Officials with Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) say they hope to soon retake control of all child protective investigations in the state.

According to a recent letter from DCF Secretary Shevaun Harris, the department has shared that responsibility with sheriff's offices in seven Florida counties for about 20 years.

Child protective investigators, or CPIs, look into reports of child abuse, neglect or abandonment to determine whether or not children are being kept safe. A proposal to transition all CPI functions back to DCF has been submitted to the Florida Legislature for consideration, according to the letter. 

“Over the coming months, the Department will be working with the Florida Legislature to formulate a plan that ensures as smooth of a transition as possible,” the letter states. “This includes providing ample opportunities for CPIs, CPI supervisors and support staff to transition to the Department to ensure a continuity of services.”

The letter comes amid DCF’s high CPI staff turnover rates, which have risen sharply, according to the state agency’s most recent annual workforce report. More than 71% of Florida’s CPIs left their jobs during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022 — up from the previous fiscal year’s nearly 50% turnover rate, according to the report.

Former CPI and case manager Catherine Bavetta said she isn’t surprised by the department's turnover rate. After nearly 10 years of working in child welfare, she says exhaustion and burnout ultimately drove her to leave what she describes as Florida’s “broken system.” 

DCF’s CPI turnover rate is highest where Bavetta used to work, in Hillsborough County. There, turnover rose last fiscal year to nearly 102%, up from 78% the previous year.

Although low pay is likely part of the problem — DCF’s base salaries for CPI staff are all below $50,000 — Bavetta says it’s not the only factor driving workers out of what’s undeniably a difficult, emotionally taxing job. In her experience, she says unrealistic expectations from higher-ups pushed her out of an industry she originally entered to try and make a difference. 

‘No work-life balance’

In Florida, DCF oversees child protective investigations everywhere except for seven counties, where sheriff’s offices conduct them instead. Those include Broward, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Seminole and Walton counties. 

“Back in 1999, the governor at the time, the sheriffs at the time, the DCF secretary at the time, because of some unfavorable results that were occurring in child welfare, decided to do this as a pilot,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told Spectrum News. “What was the right thing in 1999 is not necessarily the right thing 20-plus years later. Times change, circumstances change, needs change.”

When Bavetta was a CPI, she worked with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. Although the nature of the work itself was often difficult, Bavetta said, she felt sincerely supported and appreciated by her colleagues and managers. 

“There’s no work-life balance,” Bavetta said. “But at least at the sheriff’s office, it was very cut and dry: 'These are your hours, this is what you’re gonna do. If you do have overtime, we will pay you.' And you’re not, like, working to support your car.”

At all seven sheriff’s offices, CPIs use company-issued cars for their work and don’t have to pay for gas, according to information the agencies provided to Spectrum News. That’s not the case for the majority of CPIs who work directly with DCF — currently, those CPIs must use their own personal vehicles for daily work assignments.

But that could change soon: In his budget recommendations for the next fiscal year, Gov. Ron DeSantis included $2.1 million for a statewide vehicle leasing program, which would fund a fleet of agency vehicles for CPIs to use for work. CPIs who drive more than 5,000 miles a year would receive assigned vehicles and other CPIs could access a shared vehicle pool. 

DCF requested funding for that proposed statewide initiative, after completing a successful pilot program in one region, according to the agency. Overwhelmingly, nearly all pilot participants said driving an agency-issued vehicle allowed them to better perform their job duties — and approximately a third said the pilot program encouraged them to continue working with DCF, instead of quitting. 

Currently, DCF provides CPIs with an annual stipend of $809.60 to help cover auto insurance costs, and reimburses CPIs for work-related travel expenses. But according to Bavetta, covering travel expenses upfront is a distinction that can make a huge difference for frontline child welfare workers — who typically don’t earn high salaries and spend a huge chunk of their workdays driving. Other former CPIs, who spoke with Spectrum News but did not wish to be identified publicly, agreed.

“It’s not your wear and tear on your vehicle,” Bavetta said. 

Another former sheriff’s office CPI agreed, saying they likely wouldn’t have stayed at the job as long if they’d had to drive their own personal car to assignments. That CPI said sometimes, if a child was deemed unsafe to remain at home, they’d have to pile into the CPI’s vehicle to be taken to foster care or another temporary placement.

“If I used my own personal car for that, it would’ve been destroyed,” the former sheriff’s CPI told Spectrum News.

Additionally, using a standardized, company vehicle may enhance safety for children as well as CPIs: “(Manatee Sheriff’s Office) provides a work vehicle that is properly maintained for child safety,” an agency spokesperson wrote in an email to Spectrum News. “This also assists with worker safety (Alleged Perpetrators identifying staff members personal vehicles etc.).”

Going ‘above and beyond’

When Bavetta left her CPI job at the sheriff’s office for a different gig in child welfare, she says she didn’t know what would be awaiting her on the other side: Even longer hours, less compensation, and what she characterizes as a lack of appreciation and support from supervisors. 

Bavetta’s next child welfare job was as a case manager, monitoring children whose cases were open but who hadn’t yet been deemed unsafe enough to be removed from their homes. The goal was to “keep eyes” on those children, Bavetta said, and work with other frontline staff — including CPIs — to determine the best path forward for them. 

As a case manager, Bavetta worked for a DCF subcontractor — a private entity, hired by the region’s designated “lead agency,” which is also a private company. Since 2005, DCF has operated under a “Community-Based Care” (CBC) model, divvying up case management duties among “lead agencies,” which oversee different regions of the state. 

Those lead agencies, which receive state funding, are private. Florida is one of only two U.S. states with system-wide privatization of child welfare services, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. 

Bavetta says the difference between working for the sheriff’s office and the DCF subcontractor was like night and day.

“I would definitely say working for the sheriff’s office, I felt more trained, more supported,” she said.

For Bavetta, the key differences came down to how each agency approached overtime work and compensation. Child welfare workers sometimes take on notoriously high caseloads — often more than 12 at a time, the maximum recommended caseload per worker, according to standards published by the Child Welfare League of America. 

“They say you’re only supposed to have 20 cases (at once), but there were people with 30 to 40 cases,” one former Orange County CPI told Spectrum News. “Going into it, you honestly don't think that it's gonna be the way that it is.”

Although caseloads were high at both agencies where she worked, Bavetta says only the sheriff’s office actually gave staff time to work those caseloads down. 

“At the sheriff’s office, they would check in on the cases, yes, very much so," she said. "But they would also check in with you."

She said the situation was very different while working for the DCF subcontractor.

“Oh, no. Nope. You can’t ask for overtime," Bavetta said. "And if you do, you’re put on ridicule, that you don’t know how to manage your time correctly."

She said that as a case manager, she often left home at 4:30 or 5 a.m. to visit kids before the school day began. Then, she’d work late, visiting kids after school as well. Once, while she was pregnant, she says she worked 28 days in a row.

Bavetta said she ultimately quit because she felt underappreciated by supervisors who wouldn’t grant her the overtime she needed to complete necessary work.

“That’s how things get missed," she said. "People that aren’t willing to go above and beyond — but then you also don’t want to pay them to go above and beyond."

Moving forward

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said it’s the right decision for DCF to resume control of all child protective investigations in the state. He echoed the DCF secretary’s desire for CPI staff currently working with sheriff’s offices to transition over to DCF.

“I know Secretary Harris is gonna do everything she can to make it an easy transition, to take care of those people, to do everything she can to see if they don't lose anything as far as pay is concerned,” Gualtieri said.

The sheriff’s offices in Hillsborough and Seminole counties declined to comment on the projected change. The sheriff’s offices in Broward and Pasco counties both shared written statements expressing their support for DCF.

Spectrum News asked the sheriff’s offices in Walton and Manatee counties for their perspectives on the pending change, but did not receive responses.

However, before the change was proposed, a spokesperson for the Walton County Sheriff’s Office told Spectrum News that their oversight of child protective investigations is “the right thing to do to keep kids safe.”

“Fiscally, it might not make a lot of sense, but morally, it’s absolutely 100% the right thing to do to protect families and kids in Walton County, because now everyone’s on the same page,” said Public Information Officer Corey Dobridnia. 

Dobridnia explained that back when DCF oversaw investigations in Walton County, CPIs and deputies didn’t always communicate with one another, and some information fell through the cracks. 

“Having everyone under one roof is of huge benefit to us because everyone’s communicating, every single day,” Dobridnia said. “Deputies know what CPIs are doing, CPIs know what the deputies are doing, and there’s so much more fluidity and seamless partnership — and, quite frankly, accountability.”

Some former CPIs interviewed by Spectrum News didn’t report positive experiences working in sheriff’s offices — one described the working environment as militaristic and harsh. But for Bavetta, working as a CPI for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office made sense — so much so that she thinks sheriff’s offices should oversee all of Florida’s child protective investigations. 

Now, the opposite scenario is on the table. Bavetta worries how it might impact DCF’s high turnover rates — and in turn, the vulnerable children and families the agency is tasked to protect.

“If you’re not supporting your employees, then you’re also not supporting the families that you’re working with,” she said.