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Governor Requests Funds To Hire 117 More DCS Workers

Barbara Harrington
/
http://www.ipbs.org/

Gov. Mike Pence announced Wednesday he’s asking the General Assembly to give more money to the Department of Child Services for additional case workers.

The request comes from recommendations made by an independent study of the agency.

DCS aims for each of its case managers to handle, on average, 12 active cases and 17 cases that still need some supervision.  But the agency told lawmakers back in November only one of 19 regions across the state meets the so-called “12/17” standard.

The state hired an independent consulting firm and it’s recommending adding 100 new case managers and 17 new supervisors.

Governor Pence says the legislature will need to appropriate $7.5 million each year in the next budget.

We just simply want to  do right by our kids,” Pence says. “We want to make sure that we have the proper amount of personnel that can be both investigating and providing the appropriate accountability and supervision.”

Senate Minority Leader Tim Lanane – one of the loudest voices calling for more DCS case managers – says the state needs to help improve the agency however it can.

“Whether it’s trying to make sure our case workers are compensated fairly, that we try to minimize the turnover that exists in the department,” Lanane says.

Lanane says he didn’t think the state needed an independent study but is glad the result – more case workers – is the same.

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.