Workers quit in droves, citing file load, morale; hiring effort defended

AUSTIN

Child Protective Services, infused with cash and rebuked by lawmakers last year for failing to protect vulnerable children, has so far failed to meet its goal of dramatically increasing the number of investigators in the field.

The reason? Despite a $5,000 pay increase granted by the Legislature, investigators are leaving CPS in droves. Nearly one-third of caseworkers and special investigators walked away in the past year.

The agency had wanted to add 424 investigators in the year ending last month and 848 by next August. But as of Aug. 31, CPS had only 233 more investigators in the field than it did when the agency was deemed to be in deep crisis.

"They're not keeping the people that they have because the working conditions are so bad," said Paula Everett, a 23-year CPS veteran who resigned from the Dallas office in late June.

She and other former caseworkers say morale has sunk because administrators are making investigators work longer hours and turn reports in faster and handle night duties.

"I left because I can't do the job anymore, not because I want to," Ms. Everett said.
Among ex-workers' complaints: That new paperwork requirements are keeping them from guarding children and that they have been made to work for inexperienced supervisors.

A spokesman said CPS has attacked high turnover in several ways, such as hiring hundreds of new aides and clerical workers to relieve investigators of some burdens.

"We're working as hard as we can to not only hire the additional investigators but to keep them, and we're hoping that the turnover is going to decrease this year," said Patrick Crimmins, spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, which runs CPS.

Mr. Crimmins defended the crackdown on late paperwork. He said quicker filing of reports is needed to improve decision-making.
"Casework documentation is not a paperwork exercise," he said. "It's critically important."

He also defended new policies on night duty. All categories of CPS caseworkers used to share on-call duty at night, but now investigators are rightly shouldering the full burden, Mr. Crimmins said.

"Those are the people who are ... trained and are best able to handle those kinds of calls," he said.

From last fall, when the shift of night duties occurred, through June, investigators' caseloads shrunk by 15 percent, he noted. In June, caseworkers' average daily caseload was about 33, down from 47 in October 2004.

Things will have to change if CPS hopes to get from the current total of just under 1,500 investigators to nearly 2,100 by next August. As of Aug. 31, 2005, there were 1,229 caseworkers and special investigators. The agency hired 636 during the year but simultaneously lost 495. At the end of last month, there were 1,462 ? about 600 short of the goal.

Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, who heads the Senate panel overseeing social services, said the agency hasn't informed her of any high risk of not making the two-year goal.

"More people in the field means protection for our children. My goal was to add more people in the field," she said.
Ms. Nelson said her committee will review progress on the overhaul of protective services, including the problem of staff turnover, at a hearing Nov. 14.
"I expect there will be lots of questions," she said.

Expanding the investigative workforce by nearly 70 percent in two years ? which included bringing aboard former police officers for the first time, as "special investigators" ? was a major thrust of last year's protective overhaul package.

For several months before last year's regular legislative session began, The Dallas Morning News and other Texas media outlets extensively chronicled agency failures to prevent abuse deaths ? some by starvation or beating ? of young children it knew were at risk. Many lived in homes CPS investigators previously had visited.

But the workers, saddled with some of the highest caseloads in the nation, didn't remove the youngsters. CPS veterans say sometimes that was partly because workers knew they would fall behind on their other cases because the removal process is so time-consuming.

Gov. Rick Perry, who called the agency "a broken safety net," joined with GOP legislative leaders to propose and pass a bill that demanded lower caseloads, more investigators and better training. The two-year state budget invested an additional $250 million in CPS to pay for the overhaul. Much of the money goes toward hiring more investigators and giving them better equipment and additional support staff.

Ms. Everett and several others who are still with CPS or who recently departed, though, said the agency is squandering a precious opportunity. They blame excessive turnover on wrongheaded edicts and mismanagement, though the agency defends its stewardship and recent policy changes that affect investigators.
Ms. Everett has worked for CPS in several parts of the state and earlier was an investigative supervisor in Dallas for eight years. For the last seven years in Dallas, she ran family preservation units that work closely with investigators, handling families where abuse or neglect wasn't confirmed but is considered likely to occur.
She said incessant demands for investigators to turn in reports faster have frustrated veterans, who no longer feel they can do quality investigations because of paperwork requirements. Many have quit, she said.

"Investigators were not investigating deep enough and thorough enough, and children were remaining in their home when they shouldn't have been," Ms. Everett said. She said her workers then had to remove children from the homes, thus falling behind on other work.
Two investigators who quit recently in the Waco region, Jessica Stermer and Frank Craig, said the $5,000 raise was welcome ? but not worth extra work that came with it.

"We were on call more often. There was more paperwork required. And, ultimately, in my experience, it made the stipend not worth it," said Mr. Craig, 34, who this month quit his job in Hamilton, an hour west of Waco. He said supervisors rebuked him for late paperwork, but complying would force him to forego fieldwork needed to protect kids.

Ms. Stermer, 24, a Texas A&M University graduate, quit the Waco office in June after only 18 months. She said working for inexperienced supervisors created confusion and added to already high stress. The first time she had to remove a child was on her very first case, she recalled.

"My supervisor sent two other brand new workers to assist me," she said. "So nobody really knew what we were doing."

While some supervisors lack experience, Mr. Crimmins said, "it stands to reason ... because we're adding so many more supervisors."

Each supervisor now manages five investigators, instead of six to eight in the past.

Staff writer Reese Dunklin contributed to this report from Dallas.
E-mail rtgarrett@dallasnews.com

WHAT THEY'RE PAID

A $5,000 annual stipend boosted the pay for some caseworkers within Child Protective Services, but many still earn less than schoolteachers and other professionals. What they earn now:

 Investigative caseworkers: $34,600 to $46,900 per year

Special investigators (must have at least two years of law enforcement experience doing forensic investigations): $39,300 to $53,700 per year

HIRING ISN'T HELPED BY HIGH TURNOVER

Excessive turnover is hurting Child Protective Services' chances of boosting investigators' ranks to nearly 2,100 by next August:
1,229 total investigators as of Aug. 31, 2005.
636 hired in last year.
495 quit in last year.
92 employees shifted into investigations in the last year.
1,462 total investigators as of Aug. 31.