I was shocked and dismayed by the recent Indianapolis Star report on the Indiana Department of Child Services.

Six Indiana children who died of abuse or neglect last year had been investigated by Child Services but left with their abusive parents. Equally appalling is the fact that DCS investigated a smaller percentage of reported abuse cases and is substantiating abuse in a smaller percentage of cases investigated than five years ago.

The rate of repeated abuse within six months of DCS intervention has remained virtually unchanged from 2004 at about 8 percent.

This all happened after the governor promised reform and DCS hired nearly 800 new staff in 2005.

However, these disturbing issues are only the most visible symptoms of the real problem – the drastic continued cuts in DCS funding and reallocation of the money spent.

DCS has many programs to serve the needs of children, but most are reactive to abuse that has already happened or at least been reported.

The two programs geared specifically to prevent abuse and neglect of children are Healthy Families and Community Partners.

In-home services of these programs are provided by non-government organizations which contract with DCS. As DCS has cut its payment rates, local organizations have been forced to do fund-raising to serve the children.

The trend in the amount and allocation of DCS funds is an alarming travesty. Total spending went from $587 million in 2008 to $679 million in 2009 to $544 million in 2011.

The amount spent on actual services declined by more than 10 percent from 2008 to 2011, while administrative expenses increased by more than 30 percent from $155 million to $206 million.

The cuts in prevention services were even more severe as all state funds for Healthy Families were eliminated and Community Partners saw significant reductions.

Despite the fact that families needing services were denied or put on waiting lists, DCS returned more than $103 million to the general fund in 2011. DCS plans to make even deeper cuts over the next two years, even though demand for services is at an all-time high due to the lingering recession.

As the economy improves, Indiana must allocate more to services for children, especially prevention of abuse and neglect. Legislators and the public should demand that DCS spend the funds it is allocated in a wise manner and look to reduce the $206 million in administrative expenditures. Failure will lead to more abuse and neglect and more horrible deaths for our children.