Parent's Rights Violated, Children At Risk: State May Jail Some Caseworkers After 6,000 Cases Reviewed videos and pictures

by Monica Davis

Angry parents around the nation have claimed that child welfare agencies are corrupt. From non-custodial dads to parents whose children are snatched on bogus abuse charges, many feel the nation’s child welfare machine is both corrupt and out of control.

In Arizona, authorities are reviewing more than 6,000 child welfare cases. They believe that when this review is complete, some caseworkers will be fired, or even jailed.

Critics say a review is worthless, unless policies and procedures are changed.

Reducing and managing caseloads and workloads are not simple tasks for child welfare administrators. Agencies face a number of challenges, including negotiating budget crises and hiring freezes, addressing worker turnover, finding qualified applicants for open positions, implementing time-intensive best practices, and managing multiple reforms simultaneously (Day & Peterson, 2008). Even the basic determination of what caseloads and workloads currently are and what they should be can be thorny.

Nevertheless, States are addressing these challenges and successfully implementing a variety of strategies to make caseloads and workloads more manageable. Approaches range from adding and retaining staff to improving worker effectiveness to implementing system improvements. MOREHERE

According to a federal report, “In 2011, there were approximately742,000 instances of confirmed child maltreatment” SOURCE

Somebody had to investigate those cases. Someone had to do home visits, make phone calls, talke to neighbots, family and investigate. States had to pay investigators. Case managers had to assign cases, and caseworkers had to investigate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYu8v5ANEPw&feature=player_detailpage

Now caseworkers are caught between two opposing forces: budgetary constraints and caseload.

According to the grand jury, the last time CPS’s organizational structure and operations underwent thorough vetting was in 1995.

“Since that time, the county’s population has grown to over 2.2 million, and the prevalence of abuse and neglect has significantly increased,” the report stated.

The grand jury relied on data from 2011 to get an overview of CPS activity. Figures showed 44,737 calls were fielded regarding children potentially at risk.

“Of those, 82 percent were investigated and 21 percent of those were found to be substantiated,” according to the report. “Nine percent resulted in an open case, with 6 percent — 2,438 — of the children being removed from the home and taken into protective custody.” SOURCE

Child and spouse abuse rise during economic downturns, but counties are more likely to cutback, chop budgetds and fire personnel. Caseloads rise, caseworkers can’t keep up, more chhildren fall through the cracks, and the taxpayers start howling on both sides of their mouths.

And where does that  leave caseworkers: overloaded, overworked and scapegoated.