It's one thing to be rudely inconvenienced when unable to reach a government agency. Lord knows that trying to get through to the Internal Revenue Service can be the extreme exercise in frustration, but when lives are at stake, it truly becomes a matter of life and death.

That is why Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale's recent report about ChildLine, the state's hotline for reporting suspected child abuse and neglect, is so alarming."Our report shows 42,000 unanswered calls in 2015," DePasquale said.Any one of those calls could have left children across the commonwealth in dangerous situations. His department's office cast part of the blame on inadequate funding, which has led to meager staffing of this important service, but it also scolded the agency which supervises ChildLine for not being aggressive enough in holding legislators' feet to the fire to get that funding.ChildLine, which is operated by the Department of Human Services, has been in existence for 40 years. In the past few years because of more stringent laws, call volumes have increased at ChildLine, which operates 24 hours a day.DePasquale said the situation is urgent. "The critical problems our audit team has found so far simply cannot wait even another few months until this audit is finished," DePasquale said. "The Department of Human Services and ChildLine officials need to take corrective action immediately to save children's lives," he said."I'm sounding the alarm as early as I can on these issues because even one unanswered phone call means there could be a child in a life-threatening situation who needs help," DePasquale said. "The ChildLine system hasn't been functioning in a way that leaves me any confidence that a child can get help when it is needed."Here are the scandalous statistics that have been uncovered:• 22 percent of all calls in 2015 went unanswered.• ChildLine was constantly understaffed in 2015.• Nearly one-third of all calls received in 2014 and 2015 were not tracked or documented.• Supervisors monitored just 7 calls in 2015, or 0.05 percent of all calls answered.When a call comes in to ChildLine, it can be answered, meaning the caller is able to report suspected child abuse or neglect; abandoned, which means the caller hangs up while waiting in the call queue, or deflected, meaning that, once the call queue is full, subsequent calls are immediately terminated. As of Oct. 15, 2015, the queue could hold 30 calls at any one time.The report also found that callers had to wait longer than normal. The average wait time last October was 6.7 minutes, and the average in November was 5.7 minutes. In a crisis situation, this can seem like an eternity.Looking at the numbers shows how frightening and unacceptable this situation is. In 2014 and 2015, ChildLine received a total of 353,268 calls. DePasquale said nearly 42,000 calls were not answered, meaning they were either abandoned or deflected. "That is alarming and unconscionable," DePasquale said."Any single one of those unanswered calls could have been a life-or-death situation - and even one neglected or abused child in the commonwealth is one too many," DePasquale said.DHS's goal is for 4 percent of calls to go unanswered. The goal was met in 2014, but not in 2015. However, DePasquale called even that percentage unacceptable. "DHS's goal should be to answer and track the outcome of 100 percent of the calls," he said.In 2014 and 2015, a total of 111,245, or one-third of all answered calls, did not generate reports that were tracked in any way. DHS told auditors that these were calls that provided no information or concerns regarding a child, but because DHS does not track all calls, it could provide no documentation to support this claim.At no point in 2015 was ChildLine adequately staffed, auditors found. They also discovered that DHS does not determine minimum staffing levels based on the expected volume of calls; instead, levels were based on staff availability and the desire to keep overtime limited.According to the agency itself, the mission of ChildLine is to accept calls from the public and professional sources 24 hours a day, seven days a week.Cultural sensitivity and courteous demeanor will be displayed at all times to all callers. ChildLine will provide information, counseling, and referral services for families and children to ensure the safety and well-being of the children of Pennsylvania.Anyone, even children themselves, can report suspected cases of child abuse. That is why it must be terrifying for a child or youngster who fears for his or her well-being to be on hold for many minutes."It's time for DHS to immediately hire enough caseworkers to handle ChildLine's call volume," DePasquale said. "It is imperative that trained professionals be available and ready to answer the public's calls."In typical Harrisburg fashion, lawmakers voted to strengthen child-abuse laws in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal but did not provide the funding necessary to effectively enforce it, DePasquale said.This is just the third time since DePasquale has been in office that he has decided to issue an interim report. He said this situation is so compelling and urgent that he felt it was mandatory to let the public and legislators know how urgent the situation is right now. The final report is expected by the end of the year.By Bruce Frassinelli |

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