(Des Moines, Iowa) – Officials with Families United Action Network (FUAN) announced Saturday, that Iowa Representative Ako Abdul-Samad and Senator Mark Segebart introduced the FUAN False Allegations Protections Bill to Change the Child Protective Services (CPS) Tip Line from Anonymous to Confidential.

Officials say the purpose of the proposed change is to show connections to false allegations to the Iowa DHS Child Protective Services division in high conflict custodial divisions in order to hold those accountable of false reporting under Iowa Code, that cannot be accomplished under the current, anonymous call-in reporting system.

FUAN says “Currently, high conflict divorces frequently result in false reports made to DHS by or on behalf of one of the parties. Whether founded or unfounded, these reports often affect the accused party negatively in custody battles while the accuser benefits. DHS takes approximately 37-thousand calls a year about child abuse. Of that 37-thousand, about one-third of the reports are rejected right away because they don’t meet the agency’s criteria. On the other 25-thousand, when they send out an investigator, two-thirds turn out unfounded. This usually is the result of someone with a personal grudge trying to cause a problem.”

Jerry Foxhoven, former Director of the Iowa Dept. of Human Services (DHS) says “It is important to protect individuals reporting child abuse when they have a good faith belief that abuse has occurred. However, intentional false reports put children at risk by diverting resources that should be dedicated to protecting children who are truly at risk.”

The introduction of Senate File 2148 and reintroduction of House File 373 would seek to recommend a legislative study into Child Protective Services call-in reporting line. It would also recommend change to the Iowa Child Protective Services in-call reporting line from anonymous to confidential by adopting similar verbiage to Connecticut’s call-in reporting script.