Waiting for Helping Hands: An Analysis of the Arkansas Child Welfare Crisis

December 18, 2008 Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF), a statewide, non-profit child advocacy organization, described problems in the state foster care system. AACF reviewed indicators from fiscal year 2008, which ended in June 2008. The key finding was that the number of investigations initiated within three days of a report of abuse dropped from 81% to 65%. The divisions goal is 95%. Child welfare workers performed a timely assessment of a child's safety and home situation only 43% of the time, which is an improvement over the 2007 rate of 35%, but far short of the . . .