Teachers and school officials are by far the most frequent callers to the State Central Register for Child Abuse and Maltreatment, filing nearly 4,700 reports in New York City from November through January, according to ACS.
Those numbers tend to dip in the summer months, while children are not in view of teachers. When schools shut their doors in mid-March, and kids retreated into their homes, concerns that serious cases of neglect or abuse would go unnoticed during a time of intense family stress loomed large.
As of April 9, call volume to the State Central Register had decreased slightly, according to the state Office of Children and Family Services, which declined to provide actual figures without a formal Freedom of Information Law request.
Jeannine Smith, a spokesperson for the agency, stated that “it would be premature and inaccurate to consider this a trend.”
Under a decade-old agreement with ACS, the Department of Education instructs its personnel to call the hotline whenever “a parent fails to ensure his/her child’s prompt attendance in school or keeps the child out of school for impermissible reasons.”
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