Children and Youth Committees: Dec. 10, 2025

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker Good afternoon, Chair sees a quorum. Thank you for being here for the joint meeting of the Senate and House Aging Children and Youth Committee. First on our agenda today, we need to approve the September 2025 meeting minutes. Do I have a motion to approve those? Have a motion. Do I have a second? Thank you. All in favor say aye. Opposed, no. Thank you. Minutes have been adopted. 

We also need a motion to confirm Senator Alan Clark to the Child Maltreatment Investigation Oversight Committee. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Yes, thank you. As one of two members of the General Assembly who are members of the House Committee on Aging Children and Youth and Legislative Affairs or Senate Interim Committee on Children and Youth. All in favor say aye. Opposed? Congratulations. You have now been appointed again to the Child Maltreatment Investigation Oversight Committee. 

Okay, moving right along. Next, we are considering an ISP, and I’m going to spare you reading that entire title since you can see it before you. Representative Bentley, you are recognized to present your ISP. 

Study on child abuse and procedures

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you. Chairman. Thank you, committee. I think that all of us are aware of some situations that we’ve got at our call center and taking care of our abused children. There’s really nothing more important in this state, that we take care of the kids in our state that have possibly been abused. 

And I’m very, very concerned that we’re just kind of tinkering around the edges. And I think it’s time for us to do a thorough deep dive into what our maltreatment code is and to what we’re doing with our call centers and what we’re doing across the board to take care of our kids. 

I would like to bring, if it’s okay, Chairman, someone to come and testify about some concerns I’ve got that’s going on here. I would like Kim and Louise to Foya and their daughter to come and testify, please. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker Would you please introduce yourself through the mic for the record? 

Kimberly Tafoya My name is Kimberly Tafoya. 

Luis Tafoya Luis Tafoya. 

Representative Mary Bentley Okay, Kim, would you just share some things that happened that you’d like to share with the committee? 

Family strong-armed into sexual abuse exam

Kimberly Tafoya Yes. Back in February we took our daughter Freya to her five-year checkup. We noticed she had some warts on her hand and there was a bump on her bottom. He went ahead and put a referral in at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, dermatology. 

And while we were at the first appointment there, they treated the warts on her hand, said the spot on her bottom was the molluscum, and we did the cryotherapy on her hand. Went back in six weeks, the warts had spread up her hand. So we’d gone from her nail bud up to the hand. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker I’m sorry to interrupt you. Could you please pull the mic a little closer to you? Partly I’m old, also my ears are very congested today. But I don’t think I’m the only one that was having difficulty hearing you. And we do want to hear what you’re saying. Thank you. 

Kimberly Tafoya Went to her second appointment, they refroze the warts on her hand. They’d spread from her nail bud up to her finger. We went back in six weeks for her third appointment. So this has been about six months from the initial appointment. The warts had spread up her hand, like from her fingers all the way up to her hand. And we had noticed she now had more spots on her bottom. Took her back to her appointment, and we told the doctor this. 

He asked if he could take a look at her bottom. And we said, Yes, that’s why we’re here. He took a look at her, looked at us, and said, These look like warts. And I said, Yes, that’s what we’re here for. You’re treating her for warts. And he left the room abruptly. I didn’t think anything of it. But he was gone about 45 minutes. He and another nurse came in with a social worker. Didn’t know it was a social worker at the time. Said the nurse was staying there with Freya. 

We left with him and the social worker to their room. He said, based on that she now has warts on her bottom, we had to call social workers and make a report. And I was like, Why would we do that? You’re treating her for warts. We brought her to you for warts. And he said, Well, these warts don’t get there from skin to skin contact. That’s how they spread. 

But he was very adamant that these warts were not from her own hand as a five-year-old learning to wipe her bottom, that she could have spread the warts on her own body. So that was a Monday. Tuesday morning– I’m sorry, let me back up. That afternoon, the social worker at Children’s said it’d be a very quick conversation with Freya. It’d be case closed. We wouldn’t go any further. 

Tuesday, we get the phone call from the Wade Knox Center. Tanya Cross– I believe, is the lady who called us to set up the appointment for Freya– found out we had more than one child, so then it turned into just a conversation with Freya to all four of our children at the Wade Knox Center. We were there for over four hours being interviewed. At the end of the interview, they pulled me and my husband back for ours. 

And we talked maybe 30-ish minutes with them. And during that conversation, informed them that everybody in the house had had a wart at some point in time. And at that given point in time, there were four of us under the care of dermatology for different issues. The Cabot Police Department detective said, as far as he was concerned, after talking with us, case closed. 

So at that point in time, I’m thinking we’re done. And then Ms. Cross tells me that Children’s is now requesting that Freya undergoes an SA exam, even though I have the investigators in front of me saying as far as they’re concerned, nothing has happened. I didn’t want to agree to the exam. Because my daughter had never been touched inappropriately, or anything has never happened to my daughter. 

But I felt like I was backed into a corner by all the agencies. Because Cabot, the Cabot Department detective told me that, You’re going to still want to get your daughter treated, correct? And I said yes. He asked if I would take them back to Children’s. I said, Children’s will never touch my children ever again. 

He said, So you’re going to need to get a new doctor. And I said, Well, of course. He goes, So, what’s to stop that next dermatologist from making the same phone call and the whole process starting over? Because you did not consent to having your daughter undergo an SA exam, even though I have these detectives in front of me telling me they have no reason to believe anything has happened to my daughter, that she spread it from her hand to her own body. 

So I agreed to take a phone call from the sane nurse with the TCAR Center the next day. And she explained that this would be the definitive test to prove, and we’d get the letter saying that nothing had happened to our daughter. And that way, if another call was made, they’d be like, Nope, this is not what happened with this child, and go from there. So I agreed to the test to take her to the TCAR center. 

We went, that was Thursday now, we’re going to the TCar Center in Searcy, Arkansas. We get there and I go back to fill out some paperwork while Freya and my husband are in the family waiting room. And while I’m in there, they inform me, not only does Children’s now want the SA exam, they want swabs, they want a urine sample, and they want it videoed. 

So I have to sit back there while my daughter, who’s never been touched inappropriately, has to undergo an SA exam with it being recorded so the doctors at Children’s can verify everything. When I thought the purpose of this specially trained nurse at this center, that was her job, to look for these and if anything to happen to my daughter. And then she comes back and tells me there’s no indication of any current, past, healed, any trauma to my daughter. 

But I had to sit there at the foot of the bed in the very small room, away from my daughter, while there’s a giant screen above the table where she’s being examined with the imaging of my daughter’s genitalia all over the screen. Can’t sit by her, can’t hold her hand, can’t give my daughter any comfort. And during the examination, when she says, Ow, mommy, that hurts, I’m nowhere allowed near my daughter. 

And I have to sit there and watch everything. So I have to let, in essence, my daughter be violated to prove she’s never been violated because we took her to the doctor to treat her for warts. 

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you so much for sharing your story. I want to make sure that this does not happen again in our state that when there’s absolutely no reason, when the investigation has proven that there’s no findings that this should not have ever happened to this little girl, that she’s been violated by the very people that are supposed to be protecting her. 

So it’s one of the reasons I wanted to bring forth this interim study today, that we can make sure we have protocols in place. Does anybody here– do you feel free to answer questions? Chair, I would open up if my colleagues want to ask any questions before I go any further. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker Are there questions for this witness by the committee? Speaker Evans, you are recognized. 

Representative Brian Evans Thank you, Madam Chair. And I appreciate the leniency as not a member of this committee, but just very compelling. And as you listen to the testimony, Ms. Tafoya had mentioned that they live in Cabot. This family lives in my district. And so as they came and visited with me early on about this, I was very moved, not only by the story, but also by the fact that both Mr. and Mrs. Tafoya, the Tafoyas, work at the Little Rock Air Force Base. And they took off work, came and visited with me. 

And the first thing that they said was, We’re not looking for anything to help benefit us. We’re here to tell our story because we want to make sure that this never happens to another family again. And I believe wholeheartedly that the trauma that they experienced when she says that my daughter was violated by the same people who were trying to prove that she had been violated. 

Mrs. Tafoya, you mentioned that when you went to this TCAR Center that when they took her into an examination room, you were not allowed to sit bedside with her. Who all was in the room while this exam was taking place? 

Kimberly Tafoya There was a service animal to the right of her. There was the service animal handler to the left of the bed. And then there were the two nurses at the foot of the bed. And then I was in a chair by the door. 

Representative Brian Evans So two medical professionals, i.e. nurses, who were there to do this inspection of her private parts. 

Kimberly Tafoya Yes, sir. 

Representative Brian Evans But also a service animal handler? 

Kimberly Tafoya Yes, sir. 

Representative Brian Evans So a service animal, I’m assuming that’s a dog?

Kimberly Tafoya Yes, sir. 

Representative Brian Evans Was brought into the room to give comfort to your daughter, but yet you were not allowed to give comfort to your daughter? 

Kimberly Tafoya Correct. 

Representative Brian Evans It’s seems like a very interesting concept, one by which I don’t know that I approve of. This video that was taken, do you know where that video, where it is today? 

Kimberly Tafoya No, I do not know where that video was at. I don’t know if it was destroyed, if it’s in her file. I don’t know. 

Representative Brian Evans Or who has access to it? 

Kimberly Tafoya Correct, I have no idea who has access to this. 

Representative Brian Evans Seemed like I recently remember seeing a case somewhere where criminal charges were brought against an employee of a facility very similar to this because they had taken access to videos such as this, taken them home and put them out there on the world wide web for people to see. 

That would be very terrifying to a family to know that their daughter was out there like that in the public. So did you feel– I know you said that you felt like you were very leveraged. You were in between a rock and a hard place. 

Had you denied, not given consent to this exam, what do you feel like would have been the consequences of you not doing that? If you had you said no, we’re just not going to do that. We’re going home. What do you feel like would have happened next? 

Kimberly Tafoya I feel like we would still be under investigation. It’s almost like with this system, you are guilty until you are proved innocent. That’s not how it’s supposed to be. I was put in a corner and felt like I was strong armed, but if I did not consent to keep letting them have more and more and more, but it was going to keep going. 

Representative Brian Evans Was this a verbal consent or did you have to sign some type of consent forms? 

Kimberly Tafoya Verbal consent at the Wade Knox Center for the nurse to call me. And then once I got to the TCAR Center in Searcy, I had to sign some forms there. And while I was signing that is when the two nurses informed me that Children’s wanted it videoed, not just an exam done. 

And I don’t what is the purpose of these nurses that have this specialized training for these cases if what they’re saying is not taken as factual. Like, why do we have to go one step further? If there was evidence of some kind of trauma to my daughter, I could understand like if you needed a picture of it or then you needed some type of video evidence. But when the nurses are saying there’s no past, present, healed, there’s no trauma to this little girl, why do we need a video of it? 

Representative Brian Evans So an investigator said, there’s nothing here? 

Kimberly Tafoya Yes. 

Representative Brian Evans A detective from the Cabot Police Department said, There’s nothing here? 

Kimberly Tafoya Yes. 

Representative Brian Evans Nurses who looked at her said, there’s nothing here. But yet Children’s Hospital made the determination that they wanted this exam on a five year old’s genitalia. 

Kimberly Tafoya Yes, sir. 

Representative Brian Evans Videotaped and sent to them for someone else who was not there to take a look at. 

Kimberly Tafoya Correct. 

Representative Brian Evans Of your five year old daughter. 

Kimberly Tafoya Correct. 

Representative Brian Evans And when was this? Can you remind me when this all happened. 

Kimberly Tafoya This started on, I believe her appointment was July 21, was the checkup at Children’s. The 22nd we were at Wade Knox. The 23rd I talked to the nurse to schedule the TCAR appointment. And then the 24th we were at the TCAR center in Searcy. 

Representative Brian Evans Has your home been visited for any type of inspections? 

Kimberly Tafoya No, we were told we were going to have to have a home visit. And we put our lives on hold waiting for that for a couple more weeks to make sure the kids were available and they would have access to the house. And we never got that visit. On July 31, I received the letter from the state saying it was an unsubstantiated claim and the case was closed. 

Representative Brian Evans And I believe that you shared with me also when you came for the visit that, and I think it’s important that the committee understands this as well, that both you and your husband both carry a– I’m probably going to use the wrong medical term, so forgive me if I’m saying this incorrectly– but you and your husband both carry a genetic disorder that causes these warts. And that both you and your husband both have these, correct? 

Kimberly Tafoya Yes, he has them on his hands. 

Representative Brian Evans Yes, and all of your children. 

Kimberly Tafoya All of our children have had him. Our 16 year old had a planter’s wart on his foot, our 14 year old had one on his elbow. Our 8-year-old had them on her feet and in her nail beds. So the Base treated her feet, sent her to a dermatologist for her hands because she had to get shots into her nail beds, into the warts. And she was in kindergarten during that time also. When I was a teenager I had a planter’s wart. But I also have the strain of it that causes all the cervical issues. And I had enough of those that I was actually able to get the boys vaccinated early because I was having enough issues with it. And then she had warts on her hand and at the same time frame of kindergarten. 

Representative Brian Evans I remember you saying also that it’s not like a school nurse had told you, hey, you need to take her to the doctor, something’s wrong here voluntarily because she was about to start kindergarten. You took her back for a follow up because you did not want her to– you wanted to try to get this cleared up before she started kindergarten. Because you did not want other kids or teachers to worry about the fact that she had these. And so you were getting that cleared up. 

So, Madam Chair, thank you very much for your leniency. And to the Tafoya family, I applaud your bravery to come and sharing your story. I know this is very difficult. I know that your intent is to be a part of the process to make sure that something like this never happens to another family again. So I thank you for coming today. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker Thank you. Senator Clark, you’re recognized for a question. 

Senator Alan Clark Thank you, Madam Chair. We say this each time that we want to see that this never happens again. But the zeal– and I appreciate the zeal for wanting to prevent abuse of children. I don’t appreciate how it affects families, innocent families. And then we keep doing it. Could you please line out for me the timeline again? And when I say timeline, what agencies? I heard the Cabot Police Department. I heard Children’s. You went to the doctor? 

Kimberly Tafoya Yes, sir. 

Senator Alan Clark And he or she called the hotline? 

Kimberly Tafoya Yes, sir. As far as I know. I had to request her medical records because they weren’t– her clinic notes weren’t in her MyChart. That was the only visit missing. I had to go request that. It was, I believe, later that evening when they made the phone call. 

Speaker 2 Who? 

Kimberly Tafoya Children’s. 

Senator Alan Clark Okay. 

Kimberly Tafoya Made the phone call to the hotline. 

Senator Alan Clark You went to Children’s then? 

Kimberly Tafoya To pick up her records because I wanted to see her clinical notes after the fact. 

Senator Alan Clark Okay, you went to the doctor. But when you went after the records, Children’s called the hotline? 

Kimberly Tafoya No. 

Senator Alan Clark I’m confused. Okay. 

Kimberly Tafoya So we went to Children’s on July 21 for her checkup. 

Senator Alan Clark Okay. 

Kimberly Tafoya That’s the day that they called the hotline. 

Senator Alan Clark Right. 

Kimberly Tafoya By the 22nd is when I had a phone call from Tanya Cross. 

Senator Alan Clark CACD? 

Kimberly Tafoya Yes, sir. 

Senator Alan Clark Heard that name many times. 

Kimberly Tafoya To meet with her at the Wade Knox Center in Lonoke County. So we met her at the Wade Knox Center in Lonoke County. And there was, from what I remember, there was Tanya Cross with CACD. There was another lady, I think, with State Police. There was a detective from the Cabot Police Department in our room with us for our interview. 

And at that day, on the second day, that’s when Cabot came back and said: As far as we’re concerned, nothing has happened. Case closed on our end. So I was feeling better. But after he  told me that is when Miss Cross told me that now Children’s is requesting she undergoes the examination also.

And so I got the phone call on Wednesday from the nurse to schedule her SA exam. And then we were there on Thursday. So it was a four-day period when all this happened. And then until we got that letter on the 31st of July from the State Police saying it was unsubstantiated. 

Senator Alan Clark Okay, so the home visit that you were waiting for, I assume– 

Kimberly Tafoya Never happened. 

Senator Alan Clark Right. I heard you say it never happened. But that would have been from DCFS, do you know? 

Kimberly Tafoya I do not know for sure who it would have been from. I would have assumed so. 

Senator Alan Clark Yeah, the home visit, I would think, would be from DCFS. And I would assume that the fact that they didn’t– without questioning them yet, that they didn’t come would say that they didn’t see a problem, like the Cabot Police. Otherwise, I think they would have definitely been there for a home visit. So from what you said ,Children’s or the nurse at Children’s pretty much insisted that you have this examination. 

Kimberly Tafoya From what I was told by Miss Cross, yes. 

Senator Alan Clark So you heard it from Ms. Cross and not from Children’s? 

Kimberly Tafoya Correct. 

Senator Alan Clark Okay, so Ms. Cross communicated to you with CACD that Children’s was insisting. So you believe that they insisted? 

Kimberly Tafoya Correct. 

Senator Alan Clark And the reason for recording this was, according to what you understand, was so that the doctors could examine it. 

Kimberly Tafoya At Children’s could verify. 

Senator Alan Clark Okay, so your understanding is from CACD that Children’s was insisting that you do this. So they thought it was important. Right? If they were insisting that it be done, they thought this was very important. Would that be what you assumed from that? Surely they wouldn’t have forced your daughter to go through this if they didn’t think it was very important. 

Kimberly Tafoya I mean, not necessarily. Because I have a hard time believing it’s because they thought it was so necessary when the doctor or the APRN Allen at Children’s, who had been seeing my daughter for six months, was very adamant that, Yes, warts spread skin to skin contact, but there was absolutely no way that the warts that were on her bottom were a result of the ones that were spreading up her hand as a 5 year old. As you’re freezing them, they’re blistering, they’re rupturing, we have a live virus spreading. There’s no way that it could have spread in her own body. 

Senator Alan Clark Yeah, I’m familiar with that attitude from Children’s with things that are rare, especially. But my question, what I’m trying to dig into, is you would not have had the examination had they not insisted? 

Kimberly Tafoya Correct. 

Senator Alan Clark And so if they insisted, we would assume they thought it was really important. 

Kimberly Tafoya I guess from a medical standpoint when you’re trying to cover all your bases. 

Senator Alan Clark So if they thought it was really important, I wonder why it wasn’t important enough for a doctor to be there if a doctor was who needed to see it. 

Kimberly Tafoya I would agree with that. I do know Children’s was one of the places that they offered for me to go for the exam. But I told the nurse on the phone, I was like, I will never take my children back to that hospital ever again, which is a huge thing for me because they actually saved one of my children’s lives years ago in a tragic freak accident. 

Senator Alan Clark We have an investigative committee that meets behind closed doors that can question all of the people concerned. Would you be interested in appearing before that committee where we can ask Children’s and others the questions that have come up here? 

Kimberly Tafoya Yes, sir. 

Senator Alan Clark Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. 

Senator Mark Johnson Senator Johnson, you’re recognized for a question. 

Senator Mark Johnson Thank you, Madam Chair. And Mr. and Mrs. Tafoya, we want to apologize to you for anything that could have happened at like this that was wrong. I think we tend to trust clinicians, but that’s why legislators are here and the committee that Senator Clark referred to is part of that oversight process. 

I was going to ask if anyone from Children’s Hospital is here to respond, but I think that would be a more appropriate thing in the committee that Senator Clark was referring to that can meet behind closed doors. But on behalf of the state of Arkansas, I want to apologize to all three of you for this. 

And I want to thank my friend Representative Bentley for helping bring this ISP so we can look a little deeper. We tend to trust these people. You just mentioned, in a previous situation they helped one of your children. And that’s fine. And we’re dealing with individuals. 

But I’ve had two friends, who, one was a former member of this legislative body, and if I named him, most people in this room knew him personally, had a situation with his child. He and his wife had a situation with his child. This was many years ago, but it was a similar situation that they, maybe they were being overly cautious. But they did mention at one point that they made a comment, the clinician made a comment about the particular church that they went to that perhaps was more– and it was about a corporal punishment type issue. 

So you mention you and your husband both have a genetic disposition for warts because of something obviously neither one of you have anything to do with. But the fact that this kind of thing can happen, we’ve just got to stay on top of it. So I know it wasn’t easy to come, and I want to thank you for coming today and also for agreeing to appear before the committee that Senator Clark is a member of. And thank you. And thank you, Madam Chair. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker Senator Love, you’re recognized for a question. 

Senator Fred Love Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a very sensitive situation and topic. And so you know, I’m a little reluctant to ask some questions, but I just want to better understand. And so first you, this is just a regular doctor’s visit with your child to Children’s hospital? 

Kimberly Tafoya It was a referral that we had from her normal pediatrician to have her seen at Children’s at the dermatology clinic. 

Senator Fred Love Okay, so your pediatrician referred you to Children’s. And these are, I guess, you said warts. 

Kimberly Tafoya She had warts on her right index finger. 

Senator Fred Love Okay. 

Kimberly Tafoya And then she had, well, initially we thought she had a mole on her bottom. But then I wasn’t sure because then there were two bumps and then it went back to one bump. And I said maybe it’s a molluscum. I said, I didn’t know. So her pediatrician looked and he said, I’m pretty sure it’s a molluscan contagion, which a lot of children get. It’s a very common virus that can cause bumps also. So I wanted to get her treated for it if that’s what it was because with her being in school, if that’s what it was, and if it would rupture in the bathroom. 

And she used the bathroom on the toilet, like, it would spread. So we wanted to get it treated. But because it was on her bottom and the skin is more sensitive, he wasn’t comfortable in his office treating it because of how sensitive the skin is in that area and just the higher risk of infection. He didn’t know what Children’s would have in their arsenal.

Senator Fred Love So okay, so the pediatrician sent you to Children’s to get this. So your pediatrician decided that he couldn’t treat it. So he sent you to Children’s? 

Kimberly Tafoya Yes. 

Senator Fred Love Is that– okay, alright. I’m just trying to– and so this was your first visit to Children’s, correct? 

Kimberly Tafoya No. The phone call was made on her third visit. So it was her second follow up visit. Children’s had been following her for six months before they made the phone call. 

Senator Fred Love Okay, so okay. And so your first visit they didn’t report anything. Then your subsequent visits, someone reported. 

Kimberly Tafoya I was on the third visit. The first two visits it was just APRN Alan that would come in the room to see us and her. And then on that third visit it was APRN Alan and then there was a student doctor with him. 

Senator Fred Love So then, tell me this, so I guess I’m trying to think about the progression of things. And so did they report that they saw something the third time that they didn’t see the first time? 

Kimberly Tafoya Yes.

Senator Fred Love And so, was it these warts on her bottom? I guess I’m just trying to– okay. So they didn’t see that the first time but they saw it the third time? 

Kimberly Tafoya Correct. The first time, there was just what ended up being the molluscum, he confirmed was the molluscum on her bottom. He didn’t check her the second visit. And then we went in for the third visit, I said, the warts have spread up now to the top of her hand. I was like, and also her bottom broke out really bad. 

Senator Fred Love Is your child home school? 

Kimberly Tafoya No, now she’s in kindergarten. 

Senator Fred Love Okay. So you so– 

Kimberly Tafoya But she had never been to daycare. 

Senator Fred Love So she’s never been to daycare? 

Kimberly Tafoya Correct. 

Senator Fred Love Oh, that’s interesting.

Kimberly Tafoya I’m a stay at home parent. So she was with me from the time she was born to the time she started school. 

Senator Fred Love Interesting. Okay. All right. I guess this is an interesting case because now I’m hearing what you’re saying in regards to the fact, you know, the facts. It would have been good to have Children’s here. I mean, because I wanted to kind of know the process that they take. 

And I don’t know if anyone out here because I see State Police. Is the process because here’s what I am saying. We, I mean, we have cases on cases to where children have been reported to the hotline and this, the same committee, we say, hey, nothing’s being done. And then this case we’re looking at, and we’re saying, something was done but I think I can’t say whether it was too much or not enough. 

But a family does feel violated. And then that’s the kind of thing that we want to protect from. But at the same time I will tell you why I do feel what you’re saying. We always tend on the side of protecting the child. Not saying that the, this is just a very complex issue. But I do want to say that I do understand now where you’re coming from. It’s just a very sensitive. 

This is, this is something that’s very sensitive. Because we have to also err on the side of, we have to protect that child and whether the parents are saying, hey, there’s nothing going on in our household that would endanger our child. I think we would be on, we would be on Children’s back if something did happen and nobody did anything about it. And so it’s just, I don’t know. I don’t know, Madam Chair. I’ll get out of the queue. 

But this is a very sensitive issue. And I think that we just need to tread carefully because we want to make sure that families are protected, but we also want to make sure that our little ones are protected. And so I would say my heart goes out to this family because I can see both sides. So thank you. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker Well, and you hit a nail on the head when you asked about the processes. And I think that’s what this ISP is mainly about. So Representative Duke, you are recognized for a question. 

Representative Hope Duke Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you all for being here and sharing what I can’t even imagine the pain that you’ve been through and that you’re going to continue to go through through this. It was very courageous. 

I just wanted to say I appreciate the study and that you brought this to our attention. But when we investigate, we need, when we do this to a little one, we better be pretty daggum sure when we ask them to go through a procedure like that, that we need to do it. Because that’s a traumatic thing. That’s a traumatic thing for the mom and dad to have to sit there and know their child’s going through that and knowing that their child didn’t need to go through that, and for her to have to do that. 

And so I understand we’re on this committee. Many of us, we don’t pick to be off this committee because our seniority allows us to choose a different committee. We remain on this committee because we care about kids and we want to make sure they’re protected, and not just the children but the elderly and all the other pieces of this committee. But we also have to make sure we protect them from people who maybe intend to do right, but this was not right. And this was something that if you’re going to make that decision to have that child go through that type of invasive procedure at the age of 5–

Kimberly Tafoya Yes, ma’am. 

Representative Hope Duke Holy smokes. You better be certain. And when you’ve got enough people saying, hey, we don’t think we need to do this. We don’t think we need to do this. We don’t think we need to do this. 

Then somebody needs to hold up and stop and make sure before you make a child go through something like that at 5 years old. Somebody should have put the brakes on that. It wouldn’t have killed anybody to slow it down a little bit and make sure that that needed to happen. And I’m just curious, in all of this process, were you ever told, like, do you want to consult an attorney? Do you want to talk to anybody to see, to get some advice? Because it seems very overwhelming. 

I’ve sat in those hospital rooms and in those different things, just as a patient, and it’s scary and it’s intimidating. Did you get any kind of guidance as far as what your rights were, other than if you don’t do this, this is going to prolong the process? Because that’s what it seems like it felt like from my perspective for you, is the only way you could make it end was to agree. 

Kimberly Tafoya Correct. No, we were never told that we could get any advice from anybody. 

Representative Hope Duke So I agree we are on here to advocate for kids and to protect kids. And I know we’re going to go through some documents right now that are going to break all of our hearts. We mentioned this before we ever even started. But it also needs to break our hearts whenever a little one has to go through something like this when there were enough people throwing up red flags saying, Hey, maybe we don’t need to be doing this because I’m thankful at maybe at 5 it’s not going to retain with her, but it’s never going to go out of your mind. And I know that. 

As a mom, I get it. And so I am so sorry. And thank you, Representative Bentley, for bringing this to our attention because we do have to do better. And I know the people that are working in this space are trying really hard to do what’s best for kids. But we can’t swing the pendulum so far over the other direction that we do this to somebody either. Thank you. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker Representative Barnes, you’re recognized. 

Representative Glenn Barnes Thank you, Chair. I want to first say thank you all for having the courage to be here. I can imagine how traumatic this is. I have one question though. You were not allowed in the room while they did the procedure, and I’m wondering, is that policy? Or, as far as you know, they didn’t tell you otherwise. They just didn’t let you go back? 

Kimberly Tafoya No. I was in the room with her when she had the exam done, but I was not allowed near her. 

Representative Glenn Barnes You was not allowed to be near her? 

Kimberly Tafoya Correct. I had to sit in a chair next to the door, away from her. I was back past the nurses, back past the table, everything. 

Representative Glenn Barnes Is that policy? Or did they tell you that’s policy or what? 

Kimberly Tafoya I don’t remember if they said it was policy or if it was just because they had the service animal area set up and there weren’t very big rooms. And it just was a size of the room issue. But I was across the room from her when she was being examined. 

Representative Glenn Barnes Well, thanks again. I hope that you all will heal from this and that whatever needs to come out of it, we’ll do better in the future as a result of you all coming in sharing with us today. Thank you. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker I thank you for being here as well. And I have a question on that service animal. So you weren’t allowed near your daughter but a service animal was? Did you request the service animal for comfort? 

Kimberly Tafoya No, ma’am.

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker So what if your daughter was terrified of dogs? You can’t be with her, but the service dog was there. 

Kimberly Tafoya The dog can be. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker So that wasn’t addressed at all about how she would feel about the–? 

Kimberly Tafoya Nope. It was, the service animals are there to provide comfort for whoever’s there. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker Whether she liked it or not, huh?

Kimberly Tafoya Yes. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker Thank you. Representative Brown, you’re recognized.

Representative Karilyn Brown Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m not a member of the committee, so I appreciate being allowed to ask a question. Madam, did you ever have the feeling or were you ever told that you were under investigation for child abuse? 

Kimberly Tafoya They wouldn’t say, like, that we were under it, but they were very adamant that something had happened to her. And when I tried to argue with them, I was like, well, she’s never been to daycare, doesn’t have a babysitter, she’s always with us. Then they were still, something has still happened to her. And it didn’t matter that we told them that nothing has happened to her, that she had to have spread them from herself from her own body. 

Representative Karilyn Brown Thank you. Appreciate your answer.

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker  Representative Rose, you’re recognized. 

Representative Ryan Rose Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for your courage to come before this committee today and share your story. I know the sentiment of many of my colleagues just from sitting in the room. And I don’t know if you’ve heard it, you certainly haven’t heard it enough, but I just want to extend such great sympathy. And I am so sorry that this happened to you. 

And I’m so grateful to Representative Bentley for her work on this. And it is our hope, I’m certain, that it never happens to anybody again. But again, I am sorry. If you haven’t heard it enough, at least you’re hearing it in a public forum today. This shouldn’t have happened, and we’re very sorry. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker Representative Gonzales Worthen, you’re recognized. 

Representative Diana Gonzales Worthen Thank you, Madam Chair. I, too, want to thank you for your bravery. This must have been an extremely, extremely difficult, traumatic time for, not only your daughter, but your entire family. And it kind of puzzles me knowing that all of your children have this genetic disorder, and now the youngest one does too. And that should have been taken into account immediately. 

You know, this is not anything new to our family. But that also shows why we need to have those procedures a little bit more strict and standardized. And I have an overall general question since your study, Representative Bentley, is on the procedures and all about the child abuse hotline, and I wanted to know about language access on the hotline. For example, if somebody calls in and they speak Spanish or Marshallese, Vietnamese, how that’s handled in the hotline. 

Representative Mary Bentley If it’s okay, we’ll hold that question. I’m going to bring Director Wright up here in just a minute. If it’s okay, we’ll bring it back up and ask that question to her if that’s okay. I don’t want to just guess. I want you to hear it directly from her. Thank you. 

Representative Diana Gonzales Worthen Thank you. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker Representative Vaught, you’re recognized.

Representative DeAnn Vaught  Thank you, ma’am, especially since I’m not on the committee. I want to go back to what Senator Love said. How many people had already told y’all that there was no reason to go any further? Because I think there was enough, ‘No, there’s no reason to go any furthers,’ that Children’s should have taken that into the equation of whether they wanted to do it or not. I want to say, you said Cabot Police? The two nurses, I remember that. So that’s three. 

Kimberly Tafoya Every step of the way, everybody that we had talked to, except for at Children’s the dermatology clinic, when they got done talking to us, they said, as far as we’re concerned, case closed, nothing has happened to your daughter. And then when we were at the TCAR center, I’m talking to nurses before we even go into the exam, the two nurses that both there were like, It really sounds like she spread it on our own body. And they were, you can consent under duress for–. 

Representative DeAnn Vaught Right. 

Kimberly Tafoya Because you feel like you’re backed into a corner, that you have to say yes to all these things to prove nothing’s happened to your daughter. 

Representative DeAnn Vaught Right.  

Kimberly Tafoya But then as a parent, you feel like you’re failing to protect your child from the agencies that are supposed to protect your family. But when it comes down to it, at that point in time, I’m just a mom with my daughter trying to protect her. But I’m going up against the State Police. I’m going up against Children’s hospital. And at that point in time, you feel like you have to consent to whatever they’re asking for, just so you can clear the name, clear everything, and get the letter saying nothing has happened to your child, so you can get your daughter treatment for the initial issue you took her to the doctor for. 

Representative DeAnn Vaught So did anyone from those agencies reach out to you and apologize what they put your child through? 

Kimberly Tafoya No, ma’am. 

Representative DeAnn Vaught And how is she doing? 

Kimberly Tafoya She’s doing good. 

Representative DeAnn Vaught Good. 

Kimberly Tafoya I’m really hoping that she’s not going to remember what happened. But the mind is a very mysterious thing, so I don’t know how it’ll affect her later in life. 

Representative DeAnn Vaught Well, I appreciate y’all being here. And, again, I’m like everybody else, I am so sorry because I feel like the state failed y’all through agencies. And then I’m even more aggravated that after they put your child through something that she should have never gone through to begin with, no one has reached out to you and apologized for what they did to your child. And that’s heartbreaking as someone who sits here in these chairs to know that our state agencies didn’t step up and do what was right and apologize to y’all. So I apologize. 

Kimberly Tafoya Thank you. 

Representative DeAnn Vaught Senator Love, you’re recognized.

Senator Fred Love Yeah, I just want to– I’m speaking merely now on the process. Are we going to have someone come up and present the process? Because I think as we go through this we need to know all the checks and the balances. So is that– 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker We’re not addressing the processes today because that’s what the ISP does. 

Senator Fred Love Okay. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker That will be a process to examine the processes. 

Senator Fred Love Okay, because I would be interested to see if, I mean, because we’re saying that all these checks, all these– we’re saying that all of these, like the Cabot Police Department said no. If everybody signs off on this then, I guess, just trying to get a feel of the process. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker I understand. And I think that’s what needs to be examined the most. Because I’m not sure anybody’s truly clear on the exact process. And that’s what we’re addressing, just passing or not passing the ISP today. 

Senator Fred Love Okay. And then let me clarify something because, it was Representative Vaught just attributed to me that I was saying that now– I didn’t say that, what I’m saying is that we need to check on the process of it. And I, like I said, my heart goes out to this family, but if we actually know the processes and what was checked off on this case, then, and if they weren’t moving forward, then these checks need to be in place. 

But I would be interested to see even if State Police has a part of this, what their take is, not on this case per se, but on the process in and of itself so that we’ll know. And so if we can get State Police to come up and even just speak to– no? All right, so you’re not going to have anybody speak on the process, period? 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker No, not today. Because that’s what the ISP is going to start to do. And we’ll do it in a very organized process. Everyone in here is as interested in that as as you are. 

Senator Fred Love Okay. All right, thank you. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker Representative Rye, you’re recognized. 

Representative Johnny Rye Yes, thank you, madam chairman. Let me ask y’all this. Step one, I guess, you noticed that this was going on and you took your child to a pharmacist– not pharmacist, but to a doctor. And then once that’s done and they refer that child to someone that’s a professional on that particular subject, did they send that child to the right doctor? 

Kimberly Tafoya I assume she was sent to the right doctor since it was a skin issue and they sent her to dermatology. I mean, the person that saw her wasn’t a doctor per se, he was an APRN. I don’t know if that would have played a difference, if she would have seen an actual dermatologist and not just an APRN. I’m not sure about that. 

Representative Johnny Rye Well, it’s important. Because the people who actually check that need to be professional within that particular area. And if that wasn’t done, that’s not good. Thank you. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker Okay. Seeing no further questions, Representative Bentley, would you like to close for your ISP? 

Representative Mary Bentley If it’s okay, I’d like to let them go and bring one other person up real quick and then I will close. I appreciate your leniency. Thank you, guys. If it’s okay, I’d like to bring Tiffany Wright, our director, up here for just a moment. Colleagues, the other part of this interim study is going to be on our hotline. 

So I just wanted to discuss a couple of things with Director Wright about the hotline, and then we’ll ask for a vote on the ISP. So thank you for your leniency on this. So Director Wright, I know that we’ve had numerous conversations in the committee and our whole House and our whole legislature’s been concerned about what happened in Mountain Home. 

Hotline overlooked abuse case

But after that incident, I called you about an incident in my own district. Because I had an individual, a constituent call me that had a young boy that they’d kept in their house over the weekend because his mom was, they were homeless. Mom and the younger kids were homeless. There was a situation with a boyfriend that was abusive. And so my constituent called me because he had the young boy there and they called the hotline. 

And I called you to check on that to make sure that call had been received and to make sure that family was getting the care they needed, that those kids were being taken care of. And can you just kind of tell me what the phone call was, if you remember, when I called you on that situation? 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker And I know you know the drill. But would you recognize yourself, please? 

Tiffany Wright Yes, ma’am. And I’m sorry, I’m also dealing with an illness today as well. I’m Tiffany Wright and I’m the director for the Division of Children and Family Services. And so, yes, Representative Bentley called me about a concern with a constituent in her community. 

And I got the information and looked that information up to see which agency was involved, if I needed to coordinate getting my staff involved, if they had already been involved, kind of what was occurring. And that’s when I was able to see that the report had not been accepted at the hotline. 

And so I made contact with Major Drew and Dan Mack at the hotline to ask for re-review of that report. And upon re-review of that report, it was accepted at the hotline so that DCFS could be assigned to get involved to work the child maltreatment investigation. 

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you. So anyway, I just wanted to say that even after what happened in Mountain Home, I had a constituent that was homeless, and his mom was homeless, they had no food, there was an abusive boyfriend, and yet the call was dropped and it was said there was no sign of abuse and neglect. 

So I just want to say that somehow the system is broken. We can’t expect perfection every time, but we’ve got to do better. So I just appreciate you sharing that testimony. So, again, I’m not sure what route we need to go. But I want to do this interim study so that we can do a deep dive and say, Do we need to move the call center? What do we need to do? Because other states are doing a better job than we are. 

And our kids in Arkansas deserve better. I appreciate you correcting that. Because once they received the call, that family received the help that they needed and they were taken care of. And my constituent, who was a young boy, terrified of an abusive boyfriend and not having food and not knowing what in the world to do, that you guys took care of that family. 

So I just want to say thank you that once the right thing was done. But we cannot be expected to call you and have you to correct it. So I just want to give that as one example. I’m not just pulling things out of thin air, that we do have a situation that we need to fix. And I guess with that, Chairman, I’m closed. And I would appreciate a good vote on doing this ISP so we can get some things fixed in our state. . 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker And would you like to make a motion? 

Representative Mary Bentley I make a motion do pass. 

Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker Okay, I have a motion do pass on the ISP. And need a House member. Motion for adoption. And I have several seconds on the House side. So all in favor of adopting the ISP, say aye. Opposed no. Thank you. Your ISP has passed. 

Okay, moving on. Director Wright, you get to come back. We have several reports from DHS, DCFS. And I’m going to leave it up to you as to, I know that, for example, Number 2, annual report probably takes in the quarterly report. So you tell us where you’re presenting and we will follow. 

Overturned Investigations Report

Tiffany Wright Okay. Good afternoon again. Tiffany Wright, Director for the Division of Children and Family Services. The first report I wanted to start with was the exhibit Overturned Investigations Report. This report is for child maltreatment investigations from January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2024. And what you have here is a summary of the number of hotline reports accepted for investigation. And then as you follow along the spreadsheet, the percentage of those reports that are overturned when they are appealed. 

Senator Ben Gilmore And really quick, was that number 7? 

Tiffany Wright Oh, mine doesn’t have a number, I’m sorry. It’s the overturned investigations. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Overturned Investigations. Okay. 

Tiffany Wright Yes, sir. 

Senator Ben Gilmore All right. Thank you for that presentation. Do we have any questions from the committee? All right. Seeing none, we’ll let you move on. 

Annual Child Abuse Report Card

Tiffany Wright Okay, thank you. I’m not going to present quarterly performance report, first quarter SFY 2026, because we can see that in the upcoming quarterly report that I’ll present as another exhibit. Wait, did I get my reports out of order? Sorry, hold on. I’m sorry. Wrong one. I am not going to present fourth quarter state fiscal year 25 report because we will see that in the first quarter state fiscal year presentation. 

But next first, I’m going to go to the annual report card, which is from the state fiscal year 2025. And I’m starting on page one. So in state fiscal year 2025, there were a total of 32,574 child maltreatment reports accepted at the child abuse hotline. 26,407 of those were assigned to the Division of Children and Family Services for investigation. And further from there, you can see the breakdown of those that were assigned to investigation versus those assigned to differential response. 

As a reminder, the blue ribbon on the side will tell you the definition of what a differential response is. On page two, the middle chart, you will see that the number of true investigations for the year involves 6,922 children in our state, and that on the bottom chart on bottom of page two, that 64% of our reports were found true for neglect. However, I also want to point out that a child can have more than one allegation. On moving to page four, the top of page four is the timeliness of initiating investigations. Y

ou can see the breakdown between a priority one, a party two, and then the combined. Below that, you will see the timeliness of completing those investigations. And at the end of state fiscal year 25, that rate of completion was 75%, which is less than the prior state fiscal year. However, when I get to the quarterly report, I’m going to show you something else related to that. 

The timeliness of closures around differential responses on the bottom of page 5, it’s had a continued increase to 73%, focusing in and making concerted efforts around that, as well as around investigations, which you will also see. On the top of page 6, you’ll see the reoccurrence of maltreatment both compared from six and twelve months. On the top of page 7, you will find that those are the number of in-home cases that were opened at the end of the year and the number in children that involved at the end of the year. So 3,502 children were involved in home cases at the end of the state fiscal year. 

At the bottom of page 8, monthly required visits of case workers on our in-home cases. We ended the year at 81%. On page 10, number of children in foster care. We ended the year at 3,390 children in foster care. We also continue to look at our injuries and discharges at the bottom of page 10 for the state fiscal year. About 2,100 children entered and 2,200 exited foster care in the year. And you can see the historical information there. 

At the top of page 11, the reasons for entry into foster care: neglect, 51%; substance abuse is 41%. And again, just a reminder that children can enter foster care for more than one reason. And then the reasons for discharge from foster care: 42% for reunification, 24% for adoption. And then overall 91% of children in foster care did exit permanency by returning home to their parents or relatives, adoption or another permanent arrangement. 

At the middle of page 12, it’ll show you the placement types for children in foster care. 35% of children  were placed with a relative, 24% were placed within a non-relative home. But overall 77% of our children are placed in some type of family setting. Page 13, monthly visits to children in foster care for caseworker monthly visits, 83%. But contact by any DCFS staff, 91%. And then siblings placed together. We are at 74% at the end of the state fiscal year. 

On the bottom of page 14 is information around placement stability, which we still do have work around placement stability. So this would be maintaining children in their placement, their foster placements, when we do remove them and put them into foster care. 37% of children achieve permanency within 12 months. That was a slight decline from the year before. Re-entries into foster care after we had discharged them to their families was at 5.4%, which means they re-entered foster care after we reunified. 

On the top of page 16, number of children available for adoption, 197. However, we do a%age of that because we know that a%age of kids will be adopted by family members. And so our number of children that we’re currently doing active recruitment for is 178. 

On the bottom of page 17, the length of time from TPR to finalization, how to increase, we do have some strategic work going on around that through a hyper focus and continuing to figure out which systems barriers are preventing us from ensuring timely permanency after termination of parental rights. 

On the top of page 18, 36% of adoptions finalized during the state fiscal year were with relatives. We finalized 546 adoptions. And overall total in the state fiscal year we served 7,916 children with their parents through in home cases when the year ended for the whole state fiscal year. 

And then on the bottom of page 20, and I’ll show you again in the quarterly report, but we did have a net gain in foster homes after having a loss at the end of SFY 24. And that’s what I have for this report. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Thank you. And it looks like we have a couple of questions on this report. Going first to House Majority Leader Beaty, you’re recognized.

Representative Howard Beaty Thank you, Mr. Chair. My  question goes back, I guess, on page 1, right where you started, talking about the total reports of maltreatment received during the year. Can you tell us how many of those were multiple reports that involved the same child? Because I know that past discussions we’ve had that, that there were multiple reports on the same child. Can you break that out for us? 

Tiffany Wright I actually can. But I need to look it up, or I need someone to give me that number. I know the numbers, so can I ask someone to help me and give me the number because I don’t have it?

Representative Howard Beaty You can ask for all the help you want. 

Tiffany Wright Actually hold on. I might actually have it up here. Give me one second, I’m sorry. Hey, can I get an assist, please? Amber, come here. Give me just one second and she’s going to come back and tell me because I don’t have that on the top of my head, even though I should. Can I come back to you? 

Senator Ben Gilmore Perfect. If, Representative, you’re finished, can I move on to someone else in the queue and come back? 

Representative Howard Beaty Move on. I’ll get back in the queue when I get an answer. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Perfect. Go ahead and get back in if you would. All right, Representative Bentley, you’re recognized. 

Timeline to permanent home

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you, Chairman. I just want to say thank you, great job. I see some really good results and I really like what we’re seeing in the face to face. I know you worked really hard to make sure that children are being seen face to face and you’ve seen a big increase on that. 

But we do see a little bit of increase on the length of time that it’s taken for our kids to get out on page 17. Is there anything that happened this past year that you think about that maybe– on page 17 at the bottom with the length of time for them to get to permanency. Just seeing a little bit of uptick  this year? 

Tiffany Wright Yeah, and so we have done significant work on making some things electronic. But also in this number means finalizations. And so we actually did this year finalize several children who have been waiting for a long time. And so that can also impact this number as well. 

And so we have a hyper focus going on right now with children that we know are in the placement that are going to adopt them. Last month we were able to move 30 of those kids to adoption. And so we just keep trying to fine tune that process just as much as we can. But last year we did finalize several kids who had been waiting for thousands of days. And so that will also impact that number as well. 

Representative Mary Bentley All right, that explains that for sure. Thanks. And the other quick thing is just on page 14, we just talk about 74% of kids that have siblings are placed together. And it seems to be a number that we’re kind of stuck at, not able to rise above any. I know we have Second Chance Ranch in my district doing a great job trying to provide sibling homes, but is there anything that we think we can do to maybe add to that number? Or what are your thoughts on that, Tiffany? 

Tiffany Wright I think that continuing to work closely with our partners to be strategic about homes that will take those larger sibling groups. Yes, like your partner Second Chance Ranch. We also have Arkansas Baptist who does help with our large sibling groups. So continuing to work with them. 

Also, one thing that could impact this number as well is, are they separated but with family members? And so that could go into that as well, because they wouldn’t show, they’re not placed together, right? But then just continuing to focus on foster parent recruitment and sharing what our need is, but sometimes asking foster parents for rooms for nine kids is a lot, right? Like when you have a sibling group of seven, eight, and nine, that’s pretty impossible to do. It’s not that it doesn’t happen, but that’s why we have to be strategic in the work we do with our partners in the state for that recruitment. 

Representative Mary Bentley Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Thank you, Representative. Representative Vaught, you’re recognized. 

Representative DeAnn Vaught Thank you, Mr. Chair. How many children do we have in foster care right now? Can you tell me? 

Tiffany Wright It’s like 3,390, I think, when I got the last number. 

Numbers in foster care

Representative DeAnn Vaught And do we have children that are waiting to go to a foster home? And, if yes, how many is there? 

Tiffany Wright Waiting to go to a foster home? Can you clarify that question? What do you mean by that? 

Representative DeAnn Vaught Well, I know when children are picked up there’s not always somebody immediately ready where they can take a child. 

Tiffany Wright Oh yes, ma’am. Okay. So when kids come into foster care, first we’re looking for safe and appropriate relatives. Then we’re looking for foster homes. We do have limited ability to utilize emergency shelters based on age. But those are not typically the kids that we’re getting stuck in the DHS office with. 

Typically we’re getting stuck with our older youth who have more complex behavioral issues, who have some significant needs that are kind of scary, to be honest. And we track kids who get stuck in the office. And we have teams who meet to try to triage those situations. So no kids are just sitting forever waiting in the DHS office. 

And then that’s why placement stability doesn’t look great. Because we find foster homes that can help us for one night or two nights and then we move the kids, according to what needs to happen next. Or maybe we find a relative that we weren’t able to find days later. 

Residential treatment beds availability

Representative DeAnn Vaught So you answered the second part of my question. With the children that are needing more therapy, a lot more services. And they are kind of scary. I know we ran a bill during session, Representative Cavenaugh did, that opened up PRFT beds for those type children who are a lot more difficult. Has that helped y’all with those that are waiting? 

Because we know the list was long for beds, but I know that we tried to make it where it’s Arkansas first. So I’m just wondering, has that helped? If it hasn’t, can you tell me why it hasn’t? If it has, then that’s great. 

Tiffany Wright So to go to a psychiatric residential treatment facility, PRTF, you have to qualify, which means that the PASSE has to approve you to go to that placement based on recommendations. And so some of these kids do not need that level of care. They have maybe completed that treatment or they were treatment failures at that. 

And so we’re navigating that. And so those will be the kids we’re getting stuck with in the office. And then to be honest, some of our kids are really complex, that some of these places won’t even consider them because of their complexities. 

Representative DeAnn Vaught Thank you. 

Tiffany Wright You’re welcome. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Okay, Representative Rose, you’re recognized. And, members, I’ll just keep in mind the time. We’ve been here a little bit. And I know that Director Wright’s voice is not as strong as it normally is. 

Representative Ryan Rose Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Director Wright, thank you for taking the time to go through these reports page by page with us. Just a couple of quick questions. I was looking at a side by side of the numbers of finalized adoptions, which is on page 18, and the number of children available for adoption on page 16. And I think in response to Representative Vaught’s question, you said there are roughly, correct me– was it 3,200, 3,300– 

Tiffany Wright 33. 

Representative Ryan Rose –children that were in foster care? Can you tell us whether that number is less or more than in previous years, the total number that are in foster care? 

Tiffany Wright If you look at the top of page 10, you’ll see state fiscal year ’23, ’23, ’24, and ’25. So it’s a decline. 

Representative Ryan Rose Okay. That answers kind of one of my questions. I assume there’s just a ratio, no matter how good the work you do is, at some point, you’re only going to be able to get a certain percentage of the kids that you have in foster care to be adoption ready or into adopted homes. 

Caseload numbers

And so I was wondering if we’re seeing, which looks like good numbers, the decrease, if that matched the number of children in foster care. And so that’s correct. I had one other question. On page 20, there’s a note in the upper left corner about the average caseload is at 17 cases per worker. And that you guys had a goal to have them at 20 or fewer. Could you talk a little bit about that, kind of achieving that goal and what that means for the caseworkers in your division? 

Tiffany Wright Yes. So this is everybody who could carry a caseload within the division that’s assigned cases when we pull the data. And so what you’re going to see in the quarterly report is that it’s higher again because that’s based on workforce. So retaining staff, providing good services, discharging children from foster care, supporting children in their home, working investigations timely, it’s a plug for all of the work that happens. 

And so while we did achieve it, and it is an average, some of my counties would tell you, That’s not right, I have more than 20. But it’s an average for the whole state. Watching the ability to do the different layers of work and be strategic about it does help retain the workforce. And that’s a critical factor to the workloads. 

Representative Ryan Rose All right, I appreciate the analysis. Thank you. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Thank you, Representative. And Representative Barnes, you’re recognized. 

Representative Glenn Barnes Thank you, Chair. My question is: How is effective kin cataloged? How do you catalog? Are the cataloged as a relative or non-relative?

Tiffany Wright  Fictive kin is cataloged into the first red chart line you see there. So it breaks it down. It says relative fictive kin foster home, 21%. So it’s all included. We include relative as fictive kin. 

Representative Glenn Barnes Okay, thank you.

Tiffany Wright You’re welcome. 

Senator Ben Gilmore All right. Representative Springer, you’re recognized. 

Representative Joy Springer Good afternoon. Thank you, Chair, for the opportunity to address Ms. Wright. Once again, we have these reports every year. And I’ve been on this committee, I guess, since I’ve been in the legislature. And I’ve, as you recall, I’ve always asked about workloads of employees because I still receive concerns from them regarding the massive workloads that they have. 

And so, have we come up with a report similar to this to tell us what the workloads are of each one of these individuals working in your department? And how effective assistance is being given to ensure that their workloads are manageable? I guess that’s my question. I think I’ve been asking this question for the past several years now about overall workloads. 

They have a lot of responsibilities in each one of these reports. And I think that individuals who have these responsibilities, we don’t know exactly how they’re doing with respect to all the things that they’re having to do. 

So if we could have some type of disaggregated data with respect to that, I think we would have some improvement with respect to what’s going on within the Department of Children and Family Services. I guess that’s a long question. So am I communicating? You follow what I’m saying here? 

Tiffany Wright Yes, ma’am. And I would remind everyone that online on the DHS website on the DCFS tab, there are the reports that we put out every month that are all the way down to the county level and there is a breakdown of each county level’s workload down to that specific county. 

So those are on the public facing site, our monthly charts are, that can show you each county office’s workloads. Now it’s not going to have the workers name, but it’s going to tell you what’s going on in that county. Also in the back, somewhere in the back of here, is an area map that also shows– 

Representative Joy Springer Which report? 

Tiffany Wright –the workloads. On the annual report card. On page 41. That’s based by county as well. But to see it real time each month it’s online on the website. 

Representative Joy Springer So which page are we referring to in the–

Tiffany Wright Forty one. 

Senator Ben Gilmore And that’s the annual report. 

Representative Joy Springer Right, I have it. I’m trying to get to 41. Okay. So are you saying that, okay, for instance, Pulaski County, so you’re saying that 23.3 cases are being held individually by each person within that DFO– DCO?

Tiffany Wright It’s an average of the county, of the whole county. So everybody who carries a type of caseload in the county. 

Representative Joy Springer That’s the number that they have compared to other portions of the state? Say, for instance, like Benton County, so theirs is 17.34. 

Tiffany Wright Yes. 

Representative Joy Springer And then we go over to eastern Arkansas, Mississippi County, so that one is 21.57. Is that right? 

Tiffany Wright Yeah, it’s an average for everyone in that county who’s carrying a caseload. And a caseload can be anything that we have assigned staff to. 

Representative Joy Springer Oh anything. Okay, so I guess that’s my point. I’m sorry, Mr. Chair, follow up. So I’m just trying to understand. And I can see why now that I receive the complaints that I do because it appears that Pulaski County has the highest case workload per employee. Is that correct? 

Tiffany Wright Actually, there’s two counties that are at 33 and 32. 

Representative Joy Springer And who are those? 

Tiffany Wright Cleveland and Lafayette. 

Representative Joy Springer Lafayette. Okay. So I guess I have the same question for them. I don’t hear from them, but it appears to be the same type of problem that they’re having there too. So we have three counties where there’s a focus of greater workloads than other parts of the state then? 

Tiffany Wright Correct. And that would be, that’s going to be due to staffing turnover and having to move cases and staff and try to balance out the work. 

Representative Joy Springer And then I guess that follows up my question before. We’ve had the same conversation and then the question is, What are we doing in order to address that? 

Tiffany Wright Everything we can do every single day, which is to continue to hire and retain our staff, provide them what they need, train them appropriately to do the work, and just continue managing it through leadership and supervision and what’s going on in the county offices. 

Representative Joy Springer Thank you. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Thank you, Representative. Representative Beaty, you’re recognized. 

Representative Howard Beaty Just following up to see if we had a number yet because then I do have other questions after we get this number. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Let’s see if they have it. And, if not, I’ll let you get you other questions. 

Tiffany Wright Of the 32,000 maltreatment reports, 1,831 had multiple reports to the hotline. 

Representative Howard Beaty So 1,831 out of that. And do you have the follow up on that where it breaks down into the other categories? 

Tiffany Wright Not with me, but I can get that for you, if that’s okay. 

Representative Howard Beaty Because then my question goes in, are these multiple reports consolidated into one case when they are sent for review? Or is each one a separate case? So as you get these reports coming in, if you get a report today for John Doe, and then on Friday, you get two more reports on John Doe– because a lot of times, mandatory reporting on a lot of institutions and providers in the state that would have access or have knowledge. 

So you get all these multiple reports in, how do you consolidate that in? Are those consolidated or does that start a separate? I know it’s going to be a separate report. But does that then flow to the worker that has that caseload to follow your metrics and policies within the department? Does that get routed to the same casework or does it go to another person? 

Tiffany Wright Loaded question. Lots to unpack there. But the two reports could be merged in together, but we’d have to look at the allegations and what’s going on with all those allegations, as well as  then making sure, do we have multiple counties involved. There’s a lot of things that go into that. So we can merge them together and not lose any information along the way so that we’re not assigning multiple people to investigate one family, if that answers your question. 

Representative Howard Beaty That, part of my concern. And then also, if that’s not the case, then a lot of your metrics and other statistics that you report in here would be skewed. I don’t think it would skew it that much for 2,000, unless all 1,800 of those, say, assigned to CACD are confined within one category. Then it could have an effect especially in that small population there. So just some concerns there. 

Follow-up to Representative Springer’s line of questioning, where you were talking about what you’re doing. You stated turnover and trying to hire and that that’s still an issue and going to be an ongoing issue. I think the last time that you and I spoke in committee, we talked about surveys and what you were doing within the department for employee morale and to see what your division could do a better job of to make certain that we have happy employees. 

I mean, I can’t imagine doing what y’all have to deal with. I think it’s something that would tear at your heart every day. And so how is that working. and can you enlighten us on some of that just briefly? 

Tiffany Wright Yeah, so this year we did again our staff appreciation banquet and picked area wide winners and then a statewide overall winner to build morale and highlight good work that our staff had done in the year. We try to continue to do our Gem Award, which is going the extra mile. So staff who are going above and beyond. 

We also have been doing Everyday Champions, so people who just get called out by a stakeholder or someone who’s done something well to acknowledge that work. We also have rolled out across the state, it’s called CCERT. It’s another acronym. But it’s a trauma-informed kind of secondary training response and how do you manage the work and the stress and balance it all out, right? Like, how do I balance my personal life plus with everything I see going on? And we were able to do that with a mixed bucket of staff across the state. 

And then we did it in one specific area last month. And we’re getting ready to go to another part of the state and do it again, so we’ve got that going on. And then, representative, I think I told you that I had a goal to change new staff training. And we’re getting very close to that coming in the coming year. We’re starting with our supervisor training. And so looking forward to that as well as changing what our frontline workers get, how we make it more about competency and not just checkboxing and making sure they’re actually learning what they need to learn when they’re sitting in training. 

So I’m looking forward to getting that going and sharing with y’all some of that as we progress into 2026. And that was one thing we heard from them loud and clear was that that training was not working. And so we’ve been doing that, as well as trying to encourage and bridge the gap between what we call central office or our main office downtown, where a lot of the program managers and assistant directors are, to the staff that are out across the state and getting them out in the county offices and just supporting something critical that might be going on in the county office. And so we’ve been doing that as well. So just trying to come at it from every angle to support them through this work. 

Representative Howard Beaty Well, I appreciate your answers. And I know sometimes my questions may be pointed and hard. I don’t envy the job that you and your division have to perform. But I do think that, out of this committee, not just the committee, but legislators at the state, the most vulnerable part of our state and population are children. That’s what you’re entrusted with. 

Tiffany Wright That’s right. 

Representative Howard Beaty And so we’re going to make certain. And I know you take that very seriously. But it’s one thing that’ll impassion this group and have a lot of us hooping and hollering. So continue the good work and keep your people happy. And thank you again for your answers. 

Tiffany Wright Thank you. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Thank you, Representative. Representative Gonzales Worthen, you’re recognized. 

Representative Diana Gonzales Worthen Thank you, Chairman. Yes, I wanted to ask this question while you were here. I asked it earlier. And I have a follow up question, if I may. They’re related. So I wanted to know what  the language access services that the hotline might provide if somebody wants to report an incident, child maltreatment, et cetera, if they speak another language other than English and they want to report Spanish and Marshallese, Vietnamese, et cetera. 

Tiffany Wright So I feel really bad because I don’t know the answer to that. Because I’m not in the day-to-day operations of the Arkansas Child Abuse Hotline. State Police is, and I know they get to come to the table after me. So we’re both going to learn that. I would assume they use an interpretation service that they have, just like DCFS does for serving families. But I don’t want to speak for them, so I’m going to let them answer that question if that’s okay. 

Representative Diana Gonzales Worthen Yes. May I ask my follow-up to that? Yes, so once we know that, and I was wondering if we have adequate staff to handle cases with these multiple languages. Do you have adequate staff? 

Tiffany Wright So DHS does allow for pay incentive for staff who are bilingual, and then DHS also has a contract that DCFS can utilize if we don’t have staff. So I think the answer is, yes, but obviously we always need more. 

Representative Diana Gonzales Worthen Okay, thank you. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Thank you, Representative. Representative Nick Burkes, not to be confused with Rebecca.

Representative Nick Burkes Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So we talked about staff retention and training as a way of improving our quality of service. Another issue that was brought up in the Mountain Home incident was lack of documentation. Have the documentation methods for each report changed specifically because of that incident? Or are there plans to change that? 

Tiffany Wright As it relates to history? Or just document– like we are always asking, or we always tell them, if it you don’t document it, it doesn’t happen. And so we just keep saying that. One thing that they do experience though, in all of the things that they have going on, transporting a kid, making sure a child is safe, documentation is sometimes the last thing that happens. 

We have to ensure that they’re doing thorough documentation. So we are working on that. We’ve been messaging that and making sure that documentation is happening and giving them protected time to do that. That’s the strategy is when you’re in your office, you could get pulled into other crisis going on. And so how do we manage giving them protected time? And so we’ve been working on that. 

Representative Nick Burkes Okay, so you’re telling me that, specifically, you’re changing the way in which you’re going to document the process as a result of this incident? 

Tiffany Wright Well, we have to enter documentation to move cases forward within our system. So it’s not a choice. It’s just making sure that it’s thorough in nature. 

Senator Ben Gilmore All right. Back to you, Representative Springer. 

Representative Joy Springer Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to point out, in going over this report, I just wanted to bring to your attention, Madam Secretary, that we indicated earlier that Lafayette, Cleveland county had caseloads of 32.5 and 33. As I look at the services that are being provided in Cleveland County and Lafayette, looks like total, and 32 in Cleveland County. 

Something is– yeah, I don’t understand. Something is wrong there compared to Pulaski County that has like over 600. So there are not as many cases being handled. That’s why their caseload averages is about the same as Pulaski County. They got fewer cases and I guess fewer people there working. Thank you. I just wanted to point that out. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Thank you, Representative. Representative Hope Duke, you’re recognized. 

Adequate documentation

Representative Hope Duke Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a real quick question that Representative Burkes made me bring to mind. When you are talking about, we need to do a better job of documenting– I don’t want to assume this. Are y’all spot checking them to make sure that the documentation is happening? Is somebody actually actively going back periodically and checking the files and making sure that it is happening? 

Tiffany Wright Documentation is how we get this data. So, for example, if you all asked me why foster care visits go down, we would see that. We would know they weren’t documenting or it wasn’t happening. 

And so that’s how we can, when we use data analysis, we can say, What’s going on in this county? Their in-home visits have decreased. Or what is happening? And so, is it a documentation issue? Is a workforce issue? Do we have a practice issue? Are they documenting wrong? But also on everything we enter, a supervisor has to click approve. So if I enter in a contact for a family today, a supervisor has to approve that contact. 

Representative Hope Duke So, what brought it to mind was when you were saying, there’s a lot of moving parts whenever they’re having a case. And that sometimes can be the last thing getting done as they’re trying to get a kid transported and so forth. So my question, I guess, is when that person is coming in and they’ve got the child at a safe place and they’ve done all those different things, is someone making sure at that juncture right there that the document– because obviously, somewhere the documentation didn’t happen if that’s been an issue.

So who’s going back now to make sure that that documentation is taking place before you have to file a report, right? Then you have maybe 10 that you’re having to go back and make sure that you got all the pieces back put together. 

Tiffany Wright I think it’s a balance. Right at that moment it’s probably happening, which is why we have to be strategic about giving them protected time to get the documentation in. But then you also will see it in doing case reviews and looking at their specific assignments in our system to know that this kid hasn’t been seen. Why didn’t this kid get seen? Did you get your documentation in? Did you do it? We can ask those questions that way. I don’t know if I’m making sense. 

Representative Hope Duke I mean, you are. I guess I understand what you’re saying. It just seems like some of that happens whenever you get to like a deadline. And my question is, is someone who’s the supervisor of those workers, do they periodically just, I want to see what you did, just to check them? Because it’s like taking a pop quiz rather than taking the test. Is someone doing the pop quiz with them to make sure there’s that accountability on a more regular basis than whenever the report may actually be due or something like that? 

Tiffany Wright I would say probably not 100% of the time, but I think we have supervisors who historically do that instead of waiting until the last minute when something is due. I think it’s something we could continue to work on. 

Representative Hope Duke I mean, I understand that you– I think many of us have said this several times. I think it’s the hardest job in the state, in my opinion, dealing with what you guys have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. And so I try to keep that in mind when I ask the questions. Because we all go home and although it weighs on us in different ways, it stays with you every day. And I understand that. You know, that accountability helps.

 And if there’s not that little piece of the puzzle there, which I get is another thing for someone to do, but I think that if documentation is such the lifeblood of what you’re doing here and protecting whether they’re doing it right or doing it wrong, then that periodic accountability of checking it might be something to help improve a little bit more of their documentation if they never know for sure when someone’s going to check. 

Tiffany Wright Yeah. And I think we do that, but probably just not as consistent as we need to do that, instead of waiting until the last minute. 

Senator Ben Gilmore All right, thank you, Representative. I see no other questions on this particular item. I will remind the committee we have a few more to go through. So take a sip of water, everybody. If you got more questions, we can be here a while. But I know that we need to be expeditious on this. So, director, you’re recognized.

Quarterly Performance reports

Tiffany Wright Okay, thank you. I’m going now to the quarterly performance report for the first quarter SFY 26. And I’m going to do the same thing I did before and just go through a few of the pages and then we can do questions. Is that okay? Okay, thank you. 

So in first quarter of SFY 26, 8,589 reports were accepted at the child abuse hotline. 6,954S of those are assigned to DCFS. 5.300 were assigned to investigation, and then 1,500 to differential response. If you go to page 2, same information, just a little different because it’s only the quarter. But 1,692 of those reports, true reports involved 1,692 victim children. 66% of those reports were true for neglect. 

On page 4, timeliness of initiating investigations. Again, total combined at 76%. What I wanted to point out from the annual report card to this quarter is at the bottom of page 4. Timeliness of closure, we were able to increased to 80% with some strategic work. And so I just wanted to point that out from the annual report card. Timely closures of differential response reports increased to 84% in the quarter. 

At the top of page 6 and then the bottom, again, you also see your reoccurrence of maltreatment within six and twelve months. The top of page 7, again, at the end of the quarter we had open in home cases that involved 3,500 children. At the bottom of page 8, required home visits to in home cases at 82%. 

Page 10, the number of children at the end of the quarter, 3,352. At the bottom of page 10, there’s your admissions and discharges by the quarter, your entries and discharges by the quarter. Again, and I would also tell and share with you all that on our monthly charts that we have online that you all can access you can see this by the county as well. 

And then at the top of page 11, neglect at 52% was the reason why children entered into foster care. Substance abuse following with 32%. And again, as a reminder, every child may have more than one entry into foster care. 45% of the children reunified this quarter, and then 19% were adoption at the bottom of page 11. 

On page 12 in the middle, you can see the placements where children are placed in foster care. Top of page 13 is the caseworker visits at 83% and then 89% by any DCFS staff. Siblings placed together, 75% at the end of the quarter. And then you see the permanency within 12 months at the top of page 15. And then on page 16, the number of children available for adoption. You take 10%, it’s about 175. 

And then on the top of page 18, 35% of adoptions were finalized by relatives. In this quarter and then also wanted to just point out that children ages 10 to 17 made up 34% of the adoptions that occurred. So our older children are getting adopted which has been a goal of the agency. And then on page 20, you’ll see the workload information again. And at the bottom of 20, again, first quarter, we had the net gain of foster homes open. 

Senator Ben Gilmore All right, seeing no questions, I will ask you to move to the next one. 

Tiffany Wright Okay. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Unless you’d rather sit here and wait for some. 

Tiffany Wright No, that’s okay. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Okay. 

Garrett’s Law report

Tiffany Wright Next, I’m going to move to the Garrett’s Law report. So you’ll have two exhibits as it relates to that. You have the summary of the referrals, but then you also have the actual data that goes with that. I’m going to focus on the summary and walk through the pages of that with you. Page one of this document just provides you what the oversight of Garrett’s Law and the numbers of ports received. 

The top of page two provides you an actual chart since the start of Garrett’s Law legislation from 2006 until 2025. So that was 1,224 Garrett’s Law reports accepted in the state fiscal year. The bottom of page two is the characteristics of Garrett’s Law reports and how those reports are accepted. Page three, you will see a chart, table one, the top of page three. It just provides you an age breakdown of the mothers in the Garrett’s Law reports. 

Table two on page three is the percentage of Garrett’s Law reports and which drugs were cited. So Marijuana at 81% was the number one drug cited for these reports in our state. Page four, that chart, table three, the gestational age of newborns in Garrett’s Law report. It gives you a summary, as well as a breakdown from the past state fiscal years for you to compare to C, full term versus premature. And then table four will provide you whether or not the infants had health problems and if that was cited in the report. So no health problems on 72% of the Garrett’s Law reports this year, this past state fiscal year. 

There’s a summary about the mothers cited in the Garrett’s Law report at the bottom for you all to read around the use of opioids and benzos during pregnancy. Page five provides you our DCFS response to Garrett’s Law reports based on substantiation after investigation cases being opened, as well as removal from custody. So those will be what the following charts are. 

So table five is the substantiation rate by area in the state. And if you need a reminder of the areas, the front of your report cards have the areas broken down so you know which area of the state by county. Okay, page six is table six, the case opening rate on Garrett’s Law. 

And so we’ve been having our staff and central office review Garrett’s Law reports and do strategic coaching with our areas that we felt like were struggling in the state. You can see we have two areas. Area one was low in 2024. We’ve been focused and doing some strategic coaching. We also had area four who was at 95% substantiation reach and had a decline. And so we’ve been evaluating those reports and getting on calls and coaching with staff and reviewing to see kind of what’s happened and how we can continue to engage with them around these critical reports. 

And then table seven on the top of page seven is– I’m sorry, table seven starts at the bottom of page six. It’s the child removal rate. And then there’s a on the very last bottom of page seven, moving into page eight, is a summary of this entire report. I would say that we have been strategically working through the Garrett’s Law reports and really all of our reports that when we become involved with families, that should be a trigger with our investigation team to immediately start providing and offering services, not waiting through the course of an investigation to complete and then assigning it to someone else at DCFS to provide services. 

So we have been working through that, how to navigate that we’re giving services to parents and opening cases and supporting them along the way, even when there’s an investigation going on and connecting them to resources. Because if we don’t, these are our most vulnerable population, they’re our younger kids. 

So how do we keep supporting our staff to engage these families appropriately? We’ve seen staff improvement around their practice, engaging in safe sleep conversations, engaging with PCPs of these infants and talking with them and kind of seeing what’s going on with that. And then the last appendix is breakdown by the counties. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Okay. Looks like we have a question from Representative Johnny. Going to you. 

Representative Johnny Rye Yeah, sure. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s probably mentioned here somewhere, but I’d just like to ask you a question, ma’am. From the time that a lady becomes pregnant until the time that baby is born, are we testing the mothers each time that they’re checked at at the doctor? 

Tiffany Wright DCFS is not. No. 

Representative Johnny Rye Would it be hard to do that? 

Tiffany Wright Probably so, yes. I can’t get involved until there’s an actual child and there’s been a report to the hotline. 

Representative Johnny Rye Ma’am, the reason I ask you that is because the development of the child, from the time zero all the way to nine months, any time that there’s some kind of foul drug that is thrown into that has a chance of giving that baby some type of a premature or else either brain damage. Things can happen. Just wonder if we could go that direction. 

Tiffany Wright Yeah, I can’t. I don’t think that’s a question that I can answer. My agency doesn’t get to be involved until the child is actually born. And so I can’t actually do anything until the child is born. Might be someone else that can answer that. 

Representative Johnny Rye Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Chairman. Appreciate you. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Thank you, Representative. All right, I see no additional questions. 

Tiffany Wright Okay, I have one more. But I did have a question on this one. So this information is calendar year 2024. And so I wasn’t sure how deep you wanted me to go in through all of this information. 

Senator Ben Gilmore I think, without objection, give us an executive summary. 

2024 Report

Tiffany Wright Okay. High level. What you will see in this report is the family preservation report. It is calendar year 2024. It buckets our work at DCFS into three buckets: safety, permanency, and well-being. And it breaks it down for you by areas of the state to review that data and then it gives you a historical look back from 2024 forward in most of the charts. 

On the very end of each subsection, there is a strengths and areas for improvement around each one. And so I can read the strengths and improvements. I think they’re all things that we’ve talked about today. 

Senator Ben Gilmore It looks like we already have questions in the queue. Are you ready for questions? Let’s go to questions. Representative Rose, you are recognized. 

Rep. Rose questions on 2024 stats

Representative Ryan Rose Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Director, for walking us through these past several reports. Starting on page two of this report, I just kind of wanted to walk through a couple numbers and then see if you could expound upon the rationales, maybe. We see from 22, 23 to 24 that we have accepted roughly 22 or 2,300 less maltreatment reports statewide from 22 to 24. 

If you turn to page five, we see of those reports, we’ve gone from 22% of those being substantiated down to 19% of those being substantiated. Additionally on page six, we have a significantly lower recurrence rate within 12 months than the national standard. And then if you go over to page 10, the report lists that the number of investigations accepted decreased by 6%. 

And the last thing I’ll say here is on page eleven, we see the children in foster care from 22 to 24 is 700 less roughly than it was at that time. I don’t believe that there are indicators broadly that there is less child abuse taking place in our state, unfortunately. But it does look like this report indicates that we are accepting fewer maltreatment reports and we are seeing fewer substantiated investigations. Can you explain what is contributing to that trend in our reporting? 

Tiffany Wright I don’t think I can answer for reporting. I do know that we did experience less reporting as we were coming out of COVID. And then as things have started to return to normal we’ve seen reporting increase again. 

So I know 22-23 was where we really started feeling like things were back, kids were all like all back in school, things were happening. We were getting back to more normal life than what we had been prior. I can’t just say it’s just that. I can’t give you just that. But I would say maybe this is something we might glean from the ISP that was approved today as well. 

Representative Ryan Rose I guess the sense that I’m getting at is I think if we were seeing broadly there is less child abuse, right, something’s working and we’re seeing less child abuse, we would be celebrating that in some ways. But I’m not really hearing it. But when we look at the reports, we are seeing we have less substantiated cases and we’re accepting less maltreatment reports. And I’m just wondering if there’s any other indication for why that’s taking place. I would think that’s a metric we’d want to know. 

Tiffany Wright Yes. I would say yes. And I think that there’s probably different things that are happening. There’s not just one significant thing that’s impacting that, if that makes sense. 

Representative Ryan Rose Sure, and I’m guessing maybe you’re still culling some data and maybe developing why is this happening and are there good things happening. Or are we missing things? Is that–?

Tiffany Wright Yes, sir. 

Representative Ryan Rose Okay. All right. Thank you. 

Senator Ben Gilmore All right. Seeing no further questions. 

Tiffany Wright I’m good. 

State Police: Crimes Against Children report

Senator Ben Gilmore All right, dismissed. Thank you, Director. Okay. Looks like we have our friends from the State Police. Ms. Rogers, if you would, please come to the table. And without objection, we will hear the July through September report. 

Kalika Rogers Good afternoon. My name is Kalika Rogers. I am the Child Abuse Investigations Program Administrator for Crimes Against Children Division with State Police. Before I present this July through September report, I do want to answer the representative’s question regarding the child abuse hotline. They do use an interpretation service. You’re welcome. We will be going over the quarterly report for July through September of this year. 

You can find the hotline call volume on page two. Our child abuse hotline received 17,335 contacts. And CACD handled 1,766 of those. DCFS handled 5,881, while 1,912 were differential responses to DCFS. On page three, it shows the allegations by the type that were investigated by CACD. And that’s in a monthly breakdown. On page four, it will show the cases reported by mandated reporters. 

On five, you’ll see the monthly breakdown of the investigations that were open and closed. Within this three-month period, there were 1,703 cases opened and 1,421 closed. Of the 1,421 that were closed, 419 of those were found to be true. And that gave us a substantiation rate of 30%. There were 3,077 investigations active at the end of this quarter, with 472 of those being open over 45 days. 

On pages six and seven, there’s a breakdown of the cases by county. On pages nine and ten, that will reflect the reported allegation types and the alleged victim age groups. On pages 11-20. That’s going to show the relationships between the alleged offender and the alleged victim with the age groups of the alleged offenders. 

And then on pages 21 through 29 will be a breakdown by judicial districts for our prosecuting attorneys and the cases that we submit to the prosecutors. And that’s broken down by the number declined, the number filed, and the total that were still pending. On the bottom of page 29, it’s going to show you that we had 684 cases submitted to our prosecutors. And then 175 of those were still pending criminally. And that’s the end of our quarterly report. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Okay, thank you. Looks like we’ve got some questions. So starting with Representative Beaty. 

Representative Howard Beaty Thank you, Mr Chair. I’m over here. 

Kalika Rogers Yes, sir. 

Representative Howard Beaty My question more is related to the staff or your division. How many employees do you have in the division? 

Kalika Rogers We currently have 72 of 73 investigator positions filled. 

Representative Howard Beaty Are you just investigators? I mean, are there other folks in the division? Who mans your hotline? 

Kalika Rogers Our child abuse hotline has one administrator. It has five supervisors and 30 of 35 operators. 

Representative Howard Beaty So 35 operators. Looking back at this, the number you had in here for that three month period, you had 17,000 calls and 30 operators? 

Kalika Rogers Yes, sir. 

Representative Howard Beaty All right. I’ll get back in. I’ve got some other questions on that, but I’ll get back in the queue. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Thank you. Representative Duke, you’re recognized. 

Representative Hope Duke Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for being here today and for this information. My questions kind of go around what you do with this data or what we can do with this data, I guess is part of it. So on the crimes against children that are sexual in nature, are you all compiling the data in any more comprehensive, I guess, maybe fashion than just foster parent, great grandparent, mother? I mean, I guess what I would like to see is how many of these children who are being violated is by a biological parent. I know you have the data. Is there a way that we can– 

Kalika Rogers Break it down further? 

Representative Hope Duke Yes. 

Kalika Rogers I can get back with you on that. We can check to see if we can do that. 

Representative Hope Duke Thank you. And along those lines, on these crimes against the children that are sexual in nature,  do you have the information, I guess, as far as– I would like to know, maybe other members would– the technology pieces that may be a part of this crime with a child. And also if that crime against a child, drug related as well. How often are those together, hand in hand? 

We’ve got a child being abused sexually in some fashion, and there’s alcohol, drugs of some nature that are also in place with that as well. I’m assuming that data is there. I don’t know if it’s in a place where you can easily get it together, but I would like to see that. I think that would be helpful for us, as far as policy goes forward or conversations that take place in the future in regards to other policies on how much those are hand in hand and those things. 

And can you also see the trends in the past? Because obviously technology is a new piece that wasn’t part of our lives years ago, but also there’s been a lot of changes just in our society and culture. So can you see if there are trends that are happening with our children and with our families and with our culture in relationship to the sexual crimes? It seems to me that it just seems to be exploding. Every time I open up the paper, there’s another crime against a child that involves sex. 

Kalika Rogers Right. 

Representative Hope Duke And I can’t even believe the conversations that I’m having, but that’s the reality we’re living in. And so I would just like to know, what are factors that are contributing to this that maybe we as a society need to address or maybe we as legislators need to address. So if you could get that data to us, I think that would be helpful. If you don’t know it, I mean, I’m going to guess you don’t know that offhand. 

Kalika Rogers No. No ma’am. 

Representative Hope Duke Could you just speculate? Do you see from your all’s work with this? And you nodded your head when I said it seems like the crimes against the sex crimes against children seem to be rising. I don’t think it’s just a matter of their being reported more. I know that COVID had an impact on it. Is there anything that is catching your eye of, wow, these seem to go hand in hand? 

Kalika Rogers Well, approximately 80% of what CACD investigates is sexual abuse. So the majority of the things that we investigate is sexual abuse. And so I can’t really pinpoint that technology or any one thing has a bigger factor on these cases that we’re seeing. But that’s something that can be looked into. 

Representative Hope Duke Well, I guess what I’m wondering is whenever this is being reported is– and I realize it depends on the nature of it and those types of things and where the reporter is, whether it happened at school or whether it’s at a doctor or whatever. 

But I guess I’m curious if sometimes some of this abuse is taking place because we’ve got parents who also have or family members or people that have been brought into the home for a variety of different reasons that also have a drug addiction that is part of the problem or have– I think the pornography addiction goes hand in hand, right? 

But I feel like the conversations besides just having the data, knowing what else is going on whenever that accusation is being made and then it’s being investigated, does this person also have an alcohol problem that is contributing to poor judgment and things like that. That’s what I’m trying to see, because I’m not just looking for solutions policy wise. 

I’m looking for solutions that I can take back home as a community, and what can we work on to better support and help and make a difference so these kids are not being– the numbers actually go down for real legitimate reasons. 

Kalika Rogers Right. 

Jeffrey Drew Major Jeff Drew, Commander CACD. Right now there’s nothing present in our reporting system the way we could separate that data. If it’s included, it would be included in the narrative part of it, which we would not be able to extract from the system like that because it’s not reported separately. 

Representative Hope Duke So if those were contributing factors maybe or something– if a parent is under the influence of something and they’re also committing– or not just a parent, because that’s one of the things I’m curious about is how much of this is family. And I’m also curious how far back did the family member’s crimes against their children– is it rising or is that staying the same from what it used to be in past years? 

Are we seeing a higher number of actual biological parents committing crimes against their children? Or is this kind of just staying level in the years going back? But there’s no way for you to see for us to know if a kid under the influence of cocaine did something against this child or another or a– 

Jeffrey Drew Right now, the reporting system does not show a contributing factor. It’s a little bit different. Let’s say like an accident report is going to show all those different things, contributing factors, whether they were asleep, under the influence and all that. That particular information is not captured on our reports. 

Representative Hope Duke So if it’s not captured on the reports as it’s being investigated, can our parents– I don’t want to assume it’s parents because a lot of these are not parents. Is there a way to extract, I guess, that there is another issue going on here as well? There’s a really big one here, and I don’t know that fixing this issue fixes this issue that’s a deviant issue here. But is that something that is pursued in, okay, well they’ve got an addiction as well as this behavior here that has got them reported? 

Kalika Rogers I think that information may come out during the investigation. That may be gathered, but it’s not in our reporting system. It’s not a checkbox or anything that will separate or create data to where we can pull it and say, Okay, this many investigations involved drug abuse or this many investigations involved certain things. So that information may come out in that investigation and be documented in the narrative, but not necessarily where it can be extracted in our reporting system. 

Representative Hope Duke And I understand that and I appreciate it. I guess where my mind is going on this is how can we warn people of the slippery slope that you may find yourself going down when you engage in certain behaviors that it can take you further than you ever wanted to go. 

I mean, that’s I guess what I’m trying to look for is, as leaders in different ways in our communities, how do we warn young people, young adults, older adults or whatever that this can take you into darker places than you could possibly imagine, which I think are conversations people have around pornography as well. 

But it doesn’t seem like we’re having them as boldly as we need to probably be having them, especially when you look at these reports and knowing that is an impact from sometimes some of their choices in private. So thank you. That was helpful even if it doesn’t– you did help me with the answers, even if you couldn’t give me specifics. Thank you. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Okay. We have several in the queue. So going first to Representative Bentley. You’re recognized. 

Reduction in accepted hotline calls

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you, Chairman. Thank you guys for being here today. So I want to ask the same question that Representative Rose asked Director Wright. So we’ve seen a decrease in the number of cases that have been accepted once. 

The report comes and a call comes in, we have a 6% decrease in those that have been accepted. Any idea why? Any thoughts on your end and why we’ve seen a decrease of calls that are being accepted? 

Jeffrey Drew I couldn’t attribute it to any type of pattern or trend. I know sometimes we’ll have, say, the reports that come out of the school system. We may have four, five, seven reports of the same allegation coming from that because everybody wants to report as a mandated reporter. They want to be protected. 

The only trend that I saw, I know we did have a decrease during the COVID time period, but we are catching up now. I think we’re on pace to pass last year’s numbers as of now. But to credit it to a trend, I don’t know if that would be possible. I don’t know if that would be education or people being more aware of what’s taking place.

Senator Ben Gilmore Thank you Representative. Representative Karilyn Brown, you’re recognized. 

Representative Karilyn Brown Thank you, Mr. Chair. This question could be answered by either of you if you could contribute some information. I know you don’t keep the data, but amongst your officers and the conversations that you have, is child sexual abuse material typically referred to as child pornography, is that found in these locations where children are being abused sexually? Are you finding what we typically refer to as pornography?

Jeffrey Drew Is the question referring to the way it’s referred to as pornography or CSAM? 

Representative Karilyn Brown What we typically call child pornography, which I think is a misnomer, it should be like child sexual abuse material, are these kinds of materials found when someone is arrested for sexually abusing a child? Or could these children also be being exploited? 

Jeffrey Drew In some cases that there will be. ICAC, which is the over the internet stuff, normally handles the CSAM information. But there have been relations to both as far as what’s actually happening and what they have in their possession. Yes, ma’am. 

Representative Karilyn Brown Thank you. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Representative Beaty, it looks like you’re back. You’re recognized. 

State Police response to family and unnecessary sexual exam

Representative Howard Beaty Thank you, Mr. Chair. Major, since you came to the table, I feel like I’d like to ask you the question. You sat through this meeting at the beginning and you heard Representative Bentley present her ISP. You heard the discussion. You heard the parents talk about the treatment of their daughter. Do you have an opinion or a position on that that you’d like to share with this committee since this involves your area of expertise? 

Jeffrey Drew Not confirming or denying that that report came in. We’re going to do what we need to do to find out the truth to protect these children. Sometimes that’s going to make people uncomfortable, but we’re going to do what we need to do to make sure that we protect the ones that need to be protected. 

Representative Howard Beaty Well I think listening to the testimony of those parents made a lot of us in the legislature uncomfortable. So we appreciate the job you do and we hope that that you will be involved in this ISP and be a partner in making certain that we move forward with taking care of some procedures that protect our children and our parents in the state. 

Jeffrey Drew Yes, sir. Just to jump on a little bit more– I probably should leave it alone– if you look at the report sometimes, or quite often, when you see the numbers there, I think we’re trying to separate biological and all that, the parents are the ones that’s violating on these kids.

 And just because, and I’m not speaking of the family that was just here, but of course if you are the one that’s violating against that child, you’re going to protect yourself as much as possible. And if you gotta say that you weren’t doing anything, this shouldn’t have been happening and all that, you’re going to do it. We’re not taking anybody for their word. If we can look into it and find out what’s going on, we’re going to do that. That’s what we’re responsible for. 

Representative Howard Beaty Follow up, Mr. Chair? 

Senator Ben Gilmore Follow up granted. 

Representative Howard Beaty Since we went down that path, based on your experience and expertise, parents that are innocent, that are not conducting these heinous acts against their children, are they as willing to go through the hoops and to be as forthcoming with the information and follow the procedures and schedule appointments and do the things that those two parents did with their daughter? Or do they try to back away from it? 

Jeffrey Drew You will have the illusion oftentimes of a cooperative parent. 

Representative Howard Beaty I’m not asking about an illusion. I’m asking are they as willing to move through the process and do all the things that these parents were doing? Or do they back away and try to resist and become angry? I didn’t hear anger out of that testimony from those two parents. 

Jeffrey Drew Sir, I don’t feel comfortable saying how somebody would react in particular situations because everybody reacts differently. I’m not saying that this family were not being forthcoming. We’ve seen deception in that form as well. 

Representative Howard Beaty Well I appreciate your answers. Thank you. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Okay. Representative Rose, you’re recognized. 

No presumption of innocence?

Representative Ryan Rose Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to follow up on that same line of questioning. I guess I was a little caught off guard by what you just said. I understand the importance of investigating thoroughly. But it almost sounded as if there is no presumption of innocence from what you just said, that we have to treat– I don’t want to misquote you, but I’m summarizing, paraphrasing– we have to treat everybody like they’re offenders in order to find out if they’re offenders. 

And in this particular case it resulted in the violation of a five year old child. So I would assume that there is some room to improve the approach. But it sounded like the approach is we’re going to treat everybody like they’re the worst kind of bad guys out there until we know that they’re not. Am I mischaracterizing your statement? 

Jeffrey Drew Yes, sir, you are. If there’s a road that we need to go down, we’re going to go down it. We are going to talk to each person professionally and provide a courtesy to them. We don’t go into anything accusatory. But if we have something that comes to our attention, we’re going to look into it. 

Representative Ryan Rose Could you expound upon, ‘If there’s a road we’re going to go down, we’re going to go down it?’ I’m not exactly sure what that meant. 

Jeffrey Drew If I receive information that you are involved with something, I’m going to inquire about it. Once I ask you about it, I’m not going in blaming you for anything or saying you done it, but I’m going to speak to you about it. We’ve cleared it up, and I can move on to the next phase, if that makes sense. 

But we want to check and see what’s taking place with a child, especially when there’s an unknown offender. In this particular situation, we had what was presented to us as something that took place. If something is presented to us of a certain nature, we’re going to look into any unknown offender, where it could have came from. 

Representative Ryan Rose All right. It may be difficult because of semantics. I’m still not certain that I understand the position that you guys are holding here. 

Jeffrey Drew I’ll be glad to speak–

Representative Ryan Rose I know there’s some others in line, so I’m going to hop out for now, Mr Chair. Thank you. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Get back in if you need to, Representative. Representative Dolly Henley, you’re recognized. There we go. You’re recognized. 

Representative Dolly Henley Thank you, Mr Chair. I just want to know some more information about the hotline employees. Are they at an office there at headquarters. Are they at their home answering these calls? 

Jeffrey Drew No, everybody’s housed at State Police headquarters.

Hotline call volume

Representative Dolly Henley And when I look at that number, 17,000, I mean that seems like a large number to me. But when I break it down by per month or per week or per day, boy, when I get down to that bottom line, it’s not a lot of calls. And I understand that it’s not going to happen systematically or evenly for each day. Can you tell me the average number of calls your hotline operators answer per day, per week, or do you have that data? 

Jeffrey Drew I believe on average, each operator will handle over– it varies. I’ve seen operators take as many as 300 calls a month, some as little as 150. 

Representative Dolly Henley And would we assume that some operators answer zero calls? 

Jeffrey Drew No, they all should be answering calls, ma’am. 

Representative Dolly Henley Can you just provide an example or just a spreadsheet of, like, 1-30 employees, how many calls are taken? Because my math just doesn’t work. 

Jeffrey Drew I can get that number to you, ma’am, an actual number. 

Representative Dolly Henley Thank you so much. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Okay, Representative Hope Duke, you’re recognized.

Representative Hope Duke Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I want to follow up on this line of conversation we just had. So did your division ask for the child to have the exam? Or was it Children’s hospital that asked for the child to have the exam? 

Jeffrey Drew Ma’am, I can’t answer a question directly in this form. 

Representative Hope Duke Okay. Okay, let me try this then. Should it be at the discretion of a hospital to push the parents into that? Or should it be a law enforcement issue? I mean, there’s a difference to me on a hospital and a doctor asking for something and a law enforcement officer asking for something. 

And my understanding in this is that the officer at that time said, we don’t think there’s an issue here. And the two nurses that worked at the Children’s Advocacy Center said, we don’t think there’s an issue here. But Children’s hospital pushed the issue. Am I misunderstanding that? Because there’s a difference to me in a medical professional asking for something and law enforcement officer asking me for something. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Colonel, if you’d like to answer, please recognize yourself for the record. 

Jason Aaron Lieutenant Colonel Jason Aaron with the Arkansas State Police. Without getting too specific on it, I can tell you that information was disclosed in that hotline call of a diagnosis that was made by a medical professional, which triggered events to follow that. 

And so as far as a determination to be made for a further medical exam, that decision is made from a medical professional. And I would say on that same token, just for example, a rape investigation, that police officer or that investigator does not make that determination of that rape. That a medical professional, the crime lab medical examiner makes that determination after conducting their examination in their area of expertise. 

Representative Hope Duke So in this instance, it sounds like there was conflicting opinions from the nurses and from Children’s who had not examined, I guess, other than just the exam of whether these warts, no, they’re not, this is something more or whatever it was. So what happens if there’s a conflict between the two medical professionals? Because it seems like there was in this one. 

Jason Aaron And I think as a result of that investigation and that conflict, the untrue or unsubstantiated finding was determined. 

Representative Hope Duke After she had the exam. 

Jason Aaron Correct. 

Representative Hope Duke And was videoed. 

Jason Aaron Well, and that’s either CAC’s procedure or that medical facility’s procedure that was in place. That is not the Arkansas State Police’s or DCFS’s procedures to take place. That’s not our decision to make or procedures to put in place. 

Representative Hope Duke So whose authority would have been to say, No, we’re not going to video it? We can do this, but–

Jason Aaron It would be that provider who is conducting that evaluation, I would assume. 

Safety of children in investigations

Representative Hope Duke And then I guess the question that no one– I haven’t heard anyone say when we talked about, and you weren’t here. I mean, it troubled me a little bit that we had the service animal in there. And we talked about the comfort and all that. But I was also troubled by the fact that there was some other adult in there watching this child’s exam who, under my understanding, is not a medical professional and not a law enforcement officer but is a the guide or whatever the terminology is for this service animal. 

And is there anything policy-wise that deals with that? Because I’m sitting here thinking of my kid. And I told one of my colleagues a few minutes ago that when they first put the metal detectors in the airports where you scanned them, I cried when my little five-year-old went through it. I’d never seen anything like it, and I could not believe that was happening. I mean, not a crazy cry, but it hurt my heart that my daughter was doing that. 

And I cannot imagine that parent and what she felt and what she went through. And we have to have some pause on what’s going on here. And then the fact that now there’s a video out there and there’s this other person that she didn’t know from Adam that was in there watching the whole thing too. I understand that you’re wanting to protect kids and I understand you all see the ugly all the time. And maybe there’s a jade there that happens a little bit that you just can’t not investigate it. 

But there’s so much that’s troubling about this. I hope it troubles you guys in the way this went down and what happened and what this family is dealing with because there’s a lot here. And it really concerns me if a medical provider has that much authority in this situation and these types of situations. 

Because parents, I mean, we’re all pretty much trained to, okay, what do you want us to do? Law enforcement, we want to agree. We sure don’t want to lose our kid. And there’s just something wrong here. And I hope this study helps figure some of this out. But I hope as you wait for this study and changes to happen, there’s conversations that happen internally to make some changes too. Because something like this, in my opinion, shouldn’t ever happen like this again. Thank you. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Representative, if I may, and to those in the queue, I appreciate your concerns, your comments, and they’re, I think, appropriate. However, I will say we’re going to have far more conversations about this issue with the ISP. And I would ask, if we have something specific to this report, let’s do it. I’ve given some leeway, but I will give some more if it’s pressing. But I would ask that we hold those for the ISP then the study. So Colonel, I’ll let you respond to the representative’s statement and question if you wish.

Jason Aaron Well, I’d like a minute. Colonel Hager and I spoke with Representative Bentley and we welcome this study. We are always welcome to this, for a constant review. And we continually monitor the system that we have in place. We also encourage that we look at the Child Maltreatment Act. 

I ask that we have the different entities that are involved. I think we need to look at the Child Mild Treatment Act first before we look at procedures to take place as far as the hotline and investigative procedures, because we need to make sure the statute is correct before we implement procedures operation wise that are going to conflict. Because changes need to be made to the Child Maltreatment Act. It hasn’t been touched in years. And we need to look at it. And I think that obviously that time is now because of 2027 we’ll be here before you know it. So we welcome the study. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Okay. Any other questions? All right. Seeing none, I think this conversation will continue. Just a quick question. I meant to ask this of Director Wright, and I will ask her to come back to the table just briefly. And I will be the only one asking this question, so don’t worry. And real quick, Major Drew, before you leave, how much time goes into compiling this report? The ones that were presented? Your report? Hit your mic, if you would. 

Jeffrey Drew It doesn’t take too long. Once I get the monthly reports that are involved with it, I can normally get the report done pretty quickly. There’s a lot of data within our report that we’ll have to receive from DCFS first because they are the owners of the system. 

Senator Ben Gilmore I understand. So director, same question to you. How much time, in the stack reports, how much time is that? 

Tiffany Wright So I have a contractor. I contract a person who pulls out all the data and puts them together into those reports. And then obviously pulls out the data for that. So I can ask him an estimated amount of time to pull it all together, if you would like, and give that back to you. But I would guess a significant amount of time.

Senator Ben Gilmore So no one dedicated to DHS or DCFS is compiling that. It’s a contract through a vendor? Okay. Perfect. Thank you very much. 

Tiffany Wright You’re welcome. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Seeing no other business, I think we are adjourned. Thank you for your time.