Office of Children and Family Services

Caseworker Deployment in Selected Child Welfare Programs (Follow-Up Review)

New York State's child welfare programs are directly operated by 58 local districts under the supervision of the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS). In our prior audit report 96-S-52, we examined the deployment of caseworkers in selected child welfare programs and found that the caseloads in many districts may have been too heavy, because the districts' caseload ratios exceeded certain levels. In New York City, where our review was more extensive, we determined that caseloads were heavy in part because many caseworkers were assigned to administrative and support duties rather than to child welfare casework. We recommended that OCFS monitor the districts' caseloads to ensure they were appropriate. In our follow-up review, we found that OCFS has not implemented our prior audit recommendations, because OCFS officials believe they do not have the authority to set and enforce workload standards. We disagree with this interpretation of OCFS's legal authority.

For a complete copy of Report 99-F-22 click here.