A state legislative committee is recommending that Iowa create a centralized child abuse hotline. Republican State Representative Dan Boddicker of Tipton envisions a hotline that runs like the poison control center hotline.Boddicker says anyone who suspected abuse could dial 2-1-1 to file a report with the hotline 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. He says suspected cases of abuse would then be turned over to local social workers. Representative Maggie Tinsman, a republican from Bettendorf, says local workers would decide which cases to follow up on because they would know more about individual cases. Boddicker says the hotline won’t end child abuse as he says even with a very well run poison control center, there are still kids who die of poisoning. He says the goal is to eliminate more abuse. Boddicker says the hotline now needs to be approved by the full legislature. The funding will probably be on hold until 2003 or 2004. In the meantime, the lawmakers want to set aside 250-thousand dollars to allow the Department of Human Services to study the hotline idea.
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