The state Department of Children and Families has experienced “a significant increase” in calls from school districts and other mandated reporters of suspected cases of abuse or neglect of minors in the wake of recent police investigations into allegations that school officials have not properly reported suspected abuse in recent months.

In response to the long wait times callers have experienced in trying to make mandated initial oral reports within 12 hours, DCF has upgraded its reporting system, allowing school officials to file electronic reports in “non-emergent child abuse and neglect concerns” and hiring additional staff to address long wait times in telephone reports.

In a memo sent to school superintendents throughout the state on Dec. 4, DCF Commissioner Joette Katz wrote that the new online filing for non-emergency reports of suspected child abuse and neglect concerns started Dec. 5. Katz wrote that the new online filing started as a pilot trial for some mandated reporters of suspected abuse and neglect and is expected to be available to all reporters by Oct. 1, 2019.

“All the news about schools and reporting to the department has created more awareness, and that has increased volume,” DCF spokesman Gary Kleeblatt said Tuesday. “We have adjusted staff and we’re updating the phone system.”

High-profile incidents at Montville High School in April and an ongoing police investigation at Norwich Free Academy that came to light in late August have put the spotlight on state laws that require school officials to report suspected incidents of abuse or neglect of minors within 12 hours of learning of a possible case.

Alleged failure to follow the state’s mandated reporting law led to criminal charges against three Montville school administrators earlier this year, including Superintendent Brian Levesque, who resigned in October.

Police charged former Norwich Free Academy assistant coach Anthony Facchini with two counts of second-degree sexual assault on Sept. 12 for alleged sexual relations with two student-athletes in 2017 and 2018 while he worked at the school. City police and DCF are investigating whether NFA officials who knew of the first alleged relationship in April 2017 failed to report or even attempted to cover up the incident. Police have seized NFA computers and emails dating back to April 2017 from six NFA officials in that investigation.

Norwich public schools Superintendent Abby Dolliver said Tuesday school personnel routinely make referrals to DCF when they suspect cases of abuse or neglect, whether the incidents occur in school or outside school. She said in light of the recent media attention to the issue, Norwich’s calls have gone up. She said she is not involved in all calls and could not say how many or how often Norwich public school staff report possible incidents.

Dolliver said some reporters have ended up waiting on hold for 20 minutes to two hours to speak to a DCF careline staff person to take the call.

“It didn’t used to be that, but now the wait times are very, very long,” Dolliver said. “They’re just inundated with calls.”

“DCF is committed to ensuring that there is a timely and responsive system to accept all calls concerning the safety and well-being of children,” Katz wrote in the memo. “We recognize that the last few months have presented multiple challenges, largely due to the significant increase in the volume of calls and limitations to the phone system.”

Katz described a “multipronged” response to the long wait time, including the new online reporting for nonemergency situations, adding staff to take phone calls and “maximizing advanced technology.”

Preston Superintendent Roy Seitsinger informed the town Board of Education of the new system Monday night. Seitsinger said Tuesday the new system should improve reporting, allowing Preston reporters to prioritize which incidents should be reported by phone and which online.

“I appreciate the efforts of DCF to try to make the reporting more efficient,” Seitsinger said Tuesday. “Our call volume and the way we think about making calls has increased. In one of our most recent calls, we did have a longer wait time than we expected.”

Katz wrote that a mandated reporter who files an initial electronic report shall respond to further inquiries from DCF within 24 hours of the initial report.

In Montville, a week after state police accused substitute teacher Ryan Fish of supervising a handful of slapboxing bouts in his math class in fall of 2017, Superintendent Levesque, high school Principal Jeffrey Theodoss and Assistant Principal Tatiana Patten were charged with failing to report suspected abuse according to the mandated reporter statute.

The incident gained national media attention and sparked staffing shakeups and greater emphasis on mandated reporter training in the Montville school district. All staff received updated mandated reporter training in the spring.

DCF and the state’s attorney’s office — which investigated incidents in the fall of 2017 and how they were handled by administrators — said the administrators did not contact authorities after finding out about the fighting, which students filmed on cellphones and shared on social media.

DCF and the state Child Advocate said at the time that not every schoolyard scuffle must be reported, but fighting that appeared to be encouraged or supervised by an authority figure warranted alerting authorities per the mandated reporter law.

Emails between administrators in the aftermath of the classroom fighting showed they did not discuss contacting either police or DCF. The emails, obtained by The Day via a Freedom of Information Act request, showed the administrators swiftly fired Fish and punished students involved. Levesque at the time said he was only aware of one classroom fight, which he said warranted Fish’s removal but not contacting authorities.

Theodoss retired at the end of August, and the criminal charge against him was later dropped. A judge agreed to dismiss the charge against Levesque a day after he and the Board of Education signed a deal effectively buying out the remainder of his two-year contract.

Patten, whom Levesque put on leave in January and tried to fire earlier this year in connection to the incidents, is due back in court Tuesday, Dec. 18.

No NFA officials have been charged in the wake of Facchini’s arrest, but police said they anticipate further arrests. In Facchini’s arrest warrant and search warrants filed by police, NFA officials admitted learning about the first alleged student relationship in April 2017, but conducted only a cursory, two-day investigation that was closed after Facchini and the student denied the allegations.

Day Staff Writer Ben Kail contributed to this report.

c.bessette@theday.com

b.kail@theday.com