DCFS reports audit progress but 10‑day response and staffing gaps remain

The Department of Children and Family Services told the Social Services Committee it has made measurable progress on implementing recommendations from the 2024 State Auditor report, but supervisors pressed leaders on whether timeliness gains translate into improved outcomes for children. Michelle Love, assistant agency director, reviewed implementation status for more than a dozen recommendations, noting several items marked "in progress" with target completion dates through 2026 and several already implemented.

Love described operational changes intended to address timeliness and case management: retraining supervisors on the CWS/CMS system, hiring retired annuitants and former supervisors to assist with case closures (about 30 cases per week per hired annuitant), launching a Diverse Ideas work group to surface pain points, and updating the public audit dashboard to include data back to July 2019. She said the department is using a combination of recruitment outreach (job fairs, college mailings) and a March 16 filing/exam to build candidate pools.

On performance metrics, Love reported the department’s dashboard shows an 82.5% completion rate on its immediate 10‑day contact metric for one measure and a 35% completion rate on another 10‑day response metric that the department said it is actively improving toward the statewide target of 58%. She acknowledged staffing is a driver: "We have 70 vacant child welfare worker positions," Love said, and described onboarding timelines (background checks and onboarding typically take 8–10 weeks) and required state training (approximately 10.5 weeks) before new hires reach full capacity.

Supervisors and former Assemblymember Dionne Ehringer asked for outcome metrics that go beyond timeliness — measures such as reentry rates, permanency and quality case reviews — and Love said the department can present federal peer quality review and cohort metrics at a future meeting because those measures use 12‑month cohorts and change more slowly than audit timeliness metrics. The department did not request action during the committee meeting; staff signaled they will return with additional metrics and continued updates to the Board in March.