Pence Requests More Money For Department Of Child Services

Gov. Mike Pence announced Wednesday he’s asking the General Assembly to give more money to the Department of Child Services for additional case workers.  The request is based on recommendations made by an independent study of the agency.

DCS aims for each of its case managers to handle, on average, 12 active cases and 17 cases that still need some supervision.  But the agency told lawmakers back in November only one of 19 regions across the state meets the so-called “12/17” standard.  The state hired an independent consulting firm and it’s recommending adding 100 new case managers and 17 new supervisors.

Pence says the legislature will need to appropriate $7.5 million each year in the next budget.

“We just simply want to  do right by our kids," Pence said. "We want to make sure that we have the proper amount of personnel that can be both investigating and providing the appropriate accountability and supervision.”

Senate Minority Leader Tim Lanane – one of the loudest voices calling for more DCS case managers – says the state needs to help improve the agency however it can.

“Whether it’s trying to make sure our case workers are compensated fairly; that we try to minimize the turnover that exists in the department,” Lanane said.

Lanane says he didn’t think the state needed an independent study but is glad the result – more case workers – is the same.