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By Blake Haas
BLOOMINGTON – Child abuse cases are on the rise across Central Illinois, with over 4,400 pending cases.
According to Samantha Stevenson with the Child Protection Network, the latest Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) report shows cases are up across the board.
“Right now in Central Illinois, there are a little over 5,500 confirmed cases of child abuse this far, just in Central Illinois. Again, the total numbers for that last year were just at 6,600. Plus, there’s still another, when we were talking about these cases that are on backlog right now, 4,400 pending cases.”
Of the confirmed cases, over 10,000 children have been affected in Central Illinois.
“There’s a lot of high numbers that we’re not likely to see right now, but it will be interesting to see how those numbers shift at the end of the year,” Stevenson told WJBC’s, Marc Strauss.
Stevenson said part of the backlog is the lack of staff to investigate the cases.
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].