According to “Pennsylvania’s child abuse hotline still leaves too many calls unanswered”:
“Nearly 42,000 calls to Pennsylvania’s child abuse hotline were unanswered in 2015, according to an interim audit report released Tuesday by the state auditor general’s office. The ChildLine hotline was “constantly understaffed” last year, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said. Twenty-two percent of all calls to ChildLine in 2015 went unanswered; nearly one-third of all calls received in 2014 and 2015 were not tracked or documented, and supervisors monitored an extremely small number of calls — only 7, or 0.005 percent, the interim report said…
“We laud the advocates, including Palm, who pressed for the ChildLine audit. And we appreciate that the Wolf administration seems dedicated to fixing ChildLine.
“But it’s a dismaying reality that this most essential, most basic tool for ensuring the safety of children in Pennsylvania remains a work in progress.”
What the editorial fails to delve into is what happens when the Hotline operators receive complaints. Is important information conveyed to the proper authorities and, if so, do the authorities follow up?
If the Hotline has so much trouble just answering their phone we question that they would be effective in taking the next step.
