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Report: Dropped Calls Plague Child Welfare System

A new report on Maine's child welfare system finds it's plagued by insufficient training and poor technology that leads to dropped and abandoned calls.

Independent firm Public Consulting Group says in a report released this month that Maine must boost its training, adjust caseloads and staffing ratios and improve its technology to better serve children and families.

The report found a live person answered two-thirds of roughly 6,100 calls to the welfare hotline in 2018.

The firm interviewed child welfare staffers and held listening sessions across the state.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills' administration says it'll draw up a plan to put such recommendations in place through 2020.

Lawmakers, caseworkers and advocates have raised concerns over Maine's child welfare system in the past year following the deaths of two young girls.