Children & Youth Committee- Senate & Aging, Children & Youth, & Legislative Affairs- House
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- October 2, 2026
Chair
Unverified
3:00
Cher sees a quorum. Good morning. Welcome to the joint meeting of the Senate and House aging children, youth and Legislative Affairs Committee. Thank you for being here today. We're gonna start this morning with a little tutorial from Blake because this is the first time that we are. Using, um, you have a hard copy, but we also have all of the documents. On the tablet, so, um, or device. I'm not really sure which is the correct term, but Blake's gonna tell us about it.
Speaker 7
3:31
OK, members, if you look at your tablet at the top of the screen, you're gonna see the documents tab. This is gonna be our first meeting utilizing that like uh Representative Barker said, everyone still does have their hard packet copies, as well as if you bring your laptop, you're gonna have multiple options to use going forward. But if you hit that document tab, it'll have all the exhibits in the packet when you hit on a specific exhibit, it'll load it. You can zoom in, zoom out, just whatever your preference is if you have any questions going forward, just let me know.
Speaker 4
4:05
Thank you very much. OK, first on our agenda today, um, I need a motion to adopt the the May twenty-eighth meeting minutes. Have a motion 2. Thank you. All in favor say aye. Opposed? No. Thank you. Minutes
Chair
Unverified
4:22
adopted. um, first in our presentations today will be Mr. Guess. From Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, if you
Speaker 12
4:41
will introduce yourself, then you are recognized for your presentation. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, Peter Gus, I'm the
Speaker 13
4:50
economic policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. Uh, thanks for having me this morning. Uh, I'm very happy to be here to share a tool that I hope you'll find valuable in your work, um, going forward on this committee and generally in the legislature. I think You all are pretty familiar with Arkansas advocates for children and families. I'm sure you've
interacted with lots of uh folks from our staff over the years, um, especially during sessions, uh, what you may not know is we're about to turn 50 years old. This is our 48th year, so we look forward to celebrating in 2027 with you. Uh, won't read the, uh, mission here, because again, I think you're pretty familiar. Um, we're just here to give a voice to kids and youth at the Capitol and beyond. All right, so I'm here to talk about a fiscal map and why we're maybe interested in a fiscal
map, uh, I will say that we are the state representative to a, in a nationwide network run by the Annie Casey Foundation, something called Kids Count, you probably have seen press releases in the past and stories about the kids count data book that comes out every year and ranks us across several domains. Um, we're obviously interested in In proving those rankings, not for the sake of rankings, but for, um, the betterment of our children. Uh, in, in the fiscal map is a
complement to this ranking. The ranking is like where we are now, fiscal map is the funding we put behind that, um, and obviously, it demonstrates the investments we put in to program state programs, uh, that improve the lives of children. Um, and here, here at Advocates we're very interested in can we actually link the funding to outcomes, um, and what what does that look like? So in many ways it's a way of answering questions. It's also really the first answer to a
series of questions. And so, where is our level of current funding, um, and how much is going towards those goals of improving the lives of children in the state of Arkansas. Uh, also, uh, moving beyond that is, OK, where's the gap then? If we want to improve something, what kind of modeling cost estimation can we do to get past this baseline demonstrated by the fiscal map to get us, um, to where we want to be and of course, then the next step is thinking through sources for additional funding, both
governmental and beyond governmental funding to, uh, narrow that gap. Yeah, but, but mostly a fiscal map is all about fostering dialogue, um, so who's spending what in the state of Arkansas, how much, what are we spending it on, um, and, uh, of course, we're very interested in children and, um, you know,
Speaker 14
7:41
by different age groups and what programs are affecting those age groups and that sort of thing.
Speaker 13
7:52
Uh, I should mention that we partnered with this in something called the Children's Funding Project, which is a national nonprofit that really is interested in strategic funding solutions to again support children across the entire United States. And we are just one part of this effort, uh, as of now, the children funding project has completed fiscal maps in just about half of the states in the country in the next 3 years they want to have all states done,
uh, in most states, the partner is somebody like us, uh, some sort of advocacy nonprofit organization, but that's not always the case, notable exceptions are the the children's funding project in uh in Maryland partners directly with the governor's office and in several states such as Kentucky partners with offices of early childhood development, um, because of, uh, priorities to understand what's happening in that space in those states, uh,
you can see we just completed ours, um, just earlier this year, uh, we were part of Wave 3, and that work continues. OK, now we get to the fun part to actually demonstrate the fiscal map, um, the fiscal map is hosted on something called Power BI, which is Microsoft's platform for doing this kind of dashboards. So if I was to give you that web address, the URL for that, it's really, really complicated. Uh, the easy thing to remember is if you go to our
website, which is just Aar advocates.org right on the home page with this red arrow appears at the bottom. There's a link to the fiscal map. That's the easiest way to get there. And so let me show you some of that. Uh, here's our website again and there is blue box here, Arkansas fiscal map. And that it will take you to, as I said, this really complicated web address that shows you the,
the, the actual platform that hosts our fiscal map. OK, um, When you click on that link, you end up right on a home screen, and the home screen gives you some background information, uh, important for you here is the fiscal years that this covers 2019 through 2023, so it gets us through sort of the most recent published data, uh, there is an effort every 3 years to update this, so data will lag a little bit, but, um, but we'll keep
updating, uh, and also, uh, we call children and youth fiscal map because this ages 0 through 24. So we're tracking funding for that entire age group, um, and then, uh, on the left you have a table of contents, which is actually buttons to navigate through, um, that's great, but I also say at the bottom here, you have page 1 of 6, those arrows are gonna be even easier to navigate through. So if I just go to the 2nd page, you come to the summary page.
Lots of data here, kind of the 30,000 ft view, um, and, uh, it tracks overall spending, um, for, uh, children and youth across these fiscal years, as I mentioned before, um, as well as where that funding is coming from, whether it's federal or special relief funding during the pandemic or state general fund or state special revenue, uh, and then out outcome category, things like are educating children or are we
working on their employability, making them healthy, safe, and supported, uh, versus levels of intervention, uh, these may be, you know, unclear is what they mean, but the good thing about this map is when you hover over just about anything, it will tell you. So if I say employable for instance, let's see, it should pop up. OK, it's, it's in the main part of the graph, um, This is see this outgoing
category that I'm highlighting here is um supported and connected, and it gives you a definition, provide financial, emotional, and social support to help children and youth be more connected to their families and communities, uh, likewise, if I go to intervention and I say positive development funds focused on supporting the development needs of children and youth from cradle to career to make sure they're thriving throughout that period. So you get a lot of uh uh definitionial information when
you click on stuff, you can also click on stuff to actually select it, so if I wanted to just go to state funding, I could click here and you note that the red becomes highlighted because that's the level of state funding and the graph changes and you'll see, uh, what, which I think is really good news that over the past fiscal years we've seen this increase in the total state funding for children and youth in the state of Arkansas. Very good. Um, and so, and I could also say federal and we
see federal relief funding was basically 0 and then peaked to about $3 billion in 2021 and then back to zero, because that's specific category that that tracking there. Um, and I can always do control to select multiple, so if I want to go back to select all of them. I get back to. Where I was before the original, um, and what's at the bottom here is a listing of all funds funding streams that support
children and youth, and so there you can see if I was to scroll down here, there are many, many, many of them, right? So nobody's really gonna spend time scrolling through all that, but I can actually search, so if I wanted to say, for example, childcare can enter it here and search it. You'll see everything changes because now it's Just summarizing stuff that has uh funding streams that have childcare in there. And now if I go through, I can see national school lunch program, and I could read a definition of what
that is, better chance program had start, childcare and development block grant funding, childcare mandatory and matching funds of the childcare and development fund, and so we have these different funds that are going to specifically support childcare. OK, so that's sort of the summary page. I go to the next page and it lists all funding streams, so apparently in Arkansas, there are 413 funding streams that support children. Um, but over here, I can filter
through, so eligible services and programs right now, it has everything, uh, checked. I wanna take that out and let's say I just wanted to look at something like nutrition. I can check nutrition support. Good. And then you see it drops to 25 funding streams and I get the list of all of them, and let's say I wanted to say only state funding so I can do both special revenue and general revenue and you see now it drops to 6 and we've got school food
services, we've got hunger Coalition, School for the Deaf, cash operations, etc. and so we can see those state funds that go to support nutrition for this age group. So that's really, really handy, um, and I And if I wanted to know more, say about school food services, I can highlight it and click here for more information, and it gives you sort of a focus in on that fund and what it's been doing over the past several years, and you see it's, for example, flat appropriations for
the past 5 fiscal years. And this gets me back. And then, Uh, page 4, we have the age analysis. This is kind of similar, you get all funding streams, but now it's by fiscal year so I can select the year, in this case, the latest 2023. It's got these neat slide bars where I can change the age that I'm interested in. And you'll see a lot of other
things. So for age 12 to 15, there actually are 264 funding streams and $7.6 billion of total funding. Um, and so if I'm interested in these funding streams specifically by age, I can look there. And then finally, the, the page 5 of 6. Really is a budget comparison and that is what is spent on youth versus overall spending in the state. And so you see the red is children and youth funding, um, what, what's really
handy is this part down here that, um, 4.29k per child and youth funding. This is a summary, um, but if you take out the public school fund we get about $2000 per kid in funding, so that and and that's, you know, fiscal year 2023, general. And special revenue together. And the last page is simply a methodology page that lists how we went about this, um, I will say the Children's funding project has done similar methodology across all states so
that we can actually do some comparison across the states as they complete them. Uh, let me get back to this really quickly. So, um, I'm sure you're thinking through this, there are some of, uh, the uses that, that, you know, you, you, you come to mind as you're, you're sitting there and listening to this, um, this is just some of the things that we've thought through here, uh, for example, impact analysis. I said before, can we link changes in funding to actual outcomes,
so what impact is that funding making? Um, can we use it for strategic public financing decisions, so where are those shortfalls? what kind of funding do we need? Uh, I really like the idea of cross-state comparisons to see what's happening in Arkansas and and other similar states. Um, that sort of thing, and on the comparisons, here's just a quick example that I pulled from comparison data from surrounding nearby, maybe similar states. Uh, just look to see how we're spending tan of funds, right?
And there's quite a variability here, so if you look at Texas, it's primarily doing the child welfare services, um, out of 10 of funds, where for Arkansas it's more pre-K Head Start and basic assistance, um, that's not saying there's a right or wrong way of investing tan of funds just if we're curious what other states are doing, um, as we're thinking about those decisions. Or maybe looking through, as I mentioned before, nutrition support, uh, we're kind of in the range, if you look at total per capita across similar
states, um, but Texas really pops, right? Almost, uh, I don't know, 50% more than we invest in nutrition, um, I haven't had time to investigate this, but I'd be really curious to see what exactly Texas is doing in this area. So, um, why is it an outlier compared to the other, or other surrounding states, for example. OK, that's it. I'm happy to take any questions or any
Speaker 12
19:07
thoughts, comments about the fiscal map, Senator Sullivan, you're recognized. Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you for your
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
19:17
presentation. So you started out by saying, you know, we're interested in children. I'm just wondering who's not. Yes,
Speaker 13
19:24
I, I, I did mean the royal weir or the collective way, yes, I think we're all interested in that's why I'm very happy to be
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
19:33
here to share this. OK, and you know, you talk a lot about funding and comparing different states so when, when you
look at the funding streams for Arkansas. Do you compare the same funding streams that other states? In other words, what they may be funding things that
we are uh we're funding things they are are the different levels is that a so when you show the graph with various levels of
Speaker 13
19:58
Spending are the categories the same. Uh, as you might imagine, um, States use very, very different a broad range of funding streams to fund the accurate is the graph then? Yeah, it's accurate by broad categories. So the, uh, children's funding projects using the same methodology to put these into the broad
categories. So if you wanted to and you had time and maybe a, a, a paid undergrad researcher. You could, um, sit through and then break those out and look exactly what those funds look like in Texas versus. to
Speaker 31
20:33
Uh, sometimes that's informative, yes. I, you also mention, so I guess it's a part of
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
20:38
that, uh, you know, Arkansas is really worked hard on school choice and other issues like that, is that and DHS funding per child, is all that in our graph?
Yes, so we're we're including all of that and other and the graphs for
similar questions so I assume other states are, have a similar breakdown of how they categorize spending. Absolutely. OK, do y'all spend, you know, one of the research shows that one of the most highest outcomes for kids is whether they live in a two parent stable home. Do you collect that data? Uh, yes,
Speaker 34
21:18
we, we do through the kids count, uh, database that's
Speaker 13
21:23
available at our website. We do have data on what family households look like, absolutely. OK, can you get that to
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
21:30
the chair, please, Mr. Chair, may I ask that, uh, Ms. Chair, sorry, with that we get that data and get that specifically on
two parent homes and what Arkansas looks like since you corrected the gender, yes, yes, we can do
Chair
Unverified
21:49
can. OK, I'm sorry. Thank you. That's
OK. Thank you. Representative Springer, you recognize. Thank
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
21:58
you, Madam Chair. Good morning and thank you for being here and thank you for this information, um, um, I heard you say that, um, Arkansas has 14413 funding streams that support children. Can you tell us what that, what that total amount equals 2. yes, I'd have to go back to the map, um, but
Speaker 44
22:25
Yeah, I can do that pretty quickly. So Let me clear all these.
Speaker 13
23:02
Oh, I see. Childcare is still in there, OK. Uh, 8.8 billion. And that, and that's. That would include federal and state dollars. One more
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
23:16
question, Madam Chair, and then, um, over on the page where you talk about nutrition, support. And as we look at those numbers, state funding for uh nutrition support, Arkansas being way at the bottom. I see we only fund
it at 3, you were kind by saying double, looks like it's about 4 or 5 times the amount as in Louisiana and Texas, and I, I'm, I'm, I don't wanna put you on the spot, but do you think that there's a correlation between the amount that the
state provides compared it to the other states as to
Speaker 13
23:53
why we're where we are at this point. Well, obviously providing nutrition support would move more. Uh Children and families out of food insecurity in the state.
Yeah, I was looking at the total per capita, which includes federal money, right? And so that gets us a little bit closer, but yes, on the state side, you're right, it's a lot less than say Louisiana even. That's right. So that's something that we need to take,
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
24:16
probably need to take a look at Arkansas, our state, wouldn't you agree? Yes, it never hurts to take a look. Representative Bentley, he recognized. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you for
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
24:31
being here today, um, just looking at the funding here and
um when we're looking at 2021 and the big, the big increase there. Was that due to COVID funding? Is that what we had, it's federal funding. That's exactly right, there's a couple of questions, uh, chairwoman, if that's OK. Getting back to Senator Sullivan's question, which again, I, I support, we know that families, kids thrive when they have families when they're in with, with their family, their parents, do we, are we tracking what we're doing to support families as a whole anywhere here that you know about. So what are
states doing to keep families together to support. Families as a whole or anything we're doing,
Speaker 13
25:07
not specifically with this fiscal map because it's really targeted towards children and youth, um, there may be some funding streams in their programs that I'm not personally aware of that do support families in general. Uh, it would take some, uh, further investigation of those funding streams. OK, final question, Chairman, if that's OK. Uh,
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
25:26
the last one I'm looking on the nutritional support. Are you looking at there, we do some, uh, fun. with farm to school, with our childcare to help get some
extra, uh, food there, uh, fruits and veggies that we get through that funding stream to help the kids that are in childcare and kids that are in pre-K, so is that added in there as well? I
Speaker 13
25:49
do know that there were some appropriations through the Department of Agriculture that were included here because specifically they were targeting children and
Speaker 12
25:55
youth. Off the top of my head, I don't remember exactly what those looked like, but I, I'll double check to see that those are included. And then, uh, cause we do Wick, so are
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
26:04
you saying that Texas adds more state funding into WIC. Is that what you're saying
on this? I'm really interested in this nutrition support thing. So could we get some more details from you on what they're doing statewide that we're not doing with Wick because those, I thought those were all federal funds, so thank you. Representative Duke,
Chair
Unverified
26:22
you're recognized. Uh, thank you, Madam Chair, and thank
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
26:28
you, sir, for being here and for your presentation. Uh, I've got two quick questions. I think they're quick questions if that's OK. Um, my first one is in all the different data that you're collecting. Are you collecting, and I, and I don't
see this very often in places. Are you collecting data, um, that in that empowers parents. To stay home rather than going to get their
kids in childcare at the pre-K levels, or is it targeted for what can we do to increase people in daycare. Um, I. I don't think we really make that distinction, so I
Speaker 13
27:03
don't think. I mean, I don't, I, I think it'd be hard to reveal that in this data. Um, and.
I'm not specifically investigating. What the state is doing to, on
Speaker 12
27:19
one side or the other of that equation. Uh, we have looked into the affordability issue, quality issue around early childhood education, things like that. Um, but I don't know specifically a programming that is targeting. Uh, keeping children and families instead
Speaker 14
27:39
of going to daycare, for example. Thank you.
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
27:44
Um, the reason, that's probably the reason why I asked that is I don't hear a lot of conversations about that when we talk about policy and initiatives to help kids and oftentimes I hear from constituents and parents that, you know, they would like to have the ability for one of them to stay home, particularly in those um early years before kindergarten, but we seem to always focus on how do we get them into pre-K and even lower and lower. So, um, I, I hope someone somewhere finds the window of looking at that data too. Because I think finding solutions for that for parents as a state level ways that we can have policies that help
empower them to stay home, which kind of goes into my next one, when you guys are looking through some of this, um, we'll talk about
delicate food security and different things like that. Again, um, do you guys, andlyze the policies that are empowering rather than the government coming in and providing the services, trying to find the ways to keep more money in the home, the pockets of the taxpayers so that they're able to provide all of those. things is that Um, something that collecting in the data or looking at or trying
to advocate for, for the children and families.
Speaker 12
28:49
Yeah, I mean, I think there's an appropriate balance there, right? Um, uh, there is a role for government
Speaker 13
28:55
to provide services and programs, um, and, you know, uh I know legislative bodies struggle with what, what is the appropriate amount of taxes and from what sources to support those governmental programs. Um, I, off the top of my head, I think I would be super interested in the research design to think about, um,
How, uh, tax rates and tax collected effects certain learning, learning and, uh, health and, uh, educational like outcomes that were really interested in. Um I'd love to work with you on that
Speaker 12
29:32
if you have some ideas about how to collect that data and, and think it through. Well, I think that that gives a kind of a
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
29:41
bigger picture because sometimes we focus, um, even as a body,
we focus on what can the government can do as a solution where oftentimes, at least I
believe other people can have, if we can return money to them, if we can empower them to have better choices by making um what they take home pay, and those types of things to stay there or to be able to reduce barriers so that they can make choices that doesn't seem to be part of the conversation anymore, at least not in government, but I hear it a lot at home. about, you know, I want, I would like to be able to stay home, but I can't. I would like to be able to do this, but I have to work to pay this, and, um, I think we need to hear those voices of what people are saying on some other options and not
just look at these pieces. So, yeah, I, I would be happy to, happy to have further conversation with you about
Speaker 76
30:32
that. Thank you. Thank you. Senator Sullivan, I appreciate you getting back
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
30:34
in the queue. You recognized. Yeah, sorry, just a short question. So
you talked a lot about outcomes in the first one. I didn't see a lot of outcomes data in the report, I assume that's on your
website. Is there a direct link between the amount of funding and outcomes. So as we see funding go up to your outcomes go up, and is that in your charts? Uh, so that's the next step of
Speaker 13
30:56
our work, right? So this tracks funding levels, things like the kids count data book do track outcomes. So how that varies with with funding levels I think um is
Speaker 12
31:06
an important question to answer, and I think there's a lot of research out there on your website or in the report.
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
31:13
So you're asking you, you wanna relate that we need more
money. But that doesn't necessarily equate to better outcomes. We don't have that data, correct? So let me phrase it a different
Speaker 13
31:28
way. If, if we are unhappy with educational outcomes, right? And other states are maybe doing better. We could look through these tools and say, all right. Something that states that do well are doing is putting more money behind something and maybe some states are doing other things that's
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
31:48
not just money, more of the committee's time. They, they impact though of directly connecting funding to outcomes is important and I hope in
future testimony before this committee that you'll be able to link that funding to outcomes. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Representative Pilkington, you're recognized. Over here. Uh, thank
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
32:12
you, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, a little bit going off of Representative Duke's question, um, and I don't see anything about this, but you know, this has been something we've talked a lot about. It's the falling birth rate in the United States and as I'm sure you're well since 2018, Arkansas has been below replacement rate. I think we have around 1.8 or
1.76. So I'm, I'm curious to, I mean, we see all this spending on children and, and trying to have better outcomes for them, but then yet we also see a falling birth rate, um, and people having less and less children, um, can you speak to that? And if not, that's OK. I'd just be curious maybe next time you come, you could kind of talk to us about it, but it's it's something obviously, I think, you know, we worry about the family, but also just there's an economic impact as well if we don't have enough people paying into Social Security and Medicare, uh, that's, you know,
it's troubling, and then of course, as you have a lot of these communities in Arkansas are fading away because there's not enough children to be born to, you know, basically take up the roles of those. who are leaving us. So if you have anything I'd love to hear it, but if not, maybe that could be a
Speaker 12
33:18
subject for the next meeting. Yes, and Representative, I'd love to talk with you more about that and more specifics that you're interested in, um, for my own personal world, so some of you know this, I've spent 28 years in higher ed, um, you can't be around higher ed without talking about the
demographic cliff, and because there are less kids, there are less people going to school. And so what does that mean for our state institutions and funding, so that is a variable that needs to be considered, um, and, uh, you know. education funding formula for K through 12, all of that. Is based on, you know, per capita kind of of, of numbers, right? And so, um, I think that obviously is a consideration when it comes to funding decisions. McGruder, you
Representative Jessie McGruder
Unverified
34:04
recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the uh time, the work that you put in, uh, I appreciate you caring about the youth. Uh, my question, uh, in regards to uh the nutrition, uh, in my area, if I'm not mistaken, we only have uh one summer food program. Uh, I'm, I'm wondering if you can speak to the issue of, uh, is there a funding issue or why the lack of resources, uh, and in County specifically or in adult as far as food
nutrition programs over the summer and those uh after school at risk. School programs. Yeah, I
Speaker 13
34:43
think, um. You know, while I can't speak specifically to your county, uh, obviously, um, increased funding means increased nutrition. And
Speaker 12
34:51
so, uh, I think yes, funding can be paired with educational programs and other opportunities, but I think there's a direct link between the amount of
Speaker 14
35:00
funding that goes into things like summer nutrition programs and and
Chair
Unverified
35:07
lifting children out of food insecurity. Thank you. Seeing no other
questions, thank you for your presentation today. Thank you. Appreciate it. Next on our agenda, um, we have an annual report from Director Pulley from the Children's Advocacy Centers. And if you will recognize yourself.
Speaker 88
35:42
Introduce yourself, you'll be recognized. Elizabeth Pulley, executive director of the Children's Advocacy Centers of Arkansas. You're right. Uh, children's advocacy Centers of Arkansas is a nonprofit organization that supports the growth, development, and sustainability of Arkansas's network of 32 child advocacy
centers and 64 multidisciplinary teams throughout our state. We provide training, mentorship, technical assistance and resources to strengthen the coordinated response to child abuse, neglect around the state of Arkansas. What makes this unique is our MDT professionals from child child welfare, DCFS, law enforcement, uh, crimes against children division, part of Arkansas State Police prosecutors, medical personnel,
mental health professionals, all working together to support child victims and their families. Arkansas is a part of a national framework where every state has CACs and MDTs. Some of our key accomplishments over the last year are strengthening state partnerships for a more unified child abuse response. I'm going to talk about that a little bit more in a minute, and #2, improved
quality of care through defined service models streamlining our workflows, standardizing our data and expanding our peer reviews statewide. Uh, this past year we've launched a ide effort for CAC's best practices, ensuring that services are, are equal across the state to promoting innovation and supporting growth, a child that has been abused in Ashley County should
have the same top quality services as a child that has been abused in Pulaski County. So we have been looking at that and ensuring that our services are equal across the. state. We've onboarded and mentored 5 new executive directors in the last year, and we've delivered 221 trainings in 2024, reaching professionals from Arkansas State Police, DCFS prosecutors and many, many more,
all focused on child abuse response in the healing. RCACs are child-friendly trauma-informed facility that provides free. services to children and families affected by abuse, they're referred from law enforcement, DCFS and CACD. And just a reminder of our core services, forensic interviews. Advocacy, medical exams, and mental health therapy. Many of
our centers also provide prevention services where they go out to schools to do body safety, also teach, uh, administrators, the mandated reporter laws and understand what they need to do to call the hotline. Uh, and just some of the impact our CECs have made in the last year. We served 10,0077 children statewide through our CAC services. We opened a new CC in Polk County, so it serves Polk and Scott.
And our El Dorado CAC reach uh achieved full national accreditation. And so that's a big deal in the state of Arkansas that all of our sinners, except our new sinners, um, are fully accredited by a national organization. Just moving on to our multi-disciplinary team, our, it's a collaborative team to ensure a coordinated trauma-informed focus to child abuse cases. The MDTs meet regularly to review cases, share
information, and plan interventions together. Some of are highlights for the past year for our multidisciplinary team is we developed a first statewide MDT protocol. We gathered all the partners from DCFS, state police, prosecutors, medical and mental health, and created our first uh statewide protocol with input from every partner. This is a standout achievement, few other states have an extensive and extensive
guide like this, and it's a 140 pages, so I just kind of brought to show you what we have worked on collectively, um, and collaboratively with all of the different partnering agencies to actually, this is the state of Arkansas's response to child abuse guide with every agency involved in this. First time ever and something to be very proud of is the state of Arkansas, and again, not every state has something like this. So at the national level,
they're even looking to see what we are doing. in Arkansas, so very proud of that accomplishment in the last year. Our MDTs reviewed over 10,000 cases of child abuse, um, in the state of Arkansas to protect, to protect children. Um, if it's OK, I would like to invite director Tiffany Wright to come join me. She notes the introduction drill.
We wanted to give you a perspective of our partnership and working together, um, a nonprofit working with state agencies, DCFS, state police, prosecutors across the state and how effective that collective response. We've worked really hard on this in the last few years, and this is the first time ever I um really feel like we have very strong partnerships. We worked together, uh, we reviewed data together and look.
target areas, what's going on in a specific area to provide feedback, uh, and then we compare our notes, like what can we do better to ensure that we have a better responsive child abuse, uh, in that specific area, uh, and we are also in the process of coordinated trainings together so that there's a consistent messaging from our staff of what, how we respond to child abuse by agency and how
We can do that collectively, uh, with our partnerships across the state.
Speaker 96
42:42
Hi, good morning, Tiffany Wright, um, director for the division of Children and Family Services. So
Speaker 98
42:46
like Elizabeth said, um, we have been working really hard as a team, um, to ensure that children are making it, children and youth are making it to the child advocacy centers to be interviewed and obtain that high quality, um, forensic interview that they may need, so we have a good understanding of what's going on with that family, um, and then
in the bigger picture, getting that involvement from the MDT team, which allows some collaborative decision making on how we're responding to that family and what services that they may or may not need, um, even if the
Speaker 99
43:19
investigation is unfounded, so how do we Wrap them in prevention services, um, within the community to still
Speaker 98
43:26
meet their needs, um, in case there's something else going on with the family. This is definitely
Speaker 100
43:33
not an easy, but it's worth it and
we're trying to figure out how we do that together. Thank you. Ready for questions? OK. I
Chair
Unverified
43:42
didn't want to rush you. Uh, Representative Bentley, he recognized. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, ladies, for being here and thank
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
43:49
you for all you're doing for our kids. I can't tell you how much. I appreciate your hard work. Um, just a real quick question. So when we're looking at, I know one of the biggest, one of the big goals that we've got is right when those kids get done, that when they get to court, um, they're able to get through court and to get some results for them. Do you, do you track that to say or do you do it
after, you know, so. We got to court and this happened or that didn't happen, do we see what we're doing to improve that in the future or I'm just curious on that Elizabeth
Speaker 88
44:17
we don't really track that. We have some ways that we can pull that data, but sometimes, you know, the court system is a slow process and so having it perfectly tracked would be a goal to really work with the prosecutors to come back to see how our data works with their data and what that looks like, but I definitely
think that's a goal for the future. Great. Thank you.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
44:39
One quick follow up just, um, I know we've done a lot with the Hope Pub in Sebastian County. Were you guys included in that when we were, um, OK, great. Thank you. I'm just really excited about what's going on there. I hope we can spread it across the state. Thank you. Representative Springer, you're recognized.
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
44:58
Thank you, Madam Chair and good morning. Good to see you all here, um, I, you spoke about the Arkansas MDT program and I see major jurors here with the
Arkansas State Police. Can you tell us what role he's in, what his role is with the
this committee because I see him here and he's here and he's not at the table to tell him,
Speaker 88
45:19
tell us what part does he play in this can invite him up here. I didn't want to scare him off before
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
45:26
his, uh, presentation too we know Major Drew,
Speaker 88
45:29
he does good. Well, we have a great relationship with Major Drew and um Crimes Against Children Division also a
lot of their investigators across the state to bring their children to our centers, and some of them are even housed at our centers and so that provides a great relationship that we have, you know, his team sees the really bad child abuse in the state. The, the sexual abuse in a lot of. those kids over uh 50% are brought to our centers, uh, so that they can receive those
direct services. So, uh, Major Drew is sits on our MDT oversight committee and have played a role in developing this protocol, so we definitely value CACD and DCFS and all others that were involved in this process. I guess after all that, I don't have anything to say. Uh, we've been working
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
46:31
with him from the beginning. We've always try to use them as as much as possible.
It definitely helps with the uh court portion of it because we get those interviews, uh, recorded and we can present those and not put that type of pressure on the, on the victim. It also reduces how many times they get get interviewed. Uh. Being a part of the CAC and the MDT also helps us with because we're more concerned with. I don't want to say we're not concerned about the well-being of the kids. Uh, but the investigators at CACD get their enjoyment from making sure that the person is violating those kids gets gets what's coming to them. Uh,
that's real big to us and being in that environment in the CAC, uh, we can make sure that those kids get the, uh, the follow-up care and the things that they need to get to make sure that they're OK, and that that comes it plays a big role in in us being a part of that.
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
47:25
Madam Chair, I just want to follow. I just want to follow up and say Miss Pully, nothing against you, we see them very often, almost on
a monthly basis and you don't come before us very often, so thank you too for your services. Any other questions by committee?
Chair
Unverified
47:42
Representative Henley, you recognized? Thank you and good morning. Glad to
Representative Dolly Henley
Unverified
47:47
see you. I was curious about the map. It's uh page 8 in my folder, um, when I look at services provided in Southwest Arkansas, is that just because you are not located in Southwest Arkansas? Are you looking at a specific county.
Representative Dolly Henley
Unverified
48:13
uh, Hempstead, Howard, uh, Seve, there's nothing. Little River, there's nothing. Pike, there's no
Speaker 91
48:22
do have a CAC in and Nevada County. We also have a CAC Nevada Nevada, sorry.
Speaker 88
48:28
Uh, I'm from Pulaski County, so. I'm sorry. And, uh, but this is an area of interest to us of how to best, uh, help coordinate the
response, um, especially Hempstead uh Howard Pike severe Little River. A lot of times that some of those counties, those rural areas will will drive to Texarkana or to our Arkadelphia Center in Clark County, but we are looking here and then also in other parts of the state that needs some help and have a better access to services. So those are some um questions and things that we're working on
internally to ensure that kids have access and we don't want them to drive. I mean, a lot of times that they don't have transportation, we can provide gas cards as needed, but this is an area of interest to us of what can we do? Is there services needed every day? is it services once a week, what would that look like? And so really working with the communities to figure that out. Thank you. I would appreciate you taking a, uh, a serious look
Representative Dolly Henley
Unverified
49:46
at that and access from rural counties to Texrikana and Miller County. It's not easy from those rural counties, just to let you know. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you all for
Chair
Unverified
49:57
your report today. Um, we're gonna take just a little veer from the agenda, and I'm gonna recognize Representative Grahamlick for a point of personal privilege. Uh, thank you very much, uh, Madam Chair. Thank you committee
Speaker 121
50:09
for your time. Uh, I just moment of personal privilege today. Today
Speaker 123
50:12
we have, um, uh, the executive director of Region 8 Senior
Centers, uh, Deanna Rice, uh, in the audience today, she's here today just to advocate for the funding for our senior centers in the state. Um, I did, I spoke with her a few, a few weeks ago, um, just talking about like, The dire straits of some of our senior centers are are in, um, I hear reports all the time not off individuals like having a paper on the window saying we can only feed 10 number of people today, and, you know, so, um, I, I, I spoke with her a couple of weeks ago and she made the point that they had the same funding, uh, today that they did
in 2014, um, and somehow our our we're able to survive, but it's definitely tough, so, um, just as a comment, something we look forward to in the future is we need to figure out how to continue to fund these organizations to um. help our seniors. So, uh, Dianna, thank you so much for your work and I just want
Speaker 4
51:07
to acknowledge that you're here today. Thank you. Our next report on the agenda is from the infant and
Chair
Unverified
51:11
child Deview, their annual report. We believe we have a panel coming. If you will all introduce yourself, yourselves, then you will be recognized.
Speaker 129
51:36
Good morning, Laura Taylor, Arkansas Children's. Good morning, Sherry Williamson. I'm here as the state ICDR panel member. Good
Kevin Cleghorn
Unverified
51:45
morning, Kevin Cleghorn. I'm the chairman for the state panel for the infant and Child Deview. So you are recognized for your report. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, committee. The mission in of the Arkansas Infant Child Death Review, uh, known as the ICDR is
to review all unexpected infant and child deaths in the state of Arkansas established in 2010.
The ICDR consists of 11 regional teams of volunteers that cover all 75 counties in the state. The team reviews unexpected deaths of Arkansas children ages 0 to 17 years as required by Act 1818 of 2005. Each year, an annual report is compiled by the ICDR team coordinated by Arkansas Children's, which is contracted through the Arkansas Department of Health contributors to this report include coroners, law enforcement, first responders, forensic pathologist, death scene investigators, regional
ICDR teams and members of the ICDR state panel. So the annual report was completed in December of 2024 and includes deaths that occurred in 2022. So the total number of deaths in 2022022 from 0 to 17 years of age was 453 deaths, however, 255 of those deaths were were ruled as natural deaths, so did not fall under the purview of the ICDR's reviews. Uh, there were a
total of 100, 198 deaths that met the criteria for the ICDR review. 26 of those
deaths were either under criminal investigation and being prosecuted at the time and therefore could not. be reviewed under Act 1818, any of those deaths that are under adjudication cannot be reviewed. So Um,
the ICDR teams reviewed the remaining 100, 172 deaths and are reflected in this annual report these deaths will include 87 accidents that include motor
vehicle accidents, um, overdoses, poisoning, or rather accidental drownings, poisonings, and overdoses asphyxious fires and other related injuries, uh, 13 suicides which were. Um, including the poisonings and overdoses again asphyxia and firearms. 9 homicides there were a total of 26 homicides in the state of Arkansas. However, only 9 of those were able to be um reviewed and reported by firearms, 63 undetermined causes
of death and sudden unexpected infant death infants under one year of age account for the most deaths in those in all age groups representing more than 1/3 of the deaths reviewed in 2022. The majority of infant deaths were due to unsafe sleep environment. This includes co-sleeping and in an adult bed or um the infant being placed to sleep on their side or their stomach in another unsafe fashion among motor vehicle accidents. Or motor vehicle related death
injuries, all groups, uh, safety restraints, seat belts, boosters, car seats were not used in more than half of these cases. Um, in 2022, a total of 19 infants and children in Arkansas died from unintentional drownings. This is almost twice as many as the previous
year. And in our reviews, it was determined the lack of adequate adequate supervision was noted in many of those cases of the children who died from unintentional poisonings and overdoses, 5 of the 9 were due
to fentanyl, which is an increase from one the previous year. Begin beginning on page 32 of your
report, you will find a list of recommendations from the ICDR state panel and the regional teams. This report is meant to serve as a resource for organizations and agencies working to reduce the number of injury-related deaths across the state, and it is the hopes of everyone involved in the infant and child, uh, child death review process that these findings helped that God work.
So in closing, ICDR data are collected from multiple disciplines at a case review and entered into the National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention database. The data is analyzed to generate an overview and an in-depth annual report on the cases reviewed by the local ICDR teams. Key data entered into the NCFRP database are derived from death and birth certificates, child health records, autopsy reports, coroner's reports, sudden unexplained infant death investigation reports, toxicology reports witness
interviews on scene investigation reports and any other documentation that teams may identify as helpful in a review. In order to make effective preventative recommendations so that our children. Have a better chance for survival in the future. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any
questions, Representative Bentley, who recognized. Thank you,
Chair
Unverified
56:36
Chairman. Thank you all for being here today and I'm just, uh, I'm really, uh, concerned about the
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
56:42
increase in drowning in our state, you know, passed
legislation to require parents to know where we can get swimming lessons and to just encourage them to be more safe about swimming, but a vast majority of Arkansans themselves don't know how to swim and they can't teach their children if they don't. So I want you guys to be aware, there is a group called Every Child a Swimmer. They're based out of Florida, but that mom lost her child at 18 months age, and so they give a scholarships to, um, folks that are doing swimming instruction, so those folks that are low income cannot pay it, but it's a ridiculous. a high amount for swimming lessons in Arkansas. I just want you to know that I'm going to work and see what we can do with
a public-private partnership to make sure we can get some lower. I mean, when I was a child, Red Cross went everywhere and taught children. They don't do that anymore and we had lifeguards at every all of our state parks and lifeguards because. teenagers who need a job this summer and they were trained, but we no longer do that. So maybe you can help me push for that to get the Red Cross to do that once again because I I really needed in our state. We want everybody to get outside, right? We're a state that's too sedentary when our kids get, get off their games to get outside and swim, but we need them to do some lessons. So if you guys would check in to that with me. I would really appreciate your
help to push that, that moving forward. And the other quick thing is when we're talking about SIDS, um, Data shows that children that are breastfed 100% of the time have 80% less chance of SIDS, so that's another area that I think we really need to push in our state. We're kind of at a standstill with that. So, um, there's been a lot of advances with breast pumps and all those things to help it easier for moms to go back to work, but I think it's something we really, really need to continue to focus on, um, because we, that's a huge amount to me, 80% of those kids will not die of sIs if we can get them breastfeeding. So
again, a push on that would be appreciated. Thank you all for being here today. I know it's not the best topic, but it's really important. For us to do what we can in the state, on the state level to make things better. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
Kevin Cleghorn
Unverified
58:29
you for that information. That is an agency we were not aware of. Thank you very much. Representative Duke, you're recognized. All right,
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
58:42
there we go. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you all for the information and for the work that you do. Um, I have just a couple of questions, um, just have a little bit more information on when you say, um,
in this report, inadequate supervision. If it is related to drugs or alcohol, would that fall into the criminal or would that be listed here in inadequate supervision if the parents are incapacitated for one of those reasons. It would actually it could actually
Kevin Cleghorn
Unverified
59:06
fall under either one of those categories and, and if it was if it was a criminal case that was being adjudicated, we would not have that that data in this report so in for this report it would actually fall under the ones that uh that were considered accidental lack of
supervision as far as, um, you know, with the pools of the overdoses, it would. It would fall under that, that different category with Laura or Sherry may. I
Speaker 139
59:34
Also, the division of Children and Family Services has an external death and near death, um, statewide panel that would review that death, um, they review any of the, the child deaths that are the calls that come into the hotline and all child deaths are supposed to be. Um, called into the hotline, so
Director Wright would likely be able to speak to that if you had questions specific to it, but those, those deaths are reviewed. They're just reviewed by a different group than this group. Yeah,
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
1:00:01
I just was curious because I know one of the things that I'm hearing, um, from school people and personnel is, um, they are seeing the impacts of parents, even just dropping their kids off and smelling the marijuana as they get out of the car and stuff. And so I'm just curious if that if we're seen, if that's contributing to some of this. in a way differently than what it had in the past. So maybe we can visit about that. The other
question that I had on the and I again I don't know if you have this information or not, but the improperly restrained on the car seats. Is it,
um, can, can you tell a little bit more about what it is? Is it they aren't buckling them up, they're putting them in the car seat, or are they just not doing it tight enough and or all the what's the issue or is there anything that's prevailing issue on that one. It's a combination of
Chair
Unverified
1:00:46
all of those and uh many of these deaths were also, um, in our teenage age group, um, in, in the report, it will break down whether or not the passenger was
a, was a passenger or a driver, um, so it's a combination of children not being properly restrained in a car seat, not using a booster when they need one, not using a seat belt, not using a seatbelt correctly or maybe they put the strap behind them. There's just a wide range of things that are not being done correctly, um. But having a proper car seat installed. Using it correctly every single time, and then those older children being able to stay in the backseat as long as they can, but always wearing their seatbelts too. So it really has
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
1:01:27
just been a combination of everything. Are the 1 to 2, the 1 to 4 year old range is there are
the issues that are occurring there. Is it people not putting them in car seats or is it people not You know, tightening them up enough or having them adequately installed. It seems like it's a little bit easier
than it used to be, but I also, um, you know, I I I I don't, I wonder if they're tightening them up as much as they should be because the little one cries, right? Uh, and, and again, with all of the cases, we, we've really seen
Speaker 144
1:01:58
both, both, OK, thank you. Representative Springer, you recognized. Thank you,
Chair
Unverified
1:02:03
Madam Chair. I guess my question
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
1:02:08
is probably for you, uh, and thank you all for this report, very good information, uh, uh, I guess I'm inquiring about, I've been here since 2020. This seems like I, I don't recall us having received this type of information before, and it's good information. Is this something that's gonna happen
every, look, I see that the data goes back to 2022 and so there this review is in 2024, so is this something new or have I missed something, maybe I'm not. on the meeting, I, I guess it's not new. OK, all right. Annual report. I'm I'm not, I'm not sure how to answer that any other way. All right, maybe I missed the meeting then. Thank you, but it's
good information. Thank you. Representative Pilkington, you recognizedam. Is there any way to get this data broken down by
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:02:58
race and socioeconomic status and income. Many
Chair
Unverified
1:03:05
of the data is broken down by race and gender, um, however, we, when we have small numbers, um, we cannot disclose, um, for example, some of the small numbers of suicides by region, um, we cannot disclose that information. Um, as far as socioeconomic status, um, that has not been included in this report. We do have, um,
oftentimes some background information from um the local teams that as they go through the investigation. but that is not included in this report. Yeah, I think
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:03:37
it would be helpful to include it in this report, you know, even the issue with like co-sleeping, I think a lot of people see that as that's something that's really happens, um, to lower income families, that's kind of a stigma I've heard, whereas, you know, we know that they're well-to do families that have had children die from co-sleeping. And so, I think, you know, showing the data.
I think that helps kind of show that that's not true and that they should take it seriously, but I just, I think for us and trying to, you know, especially when you try to drill down to fix some of these issues. Some of them may be, you know, there's also, you know, cultural issues as well that I think that we need to, to drill down and so just this overarching brush of just, you know, maybe they live in this county, maybe they live in this part. I think we'd have a better understanding of maybe some of the issues if we did have it broken down by some of these demographic, um,
detail, so I just, I, maybe it's just a note that the next report I'd
Chair
Unverified
1:04:37
like to see that. Thank you. Thank you.
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:04:40
Representative Gonzalez Worthen, you recognized. Thank you. um, thank you for the report, and I wanted to ask about, in particular, um, the infant deaths that you described, uh, co-sleeping or sleeping on the side, um. Or stomach, and not, uh, seatbelt. Safety, being in a car seat,
proper usage, um, and I got to thinking about, we have, um, I've heard on the radio and all of you probably have heard, you know, the race car driver from Arkansas that talks about wearing your seatbelt, or you, I think some of you probably have heard that, um, and I'm just wondering if there's a way that we can inform the public through uh public service announcements is just on these very specific things that you, we already know that are happening and, and we need to try to close the gap and having
that available for the public, so when we're You know, listening to the radio, we hear this announcement and it triggers something. Maybe we tell a neighbor that we, that we love and, and deer, you know, in deer, uh, have a very good relationship with and maybe their child is sleeping, you know, incorrectly or, you know, they're co-sleeping. And so just having that, those conversations through public service announcements and then also on top of that, um, having those
available in, in multiple languages, um. Because sometimes it's just, that's all it takes is, oh, I didn't know that. And, um, by having that available, I think we can help reduce that, um, reduce that gap, um, anyway, just, just some questions and wanted to get your thoughts on, on that. Yes, thank you, um, and I
Chair
Unverified
1:06:26
agree, um. As far as um some of the education that is happening
around the state, um, related to safe sleep. Um, it is available in, um, English, Spanish, and Marshallese currently, um, there are still a lot of gaps to fill. I think what's helpful about this report is that it really shines a light on infants who are otherwise healthy, went to sleep healthy and did not wake up, and what we can really help the public understand is that this is a very high risk situation, um, so I couldn't agree with you more. Thank you. Representative Tosh, you're recognized.
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
1:07:03
Thank you Madam Chair. I want to go back to your explanation or your answer a while ago and, and let's talk about your review of these incidents or when this occurs, I understand that if it's a criminal investigation and obviously there's some uh suspicion of foul play that law enforcement would handle it for there, and I understand that you'd probably not be privy to that information, but what I am concerned about or curious about is once, uh, it's, it's not being conducted as criminal
investigation. So then I guess it would come under your review, and that's what you've been discussing with this committee today. During that review, If you see something in there that may be would indicate to you a red flags would go up, that there was something, uh, amiss about this, or maybe there should have been, uh, it should have fallen under a criminal investigation. Uh, I've got to believe that at some point that
has happened and, and you saw something that says, hey, you know, this should be handled by law enforcement. I'm just curious. I've never heard, I, I didn't hear any. testimony today when that occurs, what, what is your course of action? What steps do you take or how do you handle that? Thank you, Representative
Kevin Cleghorn
Unverified
1:08:23
Thompson. In inside the committees, everything that happens inside one of the reviews is a confidential, we have to sign confidentiality clauses so anything that is that is reviewed inside the committee
cannot be taken out except for this report right here, um, in the, that's why the the multidisciplines, the way the the way the the reviews work, it's corners law enforcement, prosecutors when we can get a prosecutor or law enforcement at the committee. committee meetings and, and those reviews when when we're reviewing it. And the prosecutor states stop. He has the authority to stop that, stop the review at that
point in time, and we can close that out, no more review that review has stopped. He can go back and, and, and have law enforcement reopen the case. He cannot disclose anything that happened in that review. But he can stop it and say, we need to have this reopened and at that point law enforcement can go back and hopefully they'll find what we, what we saw, we just cannot legally release that because of the confidentiality, the way the law is written, and I understand that and
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
1:09:32
that explanation makes sense, but a while ago, I was
under the impression that the review was being made by individuals from within your organization that law enforcement and prosecutors were not in that room when that review is being made. I would not ask that question had had I understood that they were present and obviously could take the necessary action, uh, they felt appropriate at that time. So I appreciate your explanation that helps me to understand it. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. Seeing no further questions, thank you for your report today.
Chair
Unverified
1:10:08
Uh, next on the agenda we have the biannual overturned investigations report by Director Wright.
If you'll introduce yourself again, you'll be recognized. Good
Speaker 163
1:10:28
morning, Tiffany Wright, director for the Division of Children and Family Services. Today, I have
Speaker 99
1:10:34
the overturned, um, investigations report. This one is, um, the most recent from
the one I presented, I think a couple weeks ago, um, but just to walk you through this one more time, um, what this report means is we'll just go from Benton County, um, there are 5000, I'm sorry, 5300 reports called into the hotline, 1985. those were accepted for investigation, 311 were found true. That was 15%. The 18 of those were appealed, which is 5%.
A number of appeals of appealed investigations overturned was 3, which is 16% and percentage of true investigations overturned was 1%, and you can go line by line through each county in the state. Um, this is pretty consistent with the same report that I presented, um, last month. Any questions by committee?
Chair
Unverified
1:11:34
Representative Bentley, you recognize? Chairman. Thank you, Tiffany, for being
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:11:42
here today. So of course I immediately go to my district and look at some counties and see, um, we had a pretty high percentage of, um, overturned appeals that were overturned. So is that, and I'm just looking at area two, with Perry County and they're in Saline County, let
Speaker 165
1:11:58
me go to Perry. Yeah, so it's an area too.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:12:02
I'm so good at the whole area because I've got 22 counties in there.
Speaker 99
1:12:07
Yeah, so 1 1.5% of all the investigations that came in were
overturned. Um, sorry, 1.5% of all the investigations found true were overturned for that county. OK,
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:12:20
I guess I, I was just looking at the percentage of appealed investigations overturned was 32%. Is that correct? For the whole area put together. So the 31.8%
Speaker 169
1:12:30
of what we found true was appealed, yes, but then what was upheld, um, I'm sorry, what was overturned was only 1.5, thank you for explaining that for
Speaker 170
1:12:40
me. I appreciate it. You're welcome.
Chair
Unverified
1:12:44
Any other questions? Seeing none. Oh, sorry. Representative Wardlaw, you recognize. Thank you. So
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
1:12:58
the reason that we filter the hotline is, is to help these percentages, correct? Um, no, I don't
Speaker 175
1:13:04
know. I, I don't know what you mean by filter the hotline. So if I call the hotline
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
1:13:10
and I've got a case that I'm reporting on a kid. And then
y'all deem that not to be a real call or not to be a real case and you don't do anything with it. It doesn't go into these numbers, correct? That's correct. That's that's called a screen out.
Speaker 98
1:13:25
So if the report is called into the child abuse hotline. I figured you'd use the right legal term in a minute. Sorry,
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
1:13:30
I'm just a dumb. farmer, but I'm trying to catch on here. I've, I've got some cases in Bradley County that I'm following, so. Yes, sir. So if a report is called into
Speaker 98
1:13:41
the child abuse hotline, and it does not meet criteria to be accepted, it is then what we call screened out
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
1:13:47
report. So the screened out reports, how many of those did you have for each county? Do you have a report with
Speaker 180
1:13:53
those on it? I do not have that with me today, but Major Drew is here and he missed him at the table. I'm sorry. You want
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
1:13:58
to bring him up, Madam Chair, and see if he can answer that. Sure. Major Drew would come introduce.
Speaker 182
1:14:17
Major Jeff Drew, Commander CCD Arkansas State Police. What's the question, sir? Can you walk
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
1:14:21
me through how many screen outs we had for each county. Is there a way you could get me that info?
Speaker 182
1:14:28
Here's the funny part about that. All, all that information is gonna be maintained inside of the, the CRIS system which DHS is is responsible for, so they would actually have to know that I wanted
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
1:14:36
you to say that. So what's weird about that is when I went over to DHS, they blamed it on you. Now that I got you at the table, you're blaming it on them. And this ain't the first time this
has happened to me. I've done this with the health department, and now here. So where can I get that information? How many screen outs
Speaker 182
1:14:57
we've had for each county. So to be perfectly clear, we're responsible for deciding if it will be screened in or accepted or screened out, but it's put into that CRIS system, which we operate, uh, Which DHS is responsible for that system. We can't request anything out of that system without the approval of them. So DHS could put this report together, correct?
Speaker 98
1:15:21
Yes, we can, I can pull out the data of the screen outs, but I can't answer how many today screened out in every part of
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
1:15:28
the state. OK, so can you get that to the chairman, so the committee can have a look at how many screen
Speaker 96
1:15:34
outs we've had for each county in the state? Yes, I just didn't know if Major Drew had it with him because I know he's
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
1:15:40
presenting a quarterly report is what I was meaning this morning if a caller reports a case multiple times within a month's time, would that be reported in that report as multiple screen outs or would that just be one screen out because it's from the same area in the same family.
Speaker 178
1:15:54
that that would be each screen out is, is counted separately. OK, that I need to know that before
Speaker 107
1:16:00
I see the report. Thank you. Now, if you have something that you wanna look into specifically, I'd be more than glad to to go
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:16:16
over it with you. Representative, you recognized. Senator Oh, thank you, Madam Chair, that, that, that doesn't bother me, um, so on the same lines as
Representative Wardlaw, um, Major Drew, can you walk us through kind of
how you all decide if there's a screen out. And because I think that is an interesting case where he says there's been multiple screen outs so can you walk us through that process of kind of deciding how you all come to the conclusion that something is, is going to be screened out. It's probably one of the, the easiest
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:16:49
ways I, I could, um, explain when and, and.
And a lot of the, the sexual stuff, gratification has to be implied. Some of it's forcible compulsion and when we don't have those things revealed at the beginning, uh, that may cause it to be screened out. Let's say for instance, if you see a, a coach. Uh, slap a kid on the behind. Technically, that's one of those areas that we, we would take it, but that was more of a congrats to him as opposed to a sexual gratification for that person that done it. That will play a part in it. And we'll, we'll take all those
Speaker 182
1:17:27
factors into that allegation to see if it meets it or if we believe that that that outcome would would be found true, and we could accept it from
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:17:35
that. OK, so there's a number of factors that actually weigh into you, but you are doing an investigation
of every Of every screen or every call that comes in in order to screen it out, I mean, so there's, there's a tier program. What, what takes place?
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:17:49
They call to come in to the operator. And then I'll look at it and they'll say, well, I don't think that this meets the criteria to
Speaker 182
1:17:58
be accepted, and it has to be, uh, approved by a supervisor before it can be screened out. OK, so more than, more
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:18:04
than one person is just looking at it to decide that it should be screened out. Yes, sir. It's easy to be accepted
Speaker 182
1:18:10
and it has to be screened out. Yes, sir. OK. All right. Thank
Chair
Unverified
1:18:16
you, Madam Chair. OK, are there any other questions on
Speaker 41
1:18:19
the overturned? Chairman Gilmore, you recognize? Thank
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:18:24
you, co-chair. So just following up on that do
you track uh straight in front of you. No easiest, easiest spot to To miss. So when you're looking at screened and you rule something, so you, you screen a call out, right? Do you do you track, um, maybe a reoccurrence with that same individual. So I guess my point would be, if you screen something out, ruled it not needing to be investigated or whatever, and then something else comes back in. Do you track
it like tie backs to those screens that were ruled not needed an investigation. I'm not doing a great job of explaining that, but I don't know if that makes sense. Does it flag the early one? It doesn't, it doesn't
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:19:13
flag, but the, the benefit of the The screen ideas is once it, it's accepted, law enforcement had access to those, so they'll be able to uh receive additional information that way, but we will not, we don't, I'm sorry. We, we won't combine. Let's say if we get 123, we won't combine those. Now if we can see
something that directly relates that we can pick up right from the beginning because we'll do a um What's the word, we'll check the system prior to if we've got enough stuff going on there, then we'll accept it from that. But as far as
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:19:45
tracking it, no, sir. OK, and then just a follow up to that. So I guess what may concern me is you may have instances where you've got indicators, right? And maybe it didn't rise to the level that, uh, you said it was a tiered system. I don't know what, what
those tiers are, but let's assume it didn't rise to a level for them to be investigated, but yet you've got Potentially things that indicate certain behaviors that have been led to You know, something major and maybe there were 2 or 3 other instances. Is there, is there a way to see that in the system of like, hey, this person's getting repeated calls, but maybe it doesn't rise to the level and the tier, um, but after so many, maybe we should go and have a
conversation or do an investigation. Does that make sense? Yes, sir. That, that, that doesn't exist. That doesn't exist. Interesting. OK, thank you. Representative
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:20:43
Beatty, you recognize, Madam Chair. I'm over here to your
right. Right. This right over here. Uh, my question is that, that initial where you, you screen these out and you make that determination. Is there any secondary review on that or is it a 11 time you're out, you're done. We're, we're not going to investigate that. Like I said, it, it, it's
initially, uh, reviewed by that operator, and then they'll take you to a supervisor and at that point, then it's screened out. That's where it
would end you got the, the initial operator that takes the call, uh, they decide, yeah. And, and then it moves on to uh a supervisor reviews that, that same information, listens to that call, makes that determination. Is, is there anything beyond that? And how soon after that initial call as a supervisor review that and make a determination, uh, immediately. It's done
immediately. It's done immediately. All right, and then just 11 follow up,
could y'all restate exactly what information Representative Wardlaw asked you to provide to the committee. The number of screen outs by
Speaker 98
1:21:46
county for the entire state. Thank you very much. Representative Wardlaw, you're
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
1:21:57
recognized. Thank you. So you, you answered. Representative, or Senator Gilmore's question with it didn't exist.
But he alluded to these tears. And Madam Chair, this may be out of place because I'm new to this committee. I've, I've came two months for this purpose, but, and probably come again, probably again until I figure out what's going on here. Do you, are the committee understand the tears? Have they ever laid that out for the committee? So
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:22:28
thank you for that Representative Wardlaw, as you probably figured up on my line of questioning, I was not aware that that was the process at
all. So I think this is very helpful information. And I, I didn't, I wasn't aware of the tears. So I have a suggestion. Yeah. Maybe next quarter
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
1:22:44
or next month. I don't know how this committee works. I, I know some of these reports are quarterly reports, so that's the reason I'm saying that. Maybe they could come, the two of them, and explain to the committee in the world, how to screen out works, how the tier system works, and what meets certain definition of criteria for call-ins. I, I'm all for the screen out, OK? I've
seen cases in my 15 years of being here, that should have been screened out and didn't get screened out, OK? I'm not telling you or, or advocating to do away with the screen out. But I've just went through A major disruption in my community. Because the call got screamed out numerous times. And it was real and it was founded. And I don't want to do that again and I felt guilty because the 1st 3 months they called me, I didn't call you. I didn't call DHS because it didn't feel like it was my place
to intervene in one of those cases. And maybe I should have called on the beginning. So, I think it's important that we all understand how that works. How the tears work, and then maybe we would know how to ask the right questions when we do get those calls from UAMS or the school or whoever's calling us, so. Thank, thank you, Representative. And one thing
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:24:00
that I'll add to that, because I, I think this is important committee that what
we are hearing, and uh, again, nothing against the folks at the table.
We appreciate the job you do, but I think it's important that we have an understanding of what's going on. I think it's important that we understand how the process works. It concerns me that when I asked that question of, are we tracking if, if there's multiple calls on one person, are we tracking that? Because those are all indicators of a pattern of behavior. Maybe not, but potentially it is. Um, and so Representative, I think it's a great question. Um, I would hope that maybe at a later date for this committee, but also in the Medicaid
subcommittee of ALC where there is going to be a review of DHS and DCFS that perhaps that would be for the committee members that are a part of both. I know we have the co-chair here, Mary Bentley, uh, represented Bentley, if you would make a note of that to also be discussed there because I think it would be helpful. Again, this is not admonishment necessarily and it's not any sort of, you know, casting aspersions on, on the work that you do, I think it's important though that, that the information we just heard that we understand it better. So, uh, I appreciate that
Speaker 182
1:25:12
Representative, and I'll turn it back to my co-chair. If I could be. I don't respond, yes. I don't want to mess up the tracking
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:25:22
part of it, but doing that screen out, there's a history check that that occurs. To where we'll be able to see it in, but as far as to say, I've got. 3 screen outs on person A. There's no, there's that way of tracking, no. But if, if we have a call that comes in on person A again, and we look at that history and say, OK, we, we've got some stuff going on here.
Maybe we need to go ahead and accept this one and at least get an investigator out to take care of it. Instead of it ending there at the
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:25:50
hotline. OK. So then what you just said, if I may, Madam Chair, what you just said then perhaps does answer my question. So he, so I guess we either are or we
aren't. We're either looking at the history or we aren't. We're either, we're either knowing that we got 10 number of calls on one individual or we aren't so you're telling me that you are looking at that. The history plays a part. Yes, sir. We do a history check of those calls.
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:26:14
Yes, sir. OK, so, but I, I guess I misunderstood by saying we're looking at 3 calls on person A and then we'll go ahead. And, and, and go with one, we'll use that history, look and see. We can see what pieces are missing and what pieces are filled in, and we can get it going from there.
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
1:26:30
OK. I, I'm still not quite clear, but I think probably for a discussion at a later time. Thank you. Right, just further proof that we need a
Chair
Unverified
1:26:37
little more information. Yeah. OK, uh, Senator Love, you recognize. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I think, I think that would be,
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:26:46
um, I think it would be good to understand the
tier system better, uh, but Major Drew, I'm gonna go back to the conversation that we're having because, cause we're thinking as, as well I can just, I'm gonna just speak for myself. I'm not gonna say all legislators, but we're thinking intuitively in regards to the process and when you have one call, 2 calls, 3 calls. It's showing um and I think what Senator Gilmore is saying is, it's showing a progressive nature. You know, it's, it's like
alright, I have one call then I have another call and it seems like it's like a progressive going, it may be getting worse, and I think that's what we're trying to get at. And so in your presentation, if you could explain, um, it. Could explain kinda how if you do have multiple calls. And they've all been screened out because it, it would just stand to reason to us now, and it may be a reason why you're
not doing something and it just needs to be explained to us, but. I would just think that. If you got multiple calls. Mm From, from one instance or from one area from one person or somebody just continues to call, that that's a progressive, intuitively that's progressive. It's like alright, it's either getting worse or it's getting, and so if you can kind of explain that in your presentation, I think that that would be helpful, because I mean, explaining the tier system
is, is one thing, but also explaining the screen outs and having multiple screen outs to one location. That's something that's totally different. Because I would be thinking intuitively now, I would be thinking this is progressive in nature. And it might be getting worse, so. Those are two different issues, but I guess in your presentation, you can explain that as to why one car wouldn't be why it may be cataloged, it may be not associated with the next call and the next call.
Cause that's what I kinda understood what you said and I'm, I could be hearing something wrong,
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:28:56
but Right, some of those calls can be, uh, It's like, like a better
way to put it, repetitive, they're really only offering the same information. And if I have the same person, uh, Going back to the sexual gratification part of it. It's uh, if I have that call 3 or 4 times and that Hasn't been included, but if I get that call to where they'll call in and say, yeah, he was
touching so and so on, on the buttocks, and I noticed that an erection occur. I noticed that a mole that That person did when they was touching them, that would push us to the next level of accepting it, and sometimes some of those screen outs are from something that we may be investigating already. It's a duplicate report, so it's screened out because we've already have it going. Uh, sometimes those screen outs may occur, uh, if something is
in a smaller community, not necessarily a smaller community, but a group. Uh, where it's rumored that these things are occurring, then you've got multiple multiple people calling in that do not have direct information to what what's occurring. They're just reporting what they've heard, uh, no type of disclosure from the kid, no type of disclosure from the, uh, the offender. They're just taking, sorry, alleged offender. They're just bringing something that they've heard and they're trying to move on it, because they're trying to be safe for the kids. Uh, but in
some of those situations, we're not gonna have enough information. To where we can proceed with the report, just like we want to, want to protect the children. We just can't take something and, and go after an alleged offender of a bunch of, you know, stuff that they. Don't want to say it the wrong way,
Speaker 182
1:30:39
but grabbing out the air, we need to have something to proceed with. OK, I can understand that.
Speaker 210
1:30:46
All right, thank you, Madam Chair. Representative Springer, you recognize.
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
1:30:53
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, uh, to you so that I'm responding to uh Representative Warlaw and uh Senator Love, uh, similar con we've had similar conversations in our committee meeting similar to the question about how do you determine what is a real call or not a call or are you gonna investigate
it? We've had these discussions before, so I would suggest that you all, if you have additional questions that and um commander um. Drew has indicated that he's
willing to have a discussion with those persons, if you have some concerns about anything that's taking place in your particular area, so I would suggest representative Warlow make contact with uh Commander Drew so that he can get his uh concerns addressed because we've had these discussions before and Commander Drew has done a great job in explaining this process to us, so I've heard this before, so thank you very for, for me, allowing me to
make that comment. Thank you. And so it's the doors. open if you want to
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:31:50
come up to state police headquarters and have a look at what's going on
Chair
Unverified
1:31:56
up there. Representative, you recognize. Thank you, Madam Chair. um, thank you all.
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
1:32:00
Um, I just want to make the comment that although you may have heard it before and I know I've been on here for one term, but it takes a while for some of the stuff to sink in, and we have lots of new members, so I don't think it ever hurts to have, you know, another little mini boot camp on, on all the different, um, Procedures and everything that they do every year, I think it's helpful to have that review for all of us. So I appreciate your comment, but, um, I would request that we go ahead and, and have that because it just,
it just helps us, helps me at least do my job better, the more
Chair
Unverified
1:32:32
I understand. Thank you. OK, see no further
questions on the report. We are going to move to the next report. Thank you, Director Wright. And that is Major Drew. So if you'll just introduce yourself before your report, you may
Speaker 182
1:32:46
begin. Yes, ma'am. Excuse me. Major Jeff Drew, commander, Crimes Against Children, Arkansas State Police. Uh, today we'll be reviewing our quarterly report from January to March.
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:33:01
If you go to page 2, it will show the hotline received 16,480 calls with 9,0042 of those were accepted. Uh, CCD handle 1593 of those with DCFS handling 5,423, while 20026 were for differential response on page 3, it will reflect the priority 1 allegations by type investigated, uh, for those uh months of January, February and
March. And if I'm going too fast, feel free to slow me down. On page 4, shows the cases reported by the mandated reporters. Uh, page 5. We'll show you the monthly breakdown of the case is open and closed. Uh, with, uh, that 3 month time period. That was 1,518 cases that were open, 1,542 were closed. Of that 1,542 clothes,
422 were found true, which was a substantiation rate of 27%. There are 2530 active cases, uh, with 133 of those have been open for 45 days. On pages 6 and 7. We'll give you a breakdown, uh, by county. Uh, page 9. Uh, will reflect the reported allegation types and the uh victim age groups.
Pages 10 through 17 which show the relationship of the offender and the victim. And page 19 through 26 we'll give you the breakdown of the. Uh Prosecuting attorney, uh, districts case is submitted, uh, broken down. And if you look on the bottom of page 26, you will see where. There was 508 cases submitted 237 of those
were filed 179 were still pending with 92 of those being declined by the prosecutor, uh, any questions? Are there questions by the committee? Singing Nan, thank
Speaker 4
1:35:23
you for your report. OK. The last item on our agenda is from Representative Torres. If you will
Chair
Unverified
1:35:33
introduce yourself. You are recognized to present
your ISP proposal. Thank you, Madam Chair,
Representative Randy Torres
Unverified
1:35:52
members of the committee. I'm Randy Torres, state representative, district 17. And I am here to gain a committee support for further study and policy development based on formerly House Bill 1997. Uh, in short, it extends zoning
exemptions for licensed child care family homes as you may know, Arkansas families, especially in rural and small town areas are facing growing child care crisis. Uh, child care, that, uh, deserts exist in over half of Arkansas counties, uh, existing providers are full and many working families are stuck on wait list or forced to drive long distances. Home-based childcare providers want open, uh, want to open, but cities can deny them zoning
approval, especially in residential neighborhoods. Uh, licensed family child care homes are one of the fastest, most cost effective ways to expand access, and we know this because we started a pilot program in Western Benton County that includes two cities, gentry and gravit, and, uh, they've already been supporting the flexibility of zoning, and they've seen positive results, uh, over a year now they have up, I think 60 to 80 children
placed in great child care there, uh, and. There are 2 more homes coming online on July 1. Uh, there's been no complaints from neighbors or straining on public services and it's been a boost to local small business development, so there's a lot of pluses to it. Uh, unfortunately local zoning ordinances can prevent many of these providers from operating. Uh, even when they meet all state licensing requirements.
And we're here today to request an interim study to explore this further, uh, we can get key stakeholders and so forth here to develop a broader strategy for statewide child care accessibility, uh, through family homes. Thank you. Are there questions my committee? OK, um, I,
Chair
Unverified
1:38:09
this is a house interim studies, so we'll, we will vote on it by the House, but first, I need a motion to adopt the study.
I have a motion to adopt the study. All in favor, say I. Oh, sorry, needed a second as well. Going once, going, no, seriously, thank you. Have a second. All in favor say aye. pose no The ayes have it. Congratulations, you've passed your interim study proposal. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you for your work today. Um, I have a few other things now to put on the agenda, but as far as today, we have no further business and we are adjourned.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Consideration to Approve the May 28, 2025, Meeting Minutes [Exhibit B]
C. Presentation of the Arkansas Children’s Fiscal Map [Exhibit C]
D. Children’s Advocacy Centers of Arkansas Annual Report [Exhibit D]
E. Arkansas Infant and Child Death Review (ICDR) Program Annual Report [Exhibit E]
F. Review of Department of Human Services, Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS), Biannual Overturned Investigations Report [Exhibit F]
G. Review of Arkansas State Police, Crimes Against Children Division (CACD), Quarterly Oversight Report, January – March, 2025 [Exhibit G]
H. Adoption of ISP 2025-054 by Representative Randy Torres – An act to create a zoning exemption for childcare family homes; to declare an emergency; and for other purposes [Exhibit H]
I. Other Business
J. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 7
Speaker 4
Speaker 12
Speaker 13
Speaker 14
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
Speaker 31
Speaker 34
Speaker 38
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
Speaker 44
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
Speaker 76
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
Representative Jessie McGruder
Unverified
Speaker 88
Speaker 96
Speaker 98
Speaker 99
Speaker 100
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
Representative Dolly Henley
Unverified
Speaker 115
Speaker 91
Speaker 121
Speaker 123
Speaker 129
Kevin Cleghorn
Unverified
Speaker 139
Speaker 144
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
Speaker 163
Speaker 165
Speaker 169
Speaker 170
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
Speaker 175
Speaker 180
Speaker 182
Speaker 178
Speaker 107
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
Speaker 41
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
Speaker 210
Representative Randy Torres
Unverified