily where it can be extracted in our reporting system and I understand that and I appreciate it I I
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
2:08:44
guess where my mind is going on this is how is we how
can we warn people of the slippery slope
that you may find yourself going down when you engage in certain behaviors that it can take you further than you ever wanted to go. I mean that and and that's I guess what I'm trying to look for is as leaders in different ways in our communities how do we warn young people, young adults, older adults or whatever that this can take you into darker places
than you could possibly imagine, which I think our conversations people
have around pornography as well but it doesn't seem like they're we're having them as boldly as we need to probably be having them especially when you look at these reports and knowing that that is an impact from sometimes some of their choices in private so thank you that was helpful even if it doesn't you did help me with the answers even if you couldn't give me
Speaker 322
2:09:37
specifics thank you we have several in the queue so
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
2:09:42
going first topresentative Bentley you're recognized thank you chairman thank you guys for being here today so I want to
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
2:09:50
ask the same question that uhpresentative rose as directorright so we've seen a decrease in the number of cases that have been accepted once the report comes in a call comes in and we have6% decrease in those that have been accepted and the idea why any thoughts on your end of why we've seen a decrease of calls that
Speaker 317
2:10:10
are being accepted. couldn't attribute it to any type of pattern or trend I know sometimes we'll have say the reports that come out of the school system we may have457
reports of the same allegation coming from from that because everybody wants to report as a mandated reporter they want to be protected the only trend that I saw I know we did have a decrease during the covid time period but we are catching up now I think we're on pace to pass last year's numbers as of now but the credit it to a trend I don't know if that would be possible. I don't know if that would be education or people being more aware of what's taking place thank you chairman
Chair
Unverified
2:10:51
thank youpresentativepresentative Carolyn Brown you're recognized thank
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
2:10:58
you Mr chairir. this question could be answered by either of you if you could contribute
some information. I know you don't keep the data but amongst your officers in the conversations that you have is child sexual abuse material typically referred to as child pornography is that found in these locations where children are being abused sexually
Speaker 328
2:11:26
do we is the question you referring to the finding the way you typically call child pornography
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
2:11:34
or what we typically call child pornography which I think is a misnomer it should be like child sexual abuse material are these kinds of materials found when someone is arrested for sexually abusing a child. or or
could these children also be being exploited in some cases
Speaker 317
2:11:59
that there will be our IacC which is over theet stuff it normally handles thecSam information but there have been relations to
both as far as what's actually happening and what what they have in their possession yes ma'am thank you Representative beatty it looks like you're back. you're recognized thank you
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
2:12:20
Mr Chair Major I I since you came to the table I I feel like I'd I'd like to ask you the question you sat through this meeting at the beginning
and you heardpresentative Bentley present her ISP. you heard the discussion, you heard the parents talk about the treatment of their daughter. do you have an opinion or a position on that that you'd like to share with this committee? since this involves your area of expertise not firmly denying that that report came in
Speaker 317
2:12:46
we're going to do what we need to do to find out the truth to protect these children sometimes it's gonna make people uncomfortable but we're gonna do what
we need to do to make sure that we protect the ones that need to be protected
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
2:13:01
well I I think listening to the testimony of
those parents made a lot of us in the legislature uncomfortable so we appreciate the job you do and and and we hope that that you will be involved in this ISP and and be a partner in making certain that that we move forward with taking care of some procedures that protect our children and our parents in the state yes sir just to jump
on a little bit more probably should leave it alone
Speaker 318
2:13:31
if you look at the reports sometimes quite often when you see see the numbers there I think we're trying to
Speaker 317
2:13:37
separate early biological and all that the parents are the ones that's violating on these kids and just becau and I'm not speaking of the family that was just here but of course if you are the one that's violating against that child you're gonna protect yourself as much as possible and if you've got to say that you weren't doing anything that this shouldn't have been happening and all that you're gonna do it we're not taking anybody for their word if we can look into
it and find out what's going on
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
2:14:06
we're gonna do that that's what we're responsible for follow up Mr chair follow up granted since we went down
that path based on your experience and expertise parents that are innocent that that are are not conducting these heinous acts against their children are they as willing to go through the hoops and and to be as forthcoming with the information and follow the procedures and schedule
appointments and do the things that those two parents did with their daughter or do they try to to
Speaker 317
2:14:41
back away from it you will have the illusion oftentimes of a cooperative parent. I I'm not
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
2:14:46
asking about an illusion. I'm asking are they as willing to move through the process and do all the things that these parents were doing or
do they back away and try to try to resist and and and become angry. I I didn't hear, I didn't
Speaker 318
2:15:03
hear anger out of that testimony from those two parents so don't feel comfort in how somebody would react in particular situations because everybody reacts differently. I'm not
Speaker 317
2:15:17
saying that this family will will not be forthcoming we've seen deception in that form as Well I I appreciate
Unknown speaker
2:15:26
your answers thank you OK Representative uhRo, you're
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:15:33
recognized thank you Mr Chairman just to follow up on that same line of questioning
I guess I was a little caught off guard by what you just said I understand the importance of investigating thoroughly but it almost sounded as if there is no presumption of innocence from what you just said that we have to treat I don't want to misquote you but I'm summarizing paraphrasing we have to treat everybody like
they're offenders in order to find out if they're offenders and in this particular case it resulted in the violation of a five year old child So I would assume that there is some room to improve the approach but it sounded like the approach is we're going to treat everybody like
they're the worst kind of bad guys out there until we know that they're not. amm I mischaracterizing your statement? Yes sir you are. We if there's
Speaker 332
2:16:31
a road that we need to go down we're gonna go down it. we are going
Speaker 317
2:16:35
to talk to each person professionally and and
provide a courtesy to them. We don't go into anything accusatory but we have something that comes into it
Speaker 332
2:16:43
comes to our attention we're gonna look into it could you
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:16:54
expound upon if there's a road we're going to go down we're gonna go down it. I'm not exactly sure what that meant.
Speaker 317
2:17:00
If I receive information that you are involved with something I'm going to inquire about it
Once I ask you about it, I'm not going to blaming you for anything or saying you've done it but I'm going to speak to you about it. we've cleared it up and I can move on to the next phase. if that makes sense but we we want to check and see what what's taking place with the child especially when there's a unknown offender in this particular
situation we had what it was presented to us as something that took place
If something is presented to us of a certain nature we're gonna look look into any unknown offender where it could have came from right may be difficult because of semantics I'm
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:17:51
still not I'm still not certain that I understand the the position that you
guys are holding here I'll be glad to speaks I know there's some others in line so I'm gonna hop out for now Mr. Chair. thank you. Get back in if you need topresentative uhpresentative
Representative Dolly Henley
Unverified
2:18:11
Dolly Henley you're recognized There we go you're recognized thank you Mr Chair I just want to
know some more information about the hotline employees are they at an office there at at headquarters or they at their home answering these calls? No
Speaker 328
2:18:33
everybody's house istaley headquarters and when I look
Representative Dolly Henley
Unverified
2:18:35
at that number 17,000, I mean that seems like a a large number to me but when I break it
down by per month or per week or per day. Boy, when I get down to that bottom line it's it's not a lot of calls and I I understand that it's not gonna happen systematically or evenly for each day. can you tell me the average number of calls your hotline operators
Speaker 317
2:19:07
have that data? believe on average each operator would handle over
it varies. I'm looking I've seen operative take as many as300 calls a month.
some as little as 150. and would
Representative Dolly Henley
Unverified
2:19:28
we assume that some operators answer0 calls they all should be answering calls ma'am can you just provide you know, an example or just a spreadsheet
of of how you know like 1 through30 employees how many calls they're taken because my math just doesn't work. I
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
2:20:02
ma'am an actual number you so much OK, Representative hopepeduke
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
2:20:06
you're working us thank you Mr Chair. So, I want to follow up on this line of conversation we just had so did did did your
division ask for the child to have the exam
or was it Children's hospitalspital that asked for
Speaker 317
2:20:21
the child to have the exam? ma'am, I can't
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
2:20:24
answer a question directly in this form. OK OK
let me try this then Should it be at the discretion of a hospital? to push the parents into that or should it be a law enforcement issue I mean I don't there's a difference to me on a hospital and a doctor asking for something and a a law enforcement officer asking for
and asking for something and my understanding in this is that the officer at that time said we we don't think there's an issue here and the two nurses that worked at the childrenldren's advocacyenter said we don't think there's an issue here but childrenldren's hospitals pushed the issue. amm I misunderstanding that because there's a difference to me in in a medical professional asking for something in law enforcement officer asking me for something colonel if you'd like to answer please recognize yourself for the record. Ilie innant
Speaker 283
2:21:12
Colonel Jason Aaron with the Arkansas State Police without getting too specific on
Speaker 344
2:21:21
it I can tell you that information was disclosed in that hotline call of a of a diagnosis that was made by medical professional which triggered events to follow that and so as far as the determination to be made for further medical exam, that decision is made from a medical professional and I would say on that same token for just for for example a a rape investigation that police officer or that investigator does not make that determination
of that rape that medical professional the the crime lab medical examiner makes
that determination after conducting their examination in their area So in this instance it
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
2:22:07
sounds like there was conflicting opinions from the nurses and from children's who had not examined, I don't guess other than just the exam of the all of these warts no they're not this is something more whatever it was so what happens if there's a conflict between the two medical
professionals because it seems like there was in this one and
Speaker 344
2:22:31
think as a result of that investigation in that conflict the untrue or unsubstantiated finding was determined think the exam after the video that and that's either CAC's procedure or that medical facilities procedure that was in place that was not that that is not the Arkansas Statelice's or DCfS procedures to take place that's not our decision to make or procedures to put in place
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
2:22:59
so whose authority would have been to say no we're not going to video it we can make we can do this but
Speaker 344
2:23:05
that provider who is conducting that evaluation I would assume. and then I guess the question that no one
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
2:23:13
I haven't heard anyone say when we talked about and and you weren't here I mean at it troubled me a little bit that the that we had the service animal in there and we talked about with the comfort and all that but I was also
troubled by the fact that there was some other adult in there watching this child's exam who under my understanding's not a medical professional and not a law enforcement officer but is a the guide or whatever the terminology is for this service animal and is there anything policy wise that deals with that because I'm sitting here thinking of my kid and I told one of my colleagues a few minutes ago that when they first put
the metal the detectors in the in the airports where you scan
them. I cried when my little five year old went through it. I'd never seen anything like it and I could not believe that was happening. I mean not a crazy cry but it it it it hurt my heart that my daughter was doing that and I cannot imagine that parent and what she felt and what she went through and and it we have to have some pause on what's going on here and then the fact that now there's a video out there and there's this other person that she didn't know from adam that was in there watching the whole thing too
I understand that you're wanting to protect kids and I understand you all see the ugly all the time and maybe there's a jaded there that happens a little bit that you just can't not investigate it but there was there's so much that's troubling about this. I hope that troubles you guys and the way this went down and what happened and what this family is dealing with because there's a lot here and it really concerns me if a medical provider has that much authority
in this situation in in these types of situations because parents I mean we're all pretty much trained to ok what do you want us to do? law enforcement we want to
agree we wed and we sure don't want to lose our kid and there there's just something wrong here and I hope that this study helps figure some of this out but I hope as you wait for this study and changes to happen there's conversations that happen internally to
make some changes too because something like this in my opinion shouldn't ever happen like this again. thank you Representative if I may and to those in the queue I
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
2:25:35
I appreciate your concerns, your comments and their I think appropriate. However, I will say we're gonna have far more conversations about this issue with the ISP and I would ask if we have something specific to this report let's do it. I've given some leeway but I will give some more if it's pressing but I would ask that we hold those for the ISps in the study so colonel, I'll let you respond to the representatives statement
Speaker 344
2:26:07
and question if you wish or just for just like a minute I'll I Colonel Hager and I spoke with Representative Bentley and and we welcomed this study. we are always welcome to this for a constant review and we continually monitor the the system that we have in place we also encourage that we look at the child maltreatment Act. I ask that we have the different entities that are involved I think we need to look at the childmaltreatment Act first before we look at procedures to take place as far as the hotline and investigative procedures because we need to make sure the statute is correct before we implement
procedures operation wise that are going to conflict because changes need to be made to the child maltreatment actct it hasn't been touched in years and we need to look at it and I think that obviously that time is now because of 2027 we'll be here before you know it. so we
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
2:26:56
welcome the study any other questions right. see none. I think this conversation will continue just quick question I meant
to ask this of Director Wright and I will ask her to come back to the table just briefly and I will be the only one asking this question so don't worry and really quick Majordriw before you leave how much time goes into compiling this report the ones that were presented your report it your bit ike if you would it doesn't take too long oncece I
Speaker 317
2:27:34
get the monthly reports that are involved with it I can normally
get the report done pretty quickly. there's a lot of data within our our report that we'll have to receive from DCfS
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
2:27:47
first because they are the owners of the system I understand so director same same question to you how much time that's in the stack
Speaker 207
2:27:56
reports how much time is that? contractor I contract I have a person who pulls out all the data and puts them together
Speaker 178
2:28:04
into those reports and then obviously pulls out the data for that so I can ask him in
Speaker 243
2:28:10
estimated amount of time to pull it all together if you would like and give that back to you but I would
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
2:28:16
guess a significant amount of time I mean so no one dedicated todHSs or DCfS is compiling that it's a contract that that through a vendor perfect thank you very
much see other business I think we are adjourned thank you for your time
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Consideration to Approve the September 19, 2025, Meeting Minutes [Exhibit B]
C. Appointment to the Child Maltreatment Investigations Oversight Committee
D. Consideration for Adoption of Interim Study Proposal 2025-087 by Representative Mary Bentley –Study the Revision of Existing Procedures Governing the Child Abuse Hotline and Subsequent Investigations of Alleged Child Maltreatment; and the Creation of a More Standardized Procedure for the Acceptance or Non-acceptance of a Report of Alleged Child Maltreatment to the Child Abuse Hotline, Mandatory Reporting of Suspected Child Maltreatment to the Child Abuse Hotline, and Subsequent Investigations of Alleged Child Maltreatment [Exhibit D]
E. Department of Human Services, Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) – Tiffany Wright, Director, DCFS [Exhibits E1- E7]
F. Arkansas State Police, Crimes Against Children Division (CACD) – Kalika Rogers, Investigations Administrator, CACD [Exhibits F1- F2]
G. Other Business
H. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Speaker 11
Chair
Unverified
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
Kimberly Tafoya
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Speaker 28
Speaker 29
Speaker 41
Representative Brian S. Evans
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Speaker 45
Speaker 51
Senator Alan Clark
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Speaker 77
Representative Ryan A. Rose
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Senator Mark Johnson
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Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
Speaker 108
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
Representative Glenn Barnes
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Representative Matt Brown
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Representative Justin Gonzales
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Representative DeAnn Vaught
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Speaker 156
Speaker 15
Representative Johnny Rye
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Senator Ben Gilmore
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Speaker 180
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Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
Speaker 196
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Representative Joy Springer
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Representative Dolly Henley
Unverified
Speaker 341
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