
Representative Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., participates in the advancement of a Fiscal Commission bill during a Budget Committee meeting in the Cannon office building in Washington D.C. Thursday Jan. 18, 2024.
Chris Knight / LNP | LancasterOnline
Representative Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., participates in the advancement of a Fiscal Commission bill during a Budget Committee meeting in the Cannon office building in Washington D.C. Thursday Jan. 18, 2024.
Chris Knight / LNP | LancasterOnline
Chris Knight / LNP | LancasterOnline
Representative Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., participates in the advancement of a Fiscal Commission bill during a Budget Committee meeting in the Cannon office building in Washington D.C. Thursday Jan. 18, 2024.
Child welfare advocates have sounded the alarm for years about staffing at agencies that work with at-risk youth, arguing the high turnover rate – worsened by employee burnout in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic – threatens the quality of service they can give kids and families.
In response, Lancaster County Congressman Lloyd Smucker contributed to a provision to a new federal law that looks to help remedy staffing recruitment and retention issues by boosting local agencies’ access to grant money doled out by state governments.
Linda Spears, chief executive of Washington-based Child Welfare League of America, said agencies that receive funding could use the money for staff training and to purchase tools to help caseworkers do their jobs efficiently, such as tablets, satellite cell phones for use in rural areas and panic buttons for emergencies.
“Historically, these grants have supported things that support caseworkers doing the job,” Spears said. She noted the new law, signed by former President Joe Biden earlier this month, expanded funding available under a 2008 law that helps states and tribal governments support foster care services.
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Spears said few national studies have analyzed the scale and impact of staffing shortages in the child welfare industry, but agencies have reported to her group that their situation has worsened in recent years.
Though turnover rates vary drastically from county to county, the Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Pittsburgh found in its annual report last year the statewide median rate was 21% — a decrease from the previous year’s 24%. A median is the middle data point within a dataset and is often considered more accurate than an average.
Researchers also measured a decline of about 300 government-employed caseworkers statewide in that same timeframe.
Crystal Natan, executive director of Lancaster County’s Children and Youth Social Service Agency, said her office worked with Smucker on his proposals and applauded his “outreach, fact gathering and advocacy to assist us in improving outcomes and expanding the federal contribution in helping enhance service delivery for children and families across the country.”
Reforms to the 2008 legislation stemmed from the House Ways and Means Committee’s year-long review of federal child welfare programs. The new legislation, incorporating 16 total bills, faced little pushback in Congress, passing unanimously through the Senate in December and with only 10 no-votes in the House in September.
Smucker, who sits on the committee, drafted three bills included in the law. In addition to making more funds available to foster care agencies, his proposals aim to streamline the funding qualifications for child welfare agencies and allow kinship families, peer programs and individuals transitioning out of foster care to access foster care services.
He also co-sponsored a bill with Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, that will have the Department of Health and Human Services gather information to assess the quality of post-adoption services.
“I think it’ll make a difference in the lives of a lot of kids,” said Smucker, a West Lampeter Township Republican.