By Blake Haas
BLOOMINGTON – Child abuse cases are rising across Central Illinois, as the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) reports over 25,000 investigations.
According to Samantha Stevenson with the Child Protection Network, those investigations resulted in 6,000 confirmed child abuse cases in 2021.
“So we’re at about that 25% mark, that out of the investigations, 25% have been confirmed. That number is up way over last year in 2020. So that, those numbers might be a little (inaudible) because, in 2020, kids were locked down, they weren’t going to school, they weren’t in front of mandated reporters. But it will be interesting to see if those numbers continue to climb now that we are going back into school.”
Speaking with WJBC’s Marc Strauss, Stevenson said due to the large caseload, detectives, DCFS, police officers, members of the Children Advocacy Center, and social workers are handling the investigations.
“An investigation means that there has been a call or an accusation against the child. And then they have to go out and do their part and report and investigate that. Yea, that number is alarming. I don’t think people really understand how often this is happening. But we would really like to see some work continued to reduce that number and not have that number of over 25,000 investigations.”
Stevenson added that teachers could act as a safety net to stop child abuse with children returning to the classroom.
The Child Protection Network provides financial resources that support the treatment and prevention of child abuse and neglect.
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].
