ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Monroe County Child Protective Services came under criticism after 3-year-old Brook Stagles died while part of an active CPS case.
It raised questions about whether case workers in Monroe County are overworked.
“All of the steps aren’t exactly the same, so there’s no cookie cutter case when you’re working with families,” said Corinda Crossdale, Monroe County commissioner of Human Services.
On Wednesday, County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo announced an eight-point plan to improve CPS.
“This is based on our conversations with people who are in the field doing the work,” Dinolfo said. “Based on the great leadership under Commissioner Crossdale, and we are announcing that plan today.”
It includes the following steps:
1. Hiring 30 new caseworkers
2. Increasing caseworker salaries
3. Providing smart tablets
4. Re-establishing local child abuse hotline
5. Reviewing CPS-related state laws
6. Establishing mentoring program
7. Collaborate with community partner
8. Assign a recruitment coordinator
County officials say one goal is to lower the average number of cases each CPS worker handles.
“It’s a stepped-up effort to make sure that our caseworkers can do their very best every day,” Dinolfo said. “They are doing great work in our community, and this will continue our efforts to ensure that they can and will be the dedicated workers that they have been, and have the tools to do so.”
The union for those who work in the field, The Federation of Social workers of Monroe County, responded to the new plan, saying: "The Federation is pleased with the Monroe County Administration’s recently announced plan to address the concerns that we, and many other individuals and organizations in the community, have raised regarding Child Protective Services."
Congresswoman Louise Slaughter touched on the Stagles case while on House floor. She was very critical of CPS during her speech.
"The child protective services of Monroe County got two reports about abuse and neglect, but the agency was too overworked and stretched too thin to act in time which is another hypocrisy," Slaughter said. "We are not going to fund those programs enough so that little children would live. Three years old, three years old and all the people and nobody lifted a finger to help this child. They did nothing to save her life."
Youth advocacy group "The Children's Agenda" says it's happy with the county's plan, releasing a statement, saying in part, "This is a very important and meaningful step forward in addressing the crisis of our community’s staggering reports of child abuse and neglect."