Fewer accepted hotline calls, fewer foster kids — But…

But… Lawmakers Aren’t Convinced Arkansas Kids Are Safer

At the same Capitol hearing where lawmakers heard wrenching testimony from a family about a traumatic child-abuse investigation, Arkansas’s child-welfare chief walked them through the hard numbers of a hard subject.

Those numbers show tens of thousands of maltreatment calls, a shrinking foster care population, and better compliance on some key benchmarks. They also show uneven workloads, placement instability, and a puzzling trend: fewer maltreatment reports accepted and fewer cases substantiated, even as legislators say they see no sign that child abuse itself is actually declining.

32,574 hotline reports — and 6,922 kids in “true” maltreatment cases

Tiffany Wright, director of the Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS), gave a big picture for state fiscal year 2025:

• 32,574 child maltreatment reports were accepted at the child abuse hotline.
• 26,407 of those were assigned to DCFS for investigation.
• 6,922 children were involved in maltreatment reports that were ultimately found “true.”
• About 64% of true reports involved neglect as a finding, she said, noting that a child can have more than one allegation attached to a case.

Timeliness and case closures: a mixed picture

On timeliness, Wright’s report card gave lawmakers a split-screen:

• The timeliness of starting investigations (Priority 1 and 2 combined) and
• The timeliness of finishing them.

At the end of SFY 2025, DCFS was closing investigations on time about 75% of the time, which Wright acknowledged was “less than the prior state fiscal year.” In the first quarter of SFY 2026, that number improved to 80%, which she credited to “some strategic work” focused on closures and differential response.

The timeliness of closing differential response cases climbed to 73% for the year and 84% in the first quarter of SFY 2026.

Rep. Mary Bentley praised the trend, especially the push for face-to-face contact with children in open cases. “I see some really good results,” she said, adding that she liked seeing the increase in in-person visits.

At the same time, Wright acknowledged that workloads, turnover, and documentation remain constant pressure points. When asked if supervisors are spot-checking case files to ensure documentation is happening in real time, she said some are, but “probably just not as consistent as we need to.”

Foster care: fewer children in care, but stability still a problem

Wright highlighted one of the biggest shifts in recent years: the total number of children in foster care.

• Arkansas ended FY 2025 with 3,390 children in foster care.
• About 2,100 children entered care during the year and 2,200 exited.
• Over the last few years, the number of children in care has declined by roughly 700.

The reasons kids enter care are largely unchanged:

• Neglect accounted for 51% of entries.
• Substance abuse was cited in 41% of entries.
• Children can enter care for more than one reason.

On the exit side:

• 42% of discharges were due to reunification with parents.
• 24% were due to adoption.
• Overall, 91% of children exiting foster care during the year left to a permanent arrangement: returning home, placement with relatives, adoption, or another permanent plan.

Placement types and stability were more worrying:

• 35% of children in foster care were placed with relatives.
• 24% were in non-relative foster homes.
• In total, 77% of kids were in some kind of family setting, rather than institutions or group homes.
• 74% of siblings with siblings in care were placed together — a number that has remained stubbornly flat.

On placement stability, Wright was frank: “We still do have work” to do. Just 37% of children achieved permanency within 12 months, a slight decline from the previous year. Re-entries into foster care after reunification were at 5.4%, meaning a small but significant share of children return to care after going home.

Adoption: more older kids finding permanent families

On the adoption side, Wright highlighted several numbers:

• 197 children were legally “available for adoption” at the end of the year.
• After accounting for children likely to be adopted by relatives, DCFS is actively recruiting families for about 178 of them.
• The state finalized 546 adoptions during the fiscal year.
• 36% of those adoptions were finalized with relatives.

In the first quarter of FY 2026, children ages 10–17 made up 34% of finalized adoptions — a notable point, given the longstanding difficulty of finding permanent homes for older youth.

She told lawmakers that in just one recent month, DCFS was able to move 30 children in those situations across the finish line to adoption, but finalizing “kids who had been waiting for thousands of days” can make the average time from termination of parental rights to adoption look worse.

Caseloads: statewide average looks good, some counties don’t

One bright spot Wright emphasized: average caseloads have come down.

• The statewide average caseload is about 17 cases per worker, below the agency’s goal of 20 or fewer.
• But that number hides wide county-by-county variation.

Rep. Joy Springer, who has pressed for workload data for years, pointed to the map in the back of the report showing county-level averages. In Pulaski County, the average caseload is about 23.3. Wright noted that Cleveland and Lafayette counties have caseloads in the low 30s, reflecting staffing shortages and turnover.

“It appears that Pulaski County has the highest case workload per employee,” Springer said, before Wright pointed out the two smaller counties that are even higher on average. The pattern, Wright said, is driven by “staffing turnover and having to move cases and staff and try to balance out the work.”

Rep. Beaty, who has been outspoken about workforce issues, told Wright he didn’t envy the job and called the children in the system “the most vulnerable part of our state.”

Fewer reports, fewer substantiated cases — but is abuse actually down?

The most unsettling line of questioning came from Rep. Ryan Rose, who walked through a series of trends in the 2024 family preservation report:

• From 2022 to 2024, Arkansas accepted roughly 2,200–2,300 fewer maltreatment reports statewide.
• Over the same period, the percentage of reports substantiated dropped from 22% to 19%.
• The recurrence rate (repeat maltreatment within 12 months) is lower than the national standard, which is good.

Rose’s concern was not that the numbers looked bad — but that they looked too good without a clear explanation.

“I don’t believe that there are indicators broadly that there is less child abuse taking place in our state, unfortunately,” he told Wright. “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?” he asked.

Wright said she couldn’t point to a single cause. She noted that reporting dropped during COVID and has since rebounded as life returned to normal, but suggested that more analysis — potentially through the interim study lawmakers approved earlier in the day — may be needed.

Rose pressed the underlying question:
If the numbers say fewer reports and fewer substantiated cases, but no one believes abuse itself is actually decreasing, is the system missing something?

That tension between improvements the numbers clearly show and the gaps legislators still fear may be the central takeaway from Arkansas’s 2025 child welfare “report card.”

The data look better in many ways. But the trust issue is far from resolved.

Numbers Overview

Hotline Calls & Investigations

• 32,574 child-maltreatment reports were accepted at the hotline in FY 2025.
• 26,407 were assigned to DCFS for investigation or differential response.
• 6,922 children were involved in “true” maltreatment findings.
• 64% of all substantiated findings included neglect.
• 1,831 reports involved multiple hotline calls about the same child or family.

The first-quarter update for FY 2026 shows:

• 8,589 reports accepted.
• 1,692 children involved in true findings for the quarter.
• 66% of true findings involved neglect.

Timeliness & Case Closures

Performance improved but remains uneven statewide.

• Investigations closed on time:
  • 75% at the end of FY 2025
  • 80% in early FY 2026
• Differential response closures:
  • 73% at the end of FY 2025
  • 84% in early FY 2026

Documentation continues to be an agency-wide challenge, with ongoing efforts to give workers “protected time” to write case notes and complete required entries.

Foster Care Trends

The foster care population continues to shrink:

• 3,390 children were in foster care at the end of FY 2025 — down by roughly 700 from two years earlier.
• 2,100 entries and 2,200 exits occurred during the year.
• Entry reasons:
  • Neglect: 51%
  • Substance abuse: 41%
• Exit reasons:
  • Reunification: 42%
  • Adoption: 24%
• 91% of children exiting foster care achieved a permanent arrangement (return home, relative placement, adoption, or another permanent plan).

Sibling placements:

• 74% of siblings in care were placed together — a number that has remained stable and difficult to improve due to large sibling groups.

Placement stability:

• 37% of children reached permanency within 12 months (a slight decline).
• 5.4% re-entered foster care after returning home.

Adoption

• 546 adoptions were finalized in FY 2025.
• 36% were finalized with relatives.
• 197 children were legally free for adoption; after removing expected relative placements, DCFS is actively recruiting for about 178.
• Older youth are increasingly finding homes: 34% of adoptions in the most recent quarter involved children ages 10–17.

Workforce & Caseloads

Statewide averages look good, but local workloads vary sharply.

• Average caseload: 17 cases per worker, below the state goal of 20.
• Some counties — including Cleveland, Lafayette, and Pulaski — carry significantly higher averages due to turnover and staffing shortages.

DCFS highlighted several internal efforts: stronger training, improved supervisor preparation, secondary-trauma support programs, and monthly county-level data monitoring.

The Big Picture

The data shows:

• Fewer children in foster care
• Faster case closures
• More older youth adopted
• Higher compliance with required visits

At the same time:

• Neglect remains the dominant finding
• Placement stability has not significantly improved
• Sibling placements remain difficult
• And the system still faces documentation and workload challenges that affect consistency around the state.