INDIANAPOLIS – State officials have thrown hundreds of millions in new dollars at rising child neglect caseloads – hiring hundreds of family case managers to watch over endangered kids.
But the pot of money is limited, and the Indiana Office of Management and Budget, together with the Indiana Department of Child Services, is in the midst of an internal efficiency review to try to find savings that can be reinvested in priority areas.
“We've spent a lot of money to keep kids safe,” DCS Director Mary Beth Bonaventura said. “We just have to do things a little different.”
It's a delicate maneuver, since protecting children is a priority of any administration. But state tax dollars aren't limitless.
About five years ago, lawmakers put into law a requirement that a family case manager's caseload not exceed 12 initial assessments or 17 children monitored on an ongoing basis. Former Gov. Mitch Daniels hired more than 800 caseworkers during his tenure, and the system stabilized somewhat.
Then the opioid epidemic hit, and the number of abused and neglected children has grown 88 percent since 2012 – from 13,048 to 23,950. Those are just the formal “children in need of services” petitions. There are thousands more informal cases.
Allen Superior Court Judge Charles Pratt hears one harrowing story after another from the bench – and lately, many are complicated by drug abuse and mental health issues.
“We are double and triple setting cases. We spend every morning with my staff just trying to figure out how to manage the court calendar,” he said. “Every single day it's a struggle.”