Agency remains near record pace for child abuse investigations in 2010
May 5, 2010
MANSFIELD -- Richland County Children Services had the busiest year in its 126-year history in 2009 with 2,748 investigations of alleged child abuse and/or neglect.
The agency is on a similar activity track through the first four months of 2010 and the pace is only quickening.
RCCS received 2,214 phone calls from the public from January through April, averaging 553 calls per month. That is only slightly down from 2,405 calls for the same time frame in 2009, when the agency averaged 601 calls per month.
The pace of investigations is remarkably similar. RCCS began 885 investigations during the first four months of 2010, averaging 221.25 new investigations per month. During that same time period in 2009, the agency launched 887 new investigations, averaging 221.75 per month.
That means the agency, on average, launched more than 7 new investigations of suspected child abuse and neglect every day of the week, including Saturday and Sunday.
RCCS communications supervisor Carl Hunnell pointed out the agency launched 249 investigations on March and another 257 in April.
“We have topped 200-plus investigations in 14 of the last 15 months,” he said. “The only exception was February this year (169 investigations) and we believe that was because schools were closed so much due to snow and bad weather that month.”
The agency’s after-hours and weekend staffers also stayed busy during the first four months of 2010.
Two thirds of the agency’s calls came during “normal” weekday business hours.
But one-third of the calls (773) came on weeknights and weekends as area residents took advantage of the fact Richland County Children Services has a 24/7 child abuse hotline at 419-774-4100.
Despite a similar number of calls and investigations, the agency lowered the number of children it has in outside placements and in the total number of outside-the-home days of care.
In 2010, the agency has averaged 46.5 foster children compared to 59.2 during the same four months of 2009. It has seen 5,560 total days of out-of-home care in 2010, compared to 7,119 from January through April 2009.
“I think our agency continues to do a remarkable job of working with families and providing services that allow children to stay in their own homes or live with other relatives,” Hunnell said. “I have said it before, but it is worth repeating: We are not in the business of raising other peoples’ children.
“We know children fare better when they are at home or in familiar surroundings,” he said. “Our task is to work to make that environment safe for the child while we work to help the family.”
Among the types of abuse the agency has investigated in 2010, the top of the list was neglect (351 cases), followed by physical abuse (199) and sexual abuse (112).
“We have no way of knowing if ‘business’ will continue to pick up during the rest of 2010,” Hunnell said. “But county residents should be proud of the fact their local child protective services agency has highly trained and well educated staff ready to respond.”
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