New York State Office of Children and Family Services Commissioner Gladys Carrión, Esq., today allocated nearly $1.7 million in seed funding to ten local counties and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe to hire additional child protective services caseworkers to investigate calls to the state’s Child Abuse Hotline.
“These grants will help reduce the individual caseloads for the child protective services caseworkers in these counties so that they may provide the children whose cases they are investigating with the care and attention that they require,” said Commissioner Carrión.
The New York State Child Abuse Hotline is (800) 342-3720. Callers, whose identities are kept confidential, are interviewed by the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment (SCR), which manages the Hotline. If the SCR determines that there is reasonable cause to suspect child abuse, a report is immediately forwarded to the department of social services in the county in which the incident is alleged to have occurred. County-based child protective services caseworkers must initiate an investigation within 24 hours.
These grants will fully fund new child protective services caseworker positions in ten counties and St. Regis until March 31, 2010. These positions will be eligible for continued funding under the state child welfare services law, which reimburses local counties for 63.7 percent of their costs related to child protective services caseworkers. The balance of this cost is picked up by the county.
In awarding this funding, the state is giving priority to counties with current average caseloads significantly higher than workload study recommendations. These counties also offered evidence that they could use the funds relatively quickly.
This latest round of awards went to:
COUNTY AWARD
Cattaraugus $ 47,758
Dutchess $210,015
Nassau $225,000
Niagara $203,861
Oneida $ 83,696
Onondaga $221,182
Orange $ 69,377
Oswego $500,000
Sullivan $ 43,480
St. Lawrence $ 47,065
St. Regis $ 31,166
TOTAL $1,682,600
