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Federal Audit of Child Welfare

December 2002
by Richard Bermack

It’s not news that the nation’s child welfare system is a disaster. The federal government has begun audits of all state child welfare departments. They have audited 33 states including the newly completed California audit. Local 535 field representatives and former child welfare worker Wren Bradley were involved in the process. The federal auditors selected three counties: Los Angeles, Stanislaus, and San Mateo. They interviewed social workers, teachers, families, children, and others involved in the child welfare system and evaluated the counties’ performance from the standpoint of child safety, well being, and permanency (the ability of the system to provide permanent homes for the children it takes into the system.)

So far no state has passed the audit, and California was no exception. The good news is that California met the standard on most of the criteria, which takes a score of 90 in all areas to pass. In many areas California exceeded 90 but ended up with an 89.5 in other areas. Areas of deficiency were the failings of the Child Welfare Services/Case Management System computer, lack of proper documentation for case plans, and workers not meeting the required number of client visitations.

While auditors were impressed with the dedication and amount of time workers devote to their cases, the social workers reported they didn’t have the time to see families and complete all documentation and computer work.

The auditor will present a report on the problems found, and the state will develop and implement a Program Improvement Plan.

Two years from now another audit will be conducted of all 52 counties. If the state doesn’t pass, the federal government could withhold revenues from the state.

For the state to meet these standards, social workers will require more time to visit clients and work with them on case plans. The only way social workers will have more time is if they have lower caseloads and workloads. And the only way the state can accomplish that is to hire a sufficient number of social workers, which may be an impossible task in face of the massive budget deficit.