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Department officials report child‑protection caseloads and hiring push; committee seeks per‑worker assignment data
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Summary
Administrators reported improved investigation completion and said 16,961 protection cases exist with 7,035 assigned and 822 awaiting reassignment; the committee asked for a breakdown of case assignments per social worker within five days.
At the April 30 budget hearing, legislators asked the Department of the Family about the status of child-protection referrals, investigations and staff capacity.
Secretary Susan Roy Fuentes and the department’s investigative administrators said the agency receives about 700 calls weekly and that roughly 60% of calls convert into referrals requiring attention. Witnesses reported 16,961 protection cases on the department’s books at the time of testimony; of those, the department said 7,035 cases were assigned and being actively investigated and about 822 cases remained awaiting assignment.
Officials said the department has 114 social workers inside the special investigative unit and about 838 social workers at local offices who carry ongoing cases. Administrators told the committee that the investigative unit has increased face‑to‑face investigations — a key management change — and that the department is contracting additional investigators in some regions to manage workload while recruiting permanent staff.
Committee members pressed for precise per‑worker caseload figures. The chair accepted the agency’s request for a five‑day follow-up: the department must provide a detailed, region-by-region breakdown of assigned cases and the number of investigators and social workers responsible for those assignments so the committee can assess workload, recruitment needs, and budget requests tied to payroll and classification adjustments.
Administrators also confirmed to the committee that classification and pay‑scale issues raised by frontline staff had been addressed in part: supervisors who had been misclassified were reportedly reclassified and given salary adjustments and retroactive pay where applicable; the committee requested documentation of those adjustments.
