Non-compliant state child services agency seeks analysis of standards

DCS officials revealed the agency lacked the staffing required to meet the standard in all but one of its 19 regions when presenting to a committee of state fiscal leaders in preparation of the Indiana General Assembly crafting a new, biennium state budget in 2015.

But DCS is not asking the state for more funding to hire more family case managers. Instead, they plan to launch an analysis of the workload standard to see if the current state law is realistic.

“The goal is not to keep throwing positions out there without at some point conducting a reassessment where we can improve processes, shift administrative functions, where we can leverage technology more effectively,” said Doris Tolliver, DCS chief of staff.

To comply with the law, at least 77 additional case managers are needed statewide, Tolliver said. Vanderburgh County would require approximately 10 more case managers, with Warrick County needing approximately four additional case managers, according to agency figures for last fiscal year.

DCS determines whether a region is complying with the law using a monthly average of cases handled by family case managers. Under the law, family case managers in a given region should not average more than 12 new cases or 17 ongoing cases. The law enacted in 2007 follows a national standard.

The news caught the highest ranking Indiana Senate Democrat off guard. Senate Democratic Leader Tim Lanane, who wrote a letter to Gov. Mike Pence regarding DCS’ non-compliance with the law, said the agency planning to launch a study wasn’t a “very satisfactory answer.”

“We certainly wouldn’t say to our citizens ‘Well, it’s optional for you to follow the law and you can take a look at how we ought to change this law as an excuse for not doing that,’” Lanane said.

The state, Lanane said, should tap into its $2 billion budget surplus to fund the 77 family case managers.

“I mean a budget is about priorities and if protecting our children isn’t our highest priority then our priorities are wrong,” Lanane said of upcoming budget talks. “And I’m going to make that argument and I’m going to make that debate…Due diligence requires we carefully explore this issue and get answers that are not half baked but will satisfy us that we are doing everything we need to do to protect children.”

DCS not meeting the standard comes as the agency is seeing an uptick in cases. In 2013, the agency opened an office in Vanderburgh County to handle calls from the agency’s child abuse hotline, where callers anonymously report suspected cases of abuse or neglect. Since beginning the hotline, DCS has experienced an increase of more than 71 percent in reports and received 187,475 reports in 2013, according to agency figures.

The agency is meeting the standard in its central office, which handles collaborative care and institutional assessment cases. Region 16, which covers Southwestern Indiana, would need approximately 18 more case workers to comply with state law, according to agency figures. The region covers Gibson, Knox, Pike, Posey, Vanderburgh and Warrick counties.

The numbers are fluid because staffing numbers can change on a monthly basis, said Melanie Flory, DCS Region 16 manager.

“We constantly have openings,” Flory said, “and I think that’s our battle maintaining the number of family case managers that we need.”

Protections are in place, Flory said, to ensure staff have manageable workloads. Family case managers meet with supervisors weekly to look at the number of cases they are overseeing, including the number of children and types of cases. In Region 16, cases are assigned on a rotating basis, but family case managers can be pulled off the rotation if they’ve had to do several removals in a week or they are working on a fatality or near fatality case.

Counting Cases

Caseloads are counted in a variety of ways across the country, Tolliver said. Some states look at the number of children. Others base it on the type of cases or have different caseload standards for new workers and more seasoned workers.

Studying the standard is a “prudent” step, DCS Director Mary Beth Bonaventura said.

“For us to keep using a standard that might be outdated or obsolete isn’t being good stewards of the public’s money,” said Bonaventura, who explained the agency wants to do its homework “to make sure we know we’re doing the right thing.”

Bonaventura said whether a DCS region complies with the law is a “moving part” because the agency doesn’t know how many cases will be brought to the agency or dismissed.

Tolliver said the agency planned to take a “fresh look” at the work family case managers perform when addressing the State Budget Committee in November. The agency decided to commission a study to look at the workload standard because Tolliver said family case managers have seen a number of changes to their tasks and duties.

“We know that the job duties that family case managers perform have changed. I don’t want to say dramatically but it has changed to a fair degree,” Tolliver said. “We’ve specialized a number of functions.”

In an effort for the agency to meet the state law, DCS has worked to reduce staff turnover through starting a peer-to-peer support system and implementing a salary increase for field staff, Tolliver said.

State Rep. Gail Riecken, D-Evansville, said she wants the state to put into place training programs in Southwestern Indiana for family case managers. Riecken said she and state Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, have spoken with officials in hopes of bringing training to the University of Southern Indiana.

“We got to get creative in how we are going to attract and keep people in that field,” Riecken said.

Traveling to Indianapolis for training to become a family case manager can be difficult for someone who is working or still going to school, which is why training at a location in Southwestern Indiana is important, Becker said.

“Then you could have a whole pool of people who could go to work for them…I think that’s something that would really help in the long run,” Becker said.