ORLANDO, Fla. — Nearly half of all the state’s child protective investigators left their jobs between 2020 and 2021, according to an annual status report published by the Department of Children and Families (DCF).

Child protective investigators, or CPIs, investigate reports of child abuse, abandonment, or neglect. If they determine a child isn’t safe with their designated caregivers, investigators might remove that child from the home.

It’s a tough job, one that becomes increasingly more difficult for investigators as they take on more cases. Out of approximately 500 CPIs who responded to an agency survey last year, a majority said stress, emotional exhaustion and heavy caseloads have a high impact on turnover rates, according to DCF’s annual report. 

After more than three months and two letters from Spectrum News’ attorneys, DCF finally provided the news outlet with raw survey data, including twenty pages of written comments submitted by child welfare personnel. The data show nearly 64 percent of respondents to the survey had seriously considered quitting within the last three months.

“Sometimes you feel as if you are constantly drowning and just holding your head above water,” wrote one CPI who said they’d been in the position for three years.

“The Department of Children and Families [does] not care about the worker and since they don’t care about how hard they work the worker, they don’t care about child safety,” another staffer wrote.

Context behind the caseloads

Last year, DCF’s report shows CPIs took on an average of 10 new cases each month. As of early July, that monthly average was up to more than 12 new cases per investigator, according to a spokesperson for the department.

But those new, incoming cases aren’t the only ones CPIs are responsible for. Investigators often take on new cases while already managing backlogs of additional, ongoing cases: backlogs that only grow as more CPIs leave.

At the end of June, 16 percent of all CPIs statewide handled over 20 open investigations, according to DCF’s public Child Welfare Dashboard. The backlog is worse in certain regions like Northeast Florida, where more than a quarter of CPIs had over 20 open investigations as of June 30.

Child welfare investigators shouldn’t take on more than a maximum of 12 new cases per month, according to caseload standards, which appear in a 2012 publication by the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA). But in reality, it’s not so easy pinning down one, consistent caseload size for public agency employees across the country to adhere to, says CWLA’s VP of Practice Excellence Julie Collins.

That’s because child welfare workers often perform many functions, Collins says, depending on the size of the agency they work for and the complexity of cases coming in. Some cases involve significantly more travel time; others might require investigators to complete extra administrative work or perform other tasks, beyond the initial investigation.

“That’s where the nuance of the work comes in,” Collins said. “Unfortunately, what happens sometimes is people only look at the [maximum] caseload number, and think that’s what people should have.”

CWLA is currently working to revise its recommended caseload standards to better contextualize the meaning behind those numbers, Collins said. 

The new standards likely won’t be ready until next year. Meanwhile, state data collected by CWLA shows that, when it comes to heavy average caseloads and high staff turnover, DCF isn’t an outlier.

“Looking at what’s happening around the country, even though our standards say this number of cases is the maximum, we’re still seeing states and many situations where they have way more,” Collins said. 

More cases, more burnout

Whenever CPIs leave the job, their cases are often redistributed to the remaining investigators, who consequently take on heavier workloads. 

It’s a problematic cycle: one that exhausts child welfare workers and ultimately affects the children they’re tasked to serve, according to Maxine McGregor, a former CPI who now directs the University of Central Florida’s Master of Social Work program as an Associate Instructor.

“When there’s heavy caseloads, it definitely leads to burnout,” McGregor said. “You are going from one case to another case. You’re getting in rotation every day. It also leads to mistakes, because you’re rushing from one case to another.”

McGregor worked for DCF for 12 years, spending about eight months as a CPI before transitioning to a role in case management. When she started back in 2001, she says, heavy caseloads were still a problem.

“My first day after training, I had 30 backlogged cases,” McGregor said.

In McGregor’s view, the agency’s come a long way since then in its support of investigators and families. She praises the addition of Senior CPI positions, which she says didn’t exist back when she worked for DCF.

Still, McGregor says high turnover rates pose a major challenge for CPIs and the vulnerable children they work with.

“It’s harder with children — having to work all over again with a new person and tell their story again. It becomes harder for a child,” McGregor said. “The continuity is missing when there’s so much turnover.”

Several Central Florida parents who weren’t comfortable being quoted by name shared their frustrations about DCF with Spectrum News. Those parents said some of the CPIs they’ve met with have been inconsistent — losing track of critical information, or failing to follow up with families about safety plans involving their children.

Spectrum News also spoke with several former CPIs who didn’t want to be named. Those former investigators said at DCF they were often under heavy pressure to close cases out, even as they continued getting assigned new, additional cases each day.

One CPI who wrote into DCF’s survey last year said sometimes they had to be up for 24 hours with no sleep, and a child on the road.

“We are expected to be working the following morning receiving cases, which causes a lack of sleep and we are not receiving the 8 hours of sleep that is required by law before returning to work,” the CPI wrote.

Another CPI who wrote in described caseloads as “unmanageable.”

“They always say it is going to get better but it never really does,” the CPI wrote. “The case loads are always high and we are always short staffed.”

Working toward solutions

In May of this year, DCF launched a new “Family Navigator” initiative, which the agency describes as a way to “take work off of the CPIs and provide invaluable support to families.” To fill open CPI positions, the agency is also actively recruiting former law enforcement officials and military veterans, via Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis’ new “Continue the Mission” program.

“We are constantly looking to streamline policies, find efficiencies, and implement ways that we can improve so that we can meet the needs of those in our work who we have the privilege of serving,” a DCF spokesperson wrote to Spectrum News.

Several staffers who wrote into DCF’s internal survey last year made suggestions for how the agency might expedite processes and improve staff retention. Although a majority of commenters shared negative feedback, some also expressed gratitude for the job and the agency’s larger stated purpose of helping children and families.

“It is a great opportunity to serve the community, especially children,” one CPI wrote. “As any job, at times it is overwhelming and overall it is ok. The position is definitely worth rewarding.” 

Another staffer wrote: “I enjoy what I do, and the positive impact I have on families I have come across is what keeps me motivated.”

Collins of CWLA said lower caseloads can help enhance job satisfaction for child welfare workers.

“If they were able to have fewer families they were involved with, and more time, I think that would help them achieve that, and feel better about what they’re able to achieve,” Collins said.

Expressing a similar sentiment, McGregor of UCF said it’s crucial for DCF to ensure CPIs have the tools they need to succeed, and to do that, the agency needs to listen to its workers on the ground. 

“Get the frontline staff involved in all the decisions that are being made at the top, because they’re doing the work,” McGregor said. “Hearing from them is very important, because they know what the nuances are. They know what could be better, or what may make a difference.”