Contact Legislators Now!!

Social Services Consortium Members,

Yesterday I was in a meeting all day and had one of my staff send out the legislative alert concerning the additional $2 million for Child Protective Services Worker positions being cut from the budget. I wanted to follow up with some more details and again encourage you to call and e-mail ASAP as the budget is currently scheduled to be completed on Monday. Yesterday they passed yet another Continuing Resolution (CR) to extend the current budget into next week but they need to have the new budget completed by Monday to have time for the required votes to pass it into law before the current CR expires. That means the final details of the budget will be completed today and through the weekend.

The $2 million for the CPS positions was in both the House and Senate budget. Under the General Assembly rules, budget items that are the same in both the House and Senate budget are not contested when the conferees meet to work out a compromise budget. The removal of this money violates these rules but as we have seen in the past, they can always find another rule to trump an existing rule if needed. We still have precious time left to let the Appropriation Chairs know that the money is greatly needed to protect North Carolina 's most precious resource – its children!! Please, please contact the legislators listed below today.

FIRST CALL then E-MAIL!!! Talking points are listed below along with the legislators we need to contact. Note that the Senators listed below are different than yesterday.

THANKS!!!

Karen

Caseloads are Too High
North Carolina has implemented a system reform effort in 52 of the 100 counties called the Multiple Response System (MRS). This new way of responding to reports of abuse and neglect has been shown to be more proactive and provide better outcomes through the interventions it employs to protect children and help families succeed.

- A caseload of 1:10 is needed to effectively implement MRS. A Duke University study of MRS recommended that an effective caseload size under MRS should be 1:8 worker/client ratio . We are striving to reach a 1:10 ratio which has been achieved in the 52 MRS counties but still have a 1:12 ratio in the remaining 42 counties.

- Caseloads that are too high contribute to turnover. The national turnover rates of child welfare staff—which affect both recruitment and retention efforts—has been estimated at between 30 percent and 40 percent annually nationwide, with workers' average tenure being less than two years. The inability to retain staff contributes to the existing unmanageable caseloads.

- Caseload sizes must be reduced to effectively impact the well-being of families. The amount of caseworker contact has shown to directly impact the permanency outcome of child welfare cases.

- Caseloads are high, but workloads are even higher due to the growing complexity of each case. Substance abuse most often occurs with a finding of abuse or neglect, but mental illness, domestic violence, HIV/ AIDS, other poverty-related problems are also often present.

- For every change in caseworker, there is a significant increase in the time a child spends in the system. Caseworker consistency is essential to the successful outcome of child welfare services.

HOUSE

Speaker Jim Black

P: (919) 733-3451

P: (704) 847-9938 ( Mecklenburg )

E-mail: Jimb@ncleg.net

Rep. Jim Crawford ( Co-chair)

P: (919) 733-5824

P: (252) 492-0185 (Granville, Durham , & Vance)

E-mail: Jimcr@ncleg.net

Rep. Beverly Earle (Co-chair)

P: (919) 715-2530

P: (704) 333-7180 (Wilson & Edgecombe)