Credit: PA Internet News Service
A recent report of a year-long review of Pennsylvania’s Children and Youth Aervices (CYS) has state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale calling the system “broken.”
The 80-page “State of the Child” special report assessed both the strengths and challenges of the state’s child-welfare system, specifically focusing on county CYS caseworkers.
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“What I found for my ‘State of the Child’ report is appalling. I’m talking about wholesale system breakdowns that actually prevent CYS caseworkers from protecting our children from abuse and neglect,” said DePasquale. “Children are being horribly abused and neglected in Pennsylvania every day.”
The Auditor General noted that “heartbreaking stories” happen every week, including toddlers kept in cages, newborns left home alone and starving school-age children locked in filthy rooms.
According to a recent release by DePasquale’s office, after the audit of ChildLine, he knew that further investigation needed to occur.
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“We spent nearly $2 billion dollars in 2016, yet 46 children died and 79 nearly died from abuse that year,” he said. “What really disturbs me is that nearly half of the children who died were in families that were already known to CYS.”
The special report contains seven report observations and 17 recommendations for improvement. It highlights five interlaced challenges that severely impact caseworkers’ ability to do their jobs effectively. The report signifies that there is a “difficulty finding enough qualified professionals who then receive inadequate training to handle the job’s heavy caseloads and burdensome paperwork; the position also has remarkably low pay, leading to breath-taking turnover rates.”
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“Intake caseworkers tend to be new college grads, fresh out of school and looking to make a difference in the world. These are new professionals who often lack real-world experience with the types of volatile situations they encounter and are expected to manage,” said DePasquale. “They are not trained in crisis management. They are not trained in motivational interviewing skills. They are not trained in self-defense. They are not trained to spot hazardous meth labs. They are just some of the people who put their own health and well-being at risk as they enter dangerous situations and make life-changing decisions for the most vulnerable among us.”
DePasquale’s major recommendation is for DHS to create an independent child protection ombudsman position so that one person within the department is tasked with advocating for Pennsylvania’s at-risk children. Other recommendations include revamping requisite training, reducing paperwork and assessing whether using new technology could allow caseworkers to spend more time in the field with troubled families.
“As a society, our goal must be clear: No child should ever be mistreated, because one abused child is one too many,” DePasquale said.
