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CWA Taking Lead in Reform of N.J.'s Child Welfare System
After years of fighting for change at New Jersey's Division of Youth and Family Services, CWA members are starting to see progress toward reforms they've demanded to help caseworkers better protect the state's at-risk children.
State officials are still working on a master plan to fully reform the agency. But in mid-January, the newly appointed head of the Department of Human Services initiated immediate changes to address some of the critical problems outlined in a CWA report titled "Rome is Burning."
"We've been fighting for reform for a long time and we understand it will take a significant amount of time to truly reform such a broken system, but we're starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel," CWA Local 1034 President Carla Katz said. "Something that's very positive is that the union has been at the center of the discussions that are taking place."
The immediate reforms including spending $2 million for DYFS staff overtime, spending $1.5 million to recruit more foster families, revisit 6,000 children in foster homes and other state-supported care by June 30 to ensure their safety and providing day care and transportation to school for children who now spend their days in DYFS offices waiting to be placed in foster homes.
The specific problems and their solutions were laid out in the CWA report, Local 1037 President Hetty Rosenstein said. For instance, caseworkers have long tried to remedy the situation created by a state law requiring children to have physicals before going to a foster home, even if they're just staying one night and moving to another home the next.
What happens is that children may languish in DYFS offices during the day while caseworkers seek a placement, then spend hours in an emergency room waiting to be examined before being taken, often late at night, to a foster home where they'll spend just a few hours.
"In 'Rome is Burning' we raised this issue and we said that the state needs to hire nurses for every DYFS office, and that the nurses be permitted to do the physical check," Rosenstein said. "As of Feb. 1, that's what's going to happen. These are substantive changes that will help children, things we've been begging for."
The changes are being made as the state continues to investigate the case of four malnourished boys who were removed from their adopted home in October. Parents Raymond and Vanessa Jackson, who were under DYFS supervision because of a foster child in their care, are facing criminal charges.
Seven CWA members and two managers working for DYFS have been suspended without pay and are facing termination hearings next month. CWA leaders say the state is using the workers as scapegoats for a badly broken system with not nearly enough resources. Locals 1034, 1037 and 1039 represent 3,000 workers at DYFS.
The targeted workers were among 11 DFYS employees called before a grand jury Jan. 14, but all asserted their Fifth Amendment right not to testify. "The prosecutor hasn't been clear about the purpose of subpoenaing the workers," CWA attorney Steve Weissman said.
At one point the prosecutor had suggested the workers could face criminal charges. Katz said none of the workers has been granted immunity and they weren't going to participate in a "witch hunt," adding, "This prosecutor seems hell bent on making sure that people are intimidated."
About 200 CWA members braved freezing weather to rally in support of their coworkers Jan. 14 outside Camden City Hall, where the grand jury was meeting.
State officials are still working on a master plan to fully reform the agency. But in mid-January, the newly appointed head of the Department of Human Services initiated immediate changes to address some of the critical problems outlined in a CWA report titled "Rome is Burning."
"We've been fighting for reform for a long time and we understand it will take a significant amount of time to truly reform such a broken system, but we're starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel," CWA Local 1034 President Carla Katz said. "Something that's very positive is that the union has been at the center of the discussions that are taking place."
The immediate reforms including spending $2 million for DYFS staff overtime, spending $1.5 million to recruit more foster families, revisit 6,000 children in foster homes and other state-supported care by June 30 to ensure their safety and providing day care and transportation to school for children who now spend their days in DYFS offices waiting to be placed in foster homes.
The specific problems and their solutions were laid out in the CWA report, Local 1037 President Hetty Rosenstein said. For instance, caseworkers have long tried to remedy the situation created by a state law requiring children to have physicals before going to a foster home, even if they're just staying one night and moving to another home the next.
What happens is that children may languish in DYFS offices during the day while caseworkers seek a placement, then spend hours in an emergency room waiting to be examined before being taken, often late at night, to a foster home where they'll spend just a few hours.
"In 'Rome is Burning' we raised this issue and we said that the state needs to hire nurses for every DYFS office, and that the nurses be permitted to do the physical check," Rosenstein said. "As of Feb. 1, that's what's going to happen. These are substantive changes that will help children, things we've been begging for."
The changes are being made as the state continues to investigate the case of four malnourished boys who were removed from their adopted home in October. Parents Raymond and Vanessa Jackson, who were under DYFS supervision because of a foster child in their care, are facing criminal charges.
Seven CWA members and two managers working for DYFS have been suspended without pay and are facing termination hearings next month. CWA leaders say the state is using the workers as scapegoats for a badly broken system with not nearly enough resources. Locals 1034, 1037 and 1039 represent 3,000 workers at DYFS.
The targeted workers were among 11 DFYS employees called before a grand jury Jan. 14, but all asserted their Fifth Amendment right not to testify. "The prosecutor hasn't been clear about the purpose of subpoenaing the workers," CWA attorney Steve Weissman said.
At one point the prosecutor had suggested the workers could face criminal charges. Katz said none of the workers has been granted immunity and they weren't going to participate in a "witch hunt," adding, "This prosecutor seems hell bent on making sure that people are intimidated."
About 200 CWA members braved freezing weather to rally in support of their coworkers Jan. 14 outside Camden City Hall, where the grand jury was meeting.