Concord
Under the proposal, child protection workers can get four hours of overtime a week to close cases, at an estimated total cost of $153,161, Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeffrey Meyers said. Child protection staff are currently compensated with time off for working extra hours. The agency will seek outside help if the plan isn’t effective, Meyers said.
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu and Meyers recently put the head of DCYF on administrative leave after a Monitor story revealed the agency suspended some normal procedures to close out more than 1,500 open investigations over two days last year.
A recent outside review found DCYF doesn’t have enough staff to respond to incoming abuse and neglect reports. Only 21 percent of assessments reviewed in the sample were completed within the 60-day time frame, leading to the backlog.
In his budget, Sununu proposed spending $2.2 million a year to boost staff and training at DCYF. House budget writers decreased that amount by roughly $400,000, Meyers said, which could cut training money.
Meyers told the Special Joint Committee on DCYF that once the budget gets to the Senate, legislators should consider also funding voluntary services, which were cut by the Legislature roughly five years ago. Now, only the most problematic parents with founded abuse reports can get child care or counseling paid for by the state.
“Even in cases where there’s not a founded case, it doesn’t mean a family couldn’t benefit,” Meyers said.
The current budget funding would allow the agency to hire an additional 20 child protection workers and two staff attorneys, he said.
DCYF has been under scrutiny at the State House since two toddlers with whom DCYF was involved were killed by their mothers in 2014 and 2015.