DCFS Child Abuse Hotline, LAHelpU Call Center Return to Normal Operations

BATON ROUGE, LA - Service has been restored to the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services child abuse reporting hotline and LAHelpU Customer Service Center, following repairs to service providers in Texas that had been knocked offline by Hurricane Beryl.

Louisianans may return to reporting child abuse and neglect to the regular toll-free hotline number, 1-855-4LA-KIDS (1-855-452-5437). The LAHelpU Customer Service line at 1-888-LA-HELP-U (1-888-524-3578) has also returned to full service.

DCFS will continue to monitor both the hotline and LAHelpU line throughout next week to ensure services remain stabilized.

Both toll-free lines had been unable to receive calls from AT&T numbers earlier this week due to an apparent disconnect between local carriers and Lumen Technologies, whose data center in Houston had been knocked offline after the storm. DCFS and its call center vendors set up a temporary alternate child abuse reporting line, while systems in Texas were being restored.

The temporary alternate child abuse hotline number (206-792-7510) will remain up and running for now, as the telecommunications services impacted by Hurricane Beryl continue to re-stabilize. Anyone who has trouble connecting to the toll-free number is encouraged also to reach out to their local telecommunications carrier or provider for additional guidance.

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