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Child abuse Hot Line employees will face unspecified “consequences” as a result of not following established procedures and accepting a call hours before 5 year old Phoebe Jonchuck was thrown from a Tampa Bay bridge. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the Department of Children and Families appeared before lawmakers today to explain “missed opportunities.”

It has been just over a week since a critical incident report into the death of 5 year old Phoebe Jonchuck found the Department of Children and Families missed two chances to  accept hot line calls that could have triggered department intervention.

“I’m just worried that he;s out of his mind” said one caller. “Right” responded the hotline worker.

DCF Secretary Mike Carroll told a House oversight committee one call was refused because of confusion over an intervention matrix. But on the second call, the ball was simply dropped. “It’s a personnel issue. It’s not a systemic issue. And one which we will deal with appropriately.”

Rep. Gayle Harrell, Chair of the House Children Families and Seniors Subcommittee folowed with a question. “Do we need to really take a better look at the training of individuals?” she asked.

Carroll responded.  “You then undergo a 13 week training, so we invest a lot of time in their training.”

Afterward, Carroll would not specify what consequences hot line workers might face.

“We look at the the error that occurred and that persons career with us and what type of work they did and the calibre of work they did. But clearly, there will be consequences.”

Q:“Is that termination, is that…”

“there will be consequences.”

“Not ready to say yet?”

“No.”

DCF accepts four out of every 5 calls to the abuse hotline…now it wants to start tracking what happened when they didn’t accept the call.

Committee Chair Gayle Harrell wants to continue focusing on training. “Supervision is just not checking boxes and making sure you did what you were supposed to do. Supervision includes teaching and mentoring.”

Last year the hot line spent 30 million dollars upgrading technology.

The agency says the stress of working nights weekends and holidays making decisions about terrible situations is making it hard to hire the right people.