STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
Forced to reassess itself following high-profile deaths in recent years, the agency charged with protecting children from abuse and neglect has hired hundreds of new workers and, based on Gov. Charlie Baker’s latest budget, could reach a two-year hiring total of 600 new positions.
Department of Children and Families Commissioner Linda Spears, who reviewed the agency in her prior role at the Child Welfare League of America, told legislative budget-writers Tuesday at a meeting in Springfield that the agency has updated many policies and will be in compliance with a 2014 licensure law later this year.
Spears said Gov. Charlie Baker’s budget proposal – which would give the child protection agency an additional $30.5 million in a lean budget year – would support a director for each of the department’s 29 area offices.
Baker’s budget also transfers $24.2 million in domestic violence services contracts from the Department of Children and Families to the Department of Public Health. Those contracts provide service regardless of DCF status, Spears said. After accounting for that offloading of costs, which Spears said DPH supports, the children and families budget would increase $54.7 million, or 6 percent, over last year’s budget.
The governor also asked for another $15 million for the Department of Children and Families in a mid-year fiscal 2016 spending bill filed Friday that was referred on Tuesday to the House Ways and Means Committee.
The department has updated its protective intake policy – something Baker has highlighted – and established a supervision policy for cases that need higher-level review.
Saying the department needs to focus on the fundamentals of its mission, Spears likened past practice to “eating dessert before you get to the meal.”
The new policy “allows us to get out on cases more quickly” and creates a review for “complex cases,” Spears told reporters. She said training of staff in both of those new policies has already begun.
Spears reported that the percentage of licensed social worker staff at the department is at 90 percent, up from 44 percent a year ago. The fiscal 2015 budget directed the commissioner to require the licensure of social workers.
The department also hired a social worker licensing coordinator to track licensure and expects to achieve full licensure by October, according to Spears.
Sen. Joan Lovely, a Salem Democrat, recalled an incident where she said a child was born addicted to drugs and was then reunified with the mother after a short period.
Spears said there has “not been a common protocol” for reunification, but that is “on the table for discussion.”
Lovely also questioned the lack of drug-testing, asking, “Why is that when you know the child was born to a drug-addicted mother?”
Spears said drug tests can be faked and are unreliable, and noted many people in drug treatment are already undergoing testing.
“Mandates for drug testing are complicated,” Spears told reporters.
The department is hiring new medical social workers for each of the area offices and five additional substance abuse coordinators. An additional 270 social workers have been hired so far this fiscal year, Spears said. Between fiscal 2016 and fiscal 2017 – Baker’s first two budget years as governor – the department plans to have hired more than 600 new staff.
As state government trimmed its ranks through an early retirement incentive program last year, the Department of Children and Families backfilled all the vacated positions, according to Spears’s written testimony. The department has also teamed up with the social worker union SEIU 509 on “retention strategies” and is developing a plan to retain and train foster parents.
Linda Sagor is the Department of Children and Families first full-time medical director, overseeing compliance with requirements for medical screenings and consulting on complex medical cases, Spears said.
In the first half of fiscal 2016, there has been a 13.8 percent increase in adoptions compared to the first six months of fiscal 2015, according to Spears’s testimony. Spears said the increase is likely related to more children entering the system in recent years.
With a goal of a weighted 18-to-1 caseload ratio for social workers, Spears said the department was at “19.3, 19.4” as of September.
They know nothing about the BS these people are putting families through, when my daughter was beat by her x boyfriend DCF appeared and took away her son, then they dug up a 20 year old case that was dismissed on her, made me move out of my home, endangered my already failing health, have not allowed me to see my grandchild despite the fact that the child’s pediatrician confirmed there was no abuse or neglect. They have threatened my wife, and my daughter, plan on adopting out her sons. They took my daughters 2nd son 12 hours after birth claiming she had a substance abuse problem, my daughter does not drink smoke or do drugs. We have written numerous letters to officials including Gov. Baker with no help. All we hear about is a 20 yr old case that was dismissed by the court but still on file as allegations with DCF. We love our grandsons and they love us. I have no5t even seen my new grandson and this has been going on for over a year. Had numerous let6ters from people as to our integrity as parents and grand parents, all ignored Social workers have made threats, serious threats to us.I’m 68 and my health has deteriorated. Both my children recanted the allegations from 20 years ago but DCF claims that recanting is not acceptable. They want my daughter to be homeless to get her children back, have asked my wife to lie and say she can’t live with her. I became homeless at their suggestion that they would send the grand children home if I moved out, then it was move far away. I came from a dysfunctional family that was prone to fabricating stories about our childhood, some of which I was never present for because my parents had me sent away when I was 10 and I never went home again.I can get glowing recommendations from many people in the community, both friends and professionals. But nothing matters to these people. We are poor and can’t afford legal counsel, nor to live separate.I have serious life threatening terminal medical conditions, and they told me to go ahead and die. Over 90 per cent of this is recorded, the lies, the games, the promises and the hurt. They could monitor our home 7 days a week and never find anything wrong. Where do you turn when a powerful organization has stolen all you live for, your very reason for existing. My wife is disabled as am I, my daughter is on social security due to problems she ended up with after being in foster care 20 years ago, she still has nightmares about the abuse in foster care and the horror stories would bring tears to your eyes. But they say they need more help, to take more children, they even came to our home told us they were closing the case, the caseworker had a long weekend and left, Monday they came back with police, with no warrant no court orders, same with the new born and took the children, there was apparently no imminent danger because it took the caseworker over 4 months to take our grandson,In so doing they violated constitutional rights, we didn’t know that at the time the 4th and 14th amendment under color of law. Is this justice or terrorists at our door. And they should know the difference between allegations from people that are mad at you or don’t like you and actual proof, I can say martians came and took me for a ride in a spaceship but that doesn’t make it so.Governor Baker we are good people, and we want our lives back, I want to see my grandsons before I die. You can contact me at alilbitasoul2@aol.com if you have any questions, anyone is welcome to contact me. I pray that this type of thing stops and our lives are given back, I want to live out my last days with my wife and my family. Anyone with similar events in their lives can contact me at that email anytime… God Bless