Posted on Sat, Jan. 03, 2009

Nearly 1 in 10 serious child abuse and neglect cases wasn’t investigated by Child Protective Services within the required 24 hours in fiscal 2007, according to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, which oversees CPS.

An additional 15 percent of cases, designated priority-two complaints, weren’t investigated within 10 days, the agency’s data show.

In Tarrant County, there were 17,786 allegations of abuse and neglect, and 15,215 were assigned for investigation. About 10 percent of priority-one cases, or 292 of 2,806, were supposed to be investigated within one day but weren’t.

Darrell Azar, a department spokesman, said complaints may not be investigated on time for a number of reasons, including that the state worker didn’t meet the standard.

Another "reason may be you may not be able to find the family at all," he said. "Because they run or they hide or they disappear. That happens quite a bit."

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— Darren Barbee

http://www.star-telegram.com/state_news/story/1121325.html

Emphasis added by H4K Editor