ATLANTA – Georgia’s child protection workers are failing to immediately file reports of suspected child abuse into a statewide tracking system, according to a recent audit.
Entering those intake reports into the computer system used by the Division of Family and Children Services is an important task because it starts the clock ticking on the agency’s outreach to children who may be abused. Once a report is created, caseworkers are assigned to quickly visit the child.
The findings comes after two DFCS supervisors in Columbus were arrested last year and accused of manipulating or destroying initial child abuse reports so it would appear workers were meeting agency rules. While the audit did not uncover any criminal conduct, it does raise questions about how the agency tracks child abuse cases.
DFCS policy requires that reports of child abuse be immediately entered into its computer system. But during the year ending in June 2011, 77 percent of all reports were not electronically filed on the day they were received, according to the audit. That translates into 46,070 of the 60,207 reports received during that timeframe.
Of the total reports, 31 percent were not entered until five or more days after the complaint was received.