WACO-  Waco Crimes Against Children says they’re seeing more and more schools reporting alleged child abuse cases.

Waco Independent School District says their teachers are trained to see signs of child abuse and to report it. In fact, teachers are required by law to report alleged child abuse within 48 hours of first noticing it.

The four detectives and sergeant in the Waco Crimes Against Children Unit say that timely notification is vital in many of the cases they investigate.

“By doing that, it gives us that other reporting person for the child, another voice for the child by recognizing those indications,” said Detective Fabien Klecka. He says it used to be they might go a month without an incident, but just last week the unit investigated several reported cases at schools.

But why the increase?

Detective Klecka says there are a number of reasons, including children being back at school and building relationships with their teachers who can then recognize problems.

“If a child comes in at 10 o’clock in the morning and is quiet and reclusive, hiding in the back of the classroom and doesn’t want anyone to talk to them, you know something is going on and these teachers and counselors are trained to recognize those signs,” said Klecka.

Another reason he says is the fact teachers are becoming more aware of non-obvious signs and the fact the Crimes Against Children Unit checks into every single report, even if it turns out to be false.

“When a child is injured, we need to investigate and there needs to be reasonable explanations how that child was injured,” said Klecka.

Waco I. S.D. also added training is actually mandated by the state on how to recognize and report alleged child abuse.