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Auditors say DCFS missed thousands of initial response deadlines; call for stronger supervision
Summary
A legislative performance audit found the Division of Child and Family Services missed roughly 3,200 initial "priority" response deadlines in about 23,000 cases from fiscal 2025 and identified supervisory and fatality-review weaknesses; DHHS officials pledged reforms and new monitoring tools.
A legislative audit presented to the Social Services Appropriations Committee found that the Utah Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) failed to meet required initial response timelines in roughly 3,200 of about 23,000 cases reviewed from fiscal year 2025, and auditors warned those failures reflect gaps in supervision and could pose safety risks for children.
"For our audit, we did an in-depth case review and we analyzed more than 23,000 cases from fiscal year 2025 alone," said Brian Dean, legislative deputy auditor general, in the committee hearing. The auditors described office-by-office variation in performance and said missed "priority deadlines" — the timeframe for a caseworker to make a face-to-face contact after an allegation is received — were concentrated in certain offices.
Why it matters: Auditors told the…
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