Child Welfare: Additional Federal Action Could Help States Address Challenges in Providing Services to Children and Families Page: 13 of 34
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agencies. This administrative burden has limited caseworker ability to
ensure timely investigations of child maltreatment and to make related
decisions concerning the removal of children from their homes, according
to officials, and influenced caseworker decisions to seek other types of
employment.
Some states we visited reported that the lack of effective supervision also
adversely affected staff retention and sometimes resulted in delays
providing appropriate services to children and families. Lack of
supervisory support was cited as a problem in terms of supervisor
inexperience and inaccessibility. For example, a Texas state official said
that because of high turnover, caseworkers are quickly promoted to
supervisory positions, with the result that the caseworkers they supervise
complain of poor management and insufficient support. In Arizona,
caseworkers have also expressed dissatisfaction with the support they
received from their supervisors, and this has negatively affected
recruitment and retention. Child welfare officials reported that lack of
access to supervisors was frustrating to caseworkers because it delayed
their ability to specify appropriate permanency goals for children and to
develop case plans to meet the needs of children and families in their care.Serving Children with
Special Needs Is among
Factors Challenging States'
Ability to Place Children in
Appropriate HomesState child welfare officials most frequently identified four factors
underlying the challenge to find appropriate homes for children. (See fig.
4.) More than half of the states reported that finding homes for children
with special needs, recruiting and retaining foster and adoptive parents,
serving older youth and youth transitioning into independent living, and
finding and supporting kinship or guardianship homes were among their
greatest concerns.GAO-07-850T
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United States. Government Accountability Office. Child Welfare: Additional Federal Action Could Help States Address Challenges in Providing Services to Children and Families, text, May 15, 2007; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc290986/m1/13/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.