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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- The state Department of Human Services began Monday to assign more staff to help Blair County's Children, Youth & Families office, which recently received its third provisional operating license.
"In Blair County, children and families need a functioning, effective child welfare agency that investigates reports of child abuse and intervenes, when necessary, with family support that prevents abuse and neglect to children," state DHS Acting Secretary Val Arkoosh said Tuesday. "My team is committed to helping Blair County stabilize this important resource so they can meet their obligation to their community and the children they protect."
State employees assigned Monday to begin full-time on-site work in the county office are in addition to the state employees from the DHS Office of Children, Youth & Families Central Regional Office who last year began meeting on a weekly basis with county CYF personnel.
Blair County Commissioner Laura Burke said Tuesday that the county is working cooperatively with the state personnel whose assistance is appreciated and whose efforts should allow county personnel to concentrate on addressing a backlog of child welfare reports.
"The child welfare regulations do not allow any entity except the county child welfare agency to conduct investigations into child abuse," Burke said. "Therefore the state employees cannot work directly on clearing the backlog, but they are able to provide technical assistance to us."
The state's decision to issue the county CYF office a third provisional license followed a report in March showing the county with 356 general protective services reports awaiting investigation, the oldest being submitted on Oct. 24, 2022.
"I would emphasize that the vast majority of cases in the backlog are general protective services (neglect) cases as opposed to child protective services (abuse) cases," Burke said. "However, that does not change the fact that we want to see all of these families and ensure that these children are safe as soon as we can."
The state's announcement on Tuesday about the additional help also explained that it issued a third provisional license Blair County CYF "because the county continues to have challenges operating and delivering child welfare services as expected and required."
Problems became evident last year when staffing in the county's CYF office fell. During a weekly commissioners meeting in July 2022, caseworkers made a public plea for help and for higher pay to curb the resignations and prevent burnout.
Staffing levels continued falling, although the county later awarded retention bonuses to qualified employees and subsequently introduced signing bonuses to attract CYF caseworkers.
"Blair County is not the first county to struggle with these issues, and it will not be the last," Burke said. "We want to work with our state legislators to create a better roadmap for counties across the commonwealth and the state (Office of Children, Youth and Families) to navigate these situations in child welfare and to work on strategies to address the workforce crisis in social services as a whole."
Brandon Cwalina, spokesman for the state Department of Human Services, told the Mirror that the state issues as many as four provisional operating licenses to a county CYF.
A fourth provisional license was issued in April 2016 to York County and in April 2021 to Carbon County. In both cases, he said that the state worked with personnel in those counties on efforts that allowed them to obtain full licensure.
Cwalina also said the state issued a fourth provisional license to Luzerne County in April and ongoing efforts are designed for it to regain full licensure.
Blair County CYF's third provisional operating license remains in effect through Nov. 5.
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.