Department Of Child Services Studying Workloads

The walls of Monroe County CASA are covered with photos of fighters – volunteers who fight for the well-being of children.

"We are a non-profit organization that recruits, trains and supervises volunteers who advocate for the best interests for the children – the children who are in the court system because they’ve been abused or neglected," said Monroe County CASA Executive Director Kristin Bishay. "The advocates are the ones out there doing the work, doing the field work."

Volunteers spend a lot of time outside of the CASA offices, taking books and toys to the children they advocate for, hoping to make traumatizing situations a little bit easier. And, they work closely with the Department of Child Services.

"When the kids are a ward of the state, DCS case managers are the one that basically run the case," Bishay said. "And, our CASAs have to have direct contact on a very regular basis with DCS to make sure that everything’s going smoothly, to share ideas to share information.

But what many volunteers have seen lately is troubling. DCS caseworkersare overworked. Bishay says she doesn’t know a caseworker who logs fewer than 60 or 70 hours per week. And, she says it’s having an impact on kids. 

"We’re losing CASA volunteers because they get so extremely frustrated with the system," Bishay said. "And, they see so much of what needs to happen with a child for a case to move forward and no matter what they do, they just can’t get it done. And, it frustrates them to the point that they leave."

OVERCOMING CONTOVERSY AT DCS
DCS has come under a lot of fire the past few years.

Former DCS Director James Payne resigned in 2012 from his position after he was accused of intervening in a case involving his grandchildren. 

That same year, the legislature formed an oversight committee to address complaints about how DCS handles cases and its lack of preventative services.

Mary Beth Bonaventura took over as the executive director of DCS in 2013. She says this most recent controversy over caseloads is one she’s taking seriously.

"We thought as a team that it was prudent of us to really study our case loads, our work load vs case load," Bonaventura said. "We are doing things somewhat different than we did when the case load standard was established in 2005. And, so we decided to find somebody who could help us with that caseload since we’re not the experts in figuring that piece out."

Bonaventura says over the past two years, DCS has added 246 family case managers. She hopes the study will reveal a more long-term solution to the increasing workloads caseworkers are facing.

In 2009, the DCS hotline fielded 109,000 calls. Last year, that number almost doubled. 

"We’re hoping, and the goal is and the contract is with Deloit, that their study will be done March 15, which is before the end of the legislative session," Bonaventura said. "And the goal is that if we need them, then I’ll go forward and go to the end of the earth to make sure we get what we need to keep kids safe."

RACE AGAINST TIME
But, Senate Minority Leader Tim Lanane is worried about the timing because the state is crafting it’s biannual budget now. He estimates it would cost $7 to $8 million to hire an additional 77 workers.

"If that study determines we need to have 77 additional case workers as we feel is the case, certainly we’re going to have to make that a priority in the budget," Lanane said. "I hope we’re going to be able to do so at that time. I’m going to be the loudest voice out there to insist that will be the case."

Lanane also wants to have plenty of time to examine the results of the study. He wants to make sure its recommendations are about what’s best for children – not what’s best for the bottom line.

"It’s always well worth scrutinizing what’s the data show, what’s the hard, empirical evidence out there as to what is a safe number," Lanane said. "But, that’s got to be key. What are the safe numbers? Not just, what can we get by with. What’s efficient in terms of dollars. It’s what is the safe number?"

Once the study is complete, DCS will determine whether to request additional funding. That money wouldn’t become available until the next fiscal year begins July 1.