RELEASE: July 9, 2005

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Reducing Caseloads Remains a Priority for DYFS
Workloads for individual child welfare caseworkers down nearly 30 percent

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In the year following approval of the Child Welfare Reform Plan, the Division of Youth and Family Services cut workloads for individual caseworkers by nearly 30 percent, a significant drop due mainly to hiring hundreds of new caseworkers.

At the end of June, the 38 DYFS local offices had a total 1,995 caseworkers supervising 32,425 families, or an average 16.25 families per worker. That represents a 28 percent decrease from July 2004, when the 1,515 workers in the local offices supervised an average 22.5 families.

Still, Human Services Commissioner James Davy said it is clear that the caseloads must be reduced even more before workers can be expected to deliver the comprehensive, first-rate casework envisioned by the reform plan.

“Clearly, we are better off than a year ago,” Commissioner Davy said. “But the average caseload is still higher than it should be, and there are still some workers carrying high caseloads. We need to address those issues.”

Davy said front-line hires, including 125 caseworkers and 33 supervisors, will be moved up from October to August to help reduce workloads.

“In addition, we will continue working with the managers of our local offices to see if cases can be reassigned or staff can be reallocated to give relief to any workers who are still carrying large burdens,” Davy said.

During the first year of the reform, DYFS made significant organizational changes, adding six local offices and beginning to phase out the six Adoption Resource Centers (ARCs).

Also, workers in each local office were divided into distinct units – one to investigate new abuse or neglect allegations and another to supervise families on an ongoing basis.

Statewide, DYFS added 378 new caseworkers during the year, Davy said.

The Local Offices saw an even larger staff increase, however, because more than 100 ARC workers were transferred to those offices. The remaining ARC workers and the families they supervise will be transferred to Local Offices by the end of this calendar year.

DYFS will hire 30 additional staff to support the 158 new front-line workers and supervisors who will be added next month.

In addition, another 269 non-caseload-carrying positions were scheduled to be added later in the year. Davy said all of those positions will be evaluated and, if necessary, some could be converted to front-line caseworkers and supervisors.

Davy said DYFS will also continue projects to identify and close cases on families who no longer need state intervention yet have remained under supervision because workers were unable to complete all the requirements to close the cases.

The state Department of Personnel has approved payment of overtime to supervisors and caseworkers to review and close such cases.

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