There are roughly 16,000 children in foster care in New York. According to the Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies, 80% of them are cared for by non-profit agencies. While those agencies are predominantly funded by the government, they often can’t offer competitive pay to keep case workers on the job, and it’s causing serious staffing shortages.

In the Capital Region, for example, Northern Rivers has two campuses with housing and schooling on site, with other service programs throughout the state. In their Albany-based Residential Treatment Facility – where up to 24 children ages 10 to 18 live – roughly 70% of staff has been employed there less than a year.

Troy Kennedy, the assistant residential director for Academy Place at Northern Rivers, has a long history with the foster care system.

“Getting into mischief out on the streets, found myself in the family court system,” Kennedy said.

Growing up as one of eight children in an impoverished, single-parent home, Troy’s struggle began at 13 years old – and soon after he was placed in an all-boys residential treatment facility. His saving grace came in the form of his unit manager, a man by the name of Don Card.

“I would always be in trouble, and he just found a way to love me anyway,” said Kennedy.

After Troy got back on track with school and graduated, he followed in Don’s footsteps, landing his first job in child welfare working under his mentor. It’s a relationship Troy is thankful Don had the time to build, and says it’s a crucial part of any front line child care worker’s job.

“Kids are coming from adverse experiences in their life. They’re coming from folks who they believe were put in a position to take care of them and to be able to build trust with them, and they feel as though a lot of relationships have been violated on that part,” said Kennedy.

Right now, COFCCA – which represents more than 100 non-profit child welfare organizations across – says there is an untenable turnover rate of frontline child care workers and caseworkers, and if retention rates don’t improve, children will suffer.

“I’ve heard stories, given this high turnover rate, of families having just multiple case workers in a very short period of time. That is re-traumatizing for the family to have to share their story again,” said Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies President and CEO Kathleen Brady-Stepien.

A statewide COFCCA report shows its front line child care workers earned an average salary of roughly $28,000 in 2018, with a turnover rate of about 40%. In 2020, as the pandemic complicated working conditions at these facilities, the average salary for that position grew slightly, but the turnover rate hit almost 50 percent.

“Our staff – 25% have to work a second job, 5% work a third job,” said Northern Rivers Family of Services CEO Bill Gettman.

As for a caseworker position in 2020, the turnover rate sits a bit lower at about 24%, but Kathleen says it’s still too high to ensure their children’s success.

“Right now today, a caseworker in one of our programs is earning just about $40,000 and yet, were they to go and do similar work in a state title, they’d be earning about $20,000 more right off the bat,” said Brady-Stepien.

In Governor Kathy Hochul’s recent budget proposal, a 5.4% cost of living adjustment for the human services workforce was outlined, but Kathleen says baseline pay still needs to be higher to retain staff.

At the end of the day, Kathleen says, it all comes back to the kids – children who have not only been removed from their homes but have endured a pandemic in an unfamiliar setting, without the ability to live a typical life. Offering them a consistent staff could, at the very least, help navigate an already tough situation with the kind of support Kennedy was fortunate enough to have growing up.

“That’s going to always take time, it’s going to always take commitment, and it’s going to always take dedicated people,” said Kennedy.

Last month, Brady-Stepien presented testimony to the legislature on behalf of COFCCA, asking for increased funding support in the enacted state budget.

COFCCA wants to see an additional $17 million annual investment in the Foster Care Block Grant, for each of the next three years, to close the pay gap between non-profit child welfare agency employees and those with a state title.

In the governor’s budget proposal, she outlined frontline worker retention bonuses of up to $3,000, and COFCCA says that must include the child welfare workforce, too.

Lastly, Brady-Stepien says there are many working in their agencies that want to stay, and grow in their capacity as child welfare professionals, but don’t have the money. With that, COFCCA is also asking the legislature to increase the state’s investment in the NYS Child Welfare Worker Incentive Scholarship Program and the NYS Child Welfare Worker Loan Forgiveness Incentive Program.