Livingston County CPS Referrals Averaging Over 1 per Day

LIVINGSTON COUNTY — With Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent veto on legislation that would have required local social services directors to report annually on the average monthly caseloads of their staff in child protective services, the GeneseeSun.com reached out to Livingston County Officials regarding their caseload averages.

According to Livingston County Commissioner of Social Services, Diane Deane, the County averages between one and two daily referrals.

“In Livingston County we received 635 referrals from the Central Registry in calendar year 2014,” stated Dean in a written response to the GeneseeSun.com. “Caseloads per caseworker vary over the year based on the number of referrals that are received, and the number of caseworkers assigned to the CPS function.”

According to Deane between 2010 and 2013, the average number of open cases per CPS worker ranged from 9.08 to 16.85.  In October 2014, the average number of open cases per CPS caseworker was 10.27.

“In regard to this legislation, data that references numbers of caseworkers and numbers of reports exist,” stated Deane.  “Local districts are best equipped to make decisions about the number of caseworkers assigned to any function based upon circumstances of reports and experience and training of staff. Creating bureaucratic requirements can potentially impede the difficult work we do.”

The vetoed legislation would have required local social services directors report annually on the average monthly caseloads of their staff in child protective services. According to our news partner 13WHAM the governor, in his veto message, says he supports the goal of limiting caseloads to ensure social workers can effectively investigate child abuse and maltreatment. Gov. Cuomo further states that the legislation would add another bureaucratic requirement without providing a useful view of caseloads that have “many variables” like the nature of allegations, complexity of cases and number of children in a household. In her sponsor’s memo, Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo said those staff “face extremely high caseloads” in many social services districts, which is not publicly reported, and that information would give lawmakers the information they need to develop policies.