SOUTH BEND – The number of reports of child abuse and neglect that have been determined not to merit further investigation has more than doubled statewide since Indiana’s Department of Child Services moved to a centralized call center.

But critics say the changes made under Director James Payne, including funding cuts that they contend reduced access to programs for children, have resulted in a reluctance to act appropriately on reports of abuse and neglect, with sometimes deadly consequences.

“How many more kids will die before we all take a deep look at what is going on with child welfare services in Indiana and reverse the draconian cuts in funding and see how those cuts are negatively affecting the safety net of child welfare?” Bruce Greenberg, CEO of the Family and Children’s Center in St. Joseph and Elkhart counties, wrote in response to an announcement that the region had been lauded for performance.

The recognition followed the beating death of 10-year-old Tramelle Sturgis after more than three years of abuse, the South Bend Tribune reported.

Gov. Mitch Daniels responded to reports that Indiana had one of the nation’s worst records of protecting children in 2005 by appointing a new DCS director and pledging more state money toward hiring case managers in an effort to reduce caseloads across the state.

Payne, a former Marion County juvenile court judge for 20 years, has led an effort to hire and train 800 new case managers and institute more consistent policies and create more systems to review cases.

The changes have also shifted the hotline used to report suspicions of abuse or neglect to a centralized office in Indianapolis instead of in local offices. Since the change, the number of calls determined not to merit further investigation has risen from 16 percent to 39 percent statewide.

The state also has taken control of the money for child services and streamlined what it spends across the state, negotiating contracts with agencies and residential treatment facilities and refiguring its pay rates for foster and adoptive parents.

Many working in the system say the changes have reduced access to programs for children and limited judges’ ability to order treatment programs.

They also question the DCS emphasis on keeping children with their families under its “Safely Home-Families First” policy.

Critics say that leaving children in homes where there is potential abuse or neglect is dangerous.

DCS says removing children from their homes unnecessarily can inflict greater emotional damage.

In the Sturgis case, a caseworker who interviewed the children in their father’s presence found the reports of abuse unsubstantiated.

But earlier reports had already been purged from the CPS database because they had been ruled “unsubstantiated” under current state law, which requires that such reports be kept for only 120 days.

The case has spurred Sen. John Broden, D-South Bend, to introduce a bill that would amend that storage requirement to at least three years.