‘Crisis-Level’ Caseloads Triple for Massachusetts Child Welfare Workers

The state’s beleaguered child welfare agency — grappling with the death of a 2-year-old girl at an Auburn foster home — has seen the number of staffers handling “crisis-level” workloads more than triple over a recent 18-month period, statistics show.

 

Those figures from the Department of Children and Families also point to workers overseeing heavy caseloads at the agency’s two troubled Worcester offices, where one child under their watch died Saturday and another remains hospitalized in critical condition.

 

“The system is broken. The fact that these innocent children are being victimized under DCF supervision — it needs to be changed,” said Jennifer Lane of Community VOICES, a children’s advocacy group. “The kids need to be stopped being treated like they’re property. We need to start treating them like they’re valuable members of our society and protect them.”