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By James Polston
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS — The head of Indiana’s Department of Child Services told a legislative panel that her agency is making progress to fix some of the problems at the troubled agency.

Director Terry Stigdon told lawmakers on the Interim Study Committee on Courts and the Judiciary Wednesday that the department has added attorneys and supervisors and is in the process of figuring out pay raises for employees.

Those were among the 20 recommendations the Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group (CWG) gave DCS in a report that came out in June after a six-month examination of the department.

In response to the report done by CWG, the department hired Todd Meyer as associate director to oversee the implementation of some of the recommendations from the report.

Since Stigdon took over the department in January, it has hired a net gain of 44 supervisors and 30 attorneys and will continue to hire additional help. The current supervisor to family case manager ratio is one to seven and the department’s goal is to get the ratio down to one supervisor per five family case managers within 18 months.

With the $25 million from the state’s surplus that Gov. Eric Holcomb allocated to DCS in June, Meyer says the department’s first plan is to support on-the-ground employees with salary raises, training and recognition. The next plan of attack will be to address a few of the CWG’s recommendations.

Of the $25 million, Meyer says DCS will use $22 million to raise the salaries of DCS supervisors, family case managers and attorneys.

Currently, the starting salary for family case managers is under $34,000 during training and under $36,000 after training. The starting salary for a DCS attorney is $52,000 and a number was not given for supervisors.

Meyer also said they will announce the proposed raises soon but DCS plans to notify employees first.

Stigdon and Meyer also talked to the committee about draft legislation to change parts of the law affecting the work of DCS.

The draft proposed for the 2019 legislative session would allow older youth in foster care to receive services until age 21 rather than age 20 under current law.

The second part of the preliminary draft would clarify descriptions of caseloads so family case managers and supervisors aren’t handling too many active cases. 

Stigdon explained that under the proposed change, if siblings are out of a home they would be counted as individual children but if the siblings are in a home together, they would be counted as a family and not individual children.

State Sen. Erin Houchin, R-Salem, who sits on the interim committee, mentioned her three-year stint as a family case manager. She told DCS that she knows from experience that caseload and understaffing is an issue.

“I had, at one time, 49 ongoing cases and 60 investigations,” Houchin said. “So, I do appreciate the additional staff that were brought on during the Daniels administration and then also an emphasis on not overworking your case managers — that’s just too much to handle.”

The final part of the draft would require the department to initiate an assessment not later than 24 hours after receiving a report of child abuse or neglect if the department believes the child is in immediate danger of serious bodily harm.

Under current law, the department has no later than one hour to initiate an assessment.

Houchin raised concern of the proposed 24-hour initial response time for the family case managers.

“My concern is that if you give 2,100 people the opportunity to decide whether they go immediately or within 24 hours, that’s 2,100 opportunities for a child to die,” Houchin said. She said the 24-hour window is a recipe for disaster.

The next meeting of the Interim Study Committee on Courts and the Judiciary is Sept. 19 and the committee chair, state Rep. Gregory Steuerwald, R-Avon, wants DCS to come to the meeting with recommendations for the response time for initial assessments.

James Polston is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

Dave Stafford for www.theindianalawyer.com

Heritage Action and FreedomWorks released their full endorsement of Congressman Todd Rokita’s newly released bill H.R. 6532, the Making Disability Insurance Work for All Americans Act. This bill is the first serious proposal to outline a conservative way to keep the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Trust Fund solvent for decades to come.

“I am calling on Congress to pass this legislation to support those who truly need help transitioning back into the workforce so they can continue to build better lives for themselves and their families,” said Congressman Rokita. “The revival of this program ensures protection of our social security and the lives dependent on it.  I will continue fighting for bills like this one that support American families without adding debt to our future generations.”

H.R. 6532 includes major reforms such as transitioning new beneficiaries to a flat monthly benefit and increases the frequency of continuing disability reviews.  It establishes that disability attorneys must negotiate their fee directly with applicants, ending the current system that leads to unnecessary delays and appeals so attorneys can get more money.  Finally, it includes common-sense reforms, such as updating the medical vocational grid to better capture emerging industries and new treatments, and allows SSA to use social media when making determinations on who is eligible for disability.