Child welfare workers under investigation

All program areas need to be looked at and revamped. All caseworkers/investigators are overworked and under paid. Majority of the caseworkers are living paycheck to paycheck and run out of money before the end of the month because we only get paid ONCE a month. Yet, they still expect you to figure it w/o any support. It is all about the numbers. Workers will get harassed for missing service plans or contacts regardless of what happens. In any other job if you work overtime, you get paid for it instead of having to accrue 250 and then you will get paid down to 240. If you request leave your supervisor has the ability to change your leave from vacation to overtime she your hours don't add up. It's supposed to be about the children but it's not. The State barely has enough resources to help this families and half of them are a joke. There are no resources for workers if our lights are going to get off or we need rent assistance. They pay enough in gross so we don't qualify for any services and take out a lot of taxes where we can barely afford to survive a whole month. They constantly change our benefits and make it more expensive. Mary Walker is a joke she has no clue what is going on. I am sure someone wrote that for her to tweak the focus off the real issue. There is no support from the higher administration and there is no "open door" policy because nothing is kept confidential. Lawmakers need to interview workers about the issues and stop using statistics to help make decision because they have no clue about working 50+ hours, non-stop phone calls, need clients, going into unsafe home environments and dealing with drug dealers, drug addicts and hoaders. Overall, workers are not valued at all and need help from the legislation in order to help workers cope and actually help protect children. Yes, the economy is bad but you can't expect to keep people for the amount of work at 28,000 a year after taxes....

"Protect the Unprotected" is a HUGE joke. The only protection going on at CPS is shady supervisors protecting one another. Dirt can only be done for so long; most of the comments posted on here are made by previous CPS workers who have first hand knowledge of what really goes on within the agency.

stopchildabuse--What I did to stop child abuse: Tell my shady supervisor that a parent needs to be referred to FBSS. This parent already had her rights terminated on one child, a few RTBs, and her mother had her rights terminated. I told the shady program director that what is done in the dark will be brought to light and screwing over people just because you think you are some goddess. I knew what is was like to have a parent call me "a dumb n***er" and challenge the fact that I am educated. I did work for this backstabbing agency and the agency would be better off with getting rid of the names previously mentioned in the comments.

Stopchildabuse has missed the point entirely. That sounds like the same rhetoric spewed out by management at the "Department". Maybe stopchildabuse can explain the turnover rate and all the complaints vocalized by current and former employees? It is not "finger pointing"... IT IS THE TRUTH.

The thing is that everyone is pointing fingers and calling people out, but what are YOU doing to STOP child abuse? What are we doing as a county, as a state, as nation to stop it? Seems like we have lost sight of the reason why there is a child protective service department to begin with, TO PROTECT CHILDREN!!!! Until you have done the job you will never know what the workers go through on a daily basis. I can imagine it is frustrating to have legislators make decisions and policies and just pass them down. It's just like any other "corporation", there are people that have not done the workers job and just call the shots. People experience the same complaints with other jobs; this does not just go on with the department. So STOP COMPLAINING about what happened when you did work there and calling people out. How childish is that? Be an adult and help figure out a way to change the issues and PROTECT the CHILDREN. Seems like this is just some people's way of getting back at those they worked with, instead of making a difference. Maybe the department is better off without these employees.

The problem is, the administration is sweeping every comment under the table and saying that anyone making it is a trouble maker or cruddy worker. And, without workers standing up and filing a suit, nothing will change. I'm still waiting for an attorney to show up here willing to file a class action suit regarding the working environment.

I think kids allowed to watch 'The Jersey Shore' should be considered as a form of child abuse. Like, to the extreme.

I think kids allowed to watch The Jersey Shore is a form of child abuse. Like, to the extreme.

Man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Payback is a sucka. Casey Houghton, Gwen Rocha, Sandra, Dina, Raquel, Anne Rios, and every other supervisor who participated in "cleaning my office," these comments are more than enough to make you wonder what type of job you are doing. For those who comment on former CPS employees and the reasons they are no longer with the agency: Go ahead and equip an invesigator with camera and wiretap them at all times, inside and outside of the office, and see how well you can handle the job. I really enjoyed the work; extremely tiresome but rewarding, but when you have administration who tell you they are there to make you the "best workers ever," and will stab you in the back over two complaints, it really isn't worth it.

I recently left Investigations because of the overload on cases and the lack time I had for my family. For the person that said we only do what we do for a paycheck. If I did anything for a paycheck it would not be this. We need down time because we deal with people who will NEVER CHANGE. We deal with criminals, druggies, drug dealers, violence, having to go filthy houses, poor unfed and dirty children and we have to see it EVERYDAY. We need a break! There are supervisors that care. I had a great supervisor that helped me with my cases. For the jerk that said that the Investigators make assumptions, etc... It's hard not to when you have a positive drug test or see the broken bones not to make an assumption. Your probably a loser parent. For the grandparent whose children are still living with a drug addict, I am sorry the system failed you. Many times it's the laws that keep us from removing children. The problem is there are not enough investigators. Investigators have very high caseloads and our babies aren't safe due to the high caseloads. When your an Investigator, your on 24/7. Parents and grandparents call at all hours and the nights are sleepless because you worry about the children on your caseload. When I was at my end I was told it wasn't a good time for a few days off. I think that what our government doesn't understand is that we suffer. We cannot make sure our children are safe when we get 10 cases a week and have hundreds of children to worry about. What we need is a lawsuit to limit the amount of cases we receive, like they did in Michigan. In addition we need to be paid for overtime instead of being told we can take time off later. There is never time to take the time off. Then you get screwed when you leave bc the state pays less than the hourly rate for all the hours you work in overtime. All of you, quit accusing each other of crap. It's time to talk to your legislators and make a stand on this. A change is in order.