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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2025 - 2026
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 29, 2025 08:49 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Patty Kim and Sen. Maria Collett, Sen. Carolyn T. Comitta, Sen. Judith L. Schwank |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Addressing Staffing Shortages in the Child Welfare System |
| I plan to introduce legislation to address staffing shortages in our child welfare system, which have reached crisis levels and severely undermine our ability to serve children, youth and families. In 2023 nearly half of PA counties had caseworker vacancy rates exceeding 30 percent with some counties experiencing vacancy rates as high as 89 percent. Private child welfare providers, who counties rely on to help serve children and families, are also struggling with staffing shortages. A recent survey of 51 providers found that over 75% had multiple positions vacant and over 25% had more than 30 vacant full-time positions. In addition to vacancies, high turnover rates are a major problem in the child welfare system. While Casey Family Programs estimates that annual turnover rates for child welfare workers below 10–12 percent are considered optimal or healthy, for the past 15 years, child welfare turnover rates have been estimated at 20–40 percent. A separate survey conducted by the Pennsylvania Council of Children, Youth and Family Services show individual agency turnover rates as high as 65 percent and as low as 6 percent with an average of about 30 percent. In a system that is already financially limited, Casey Family Programs further estimates that every time a caseworker leaves his or her position, the cost to a child welfare agency is 30-200% of that employee’s annual salary. The results of these shortages are child welfare workers having to take on large caseloads, which includes working with children and families that have experienced significant trauma and trying to serve them in a large bureaucratic system that can be challenging to navigate. These factors combined with low pay, limited benefits and negative perceptions of agencies propagated in media coverage further stigmatizes workers and leads to more attrition among the workforce and reduces eagerness of qualified graduates to enter the field. In order to serve children and youth and meet the needs of families, we need policy to address these staffing shortages. This bill will be similar to legislation out of New York and California and will provide for the recruitment of more child welfare workers by offering loan forgiveness for social workers who commit to working in child welfare agencies. Workers will be eligible for forgiveness after having worked full-time in child welfare in Pennsylvania for five years. Please join me in sponsoring this important piece of legislation. |
Memo Updated: January 29, 2025 09:02 AM