Panel: Better child protection system would cost $212 million

INDIANAPOLIS -- Developing a better system to protect the state's children from abuse and neglect, including hiring hundreds of caseworkers, would cost about $212 million, a panel said.\nIt would cost about $45 million to hire 720 caseworkers and 103 supervisors at the Family and Social Services Administration, according to a State Budget Agency analysis of the panel's plan.\nAbout $7 million could be reimbursed through federal funds, the Governor's Commission on Abused and Neglected Children and Their Families said in its report.\nCommission Chairman Michael A. Patchner said reforms were needed.\nIn the past two years, 120 children in Indiana have died from abuse and neglect, and every month, more than 1,700 children become victims of violence or neglect at home, he said.\n"The system is in a state of crisis," he told The Indianapolis Star. "The public system is working beyond capacity. We need more preventative services to help parents before they hurt their children and enough services to help children and families after a child is hurt. This costs money."\nAt minimum, child protection programs would need $95 million to cover the basics outlined in 32 commission recommendations.\nThe commission was set up last fall by Gov. Joe Kernan and the Legislature.\nThe Legislature would have to approve the money, which could prove difficult with a state deficit of about $830 million.\n"I'd like to remind everyone there is no money unless there is a drastic change in revenues," said state Sen. Robert L. Meeks, R-LaGrange, chairman of the Senate Finance budget subcommittee.\nTo pay its bills, the state might have to consider raising sales taxes or the state income tax, Meeks said.\n"And no one would want that," Meeks said. "It's a very serious problem right now. The state spends $36 million a day, seven days a week. We just don't have it."\nMarion County faces legal sanctions if improvements are not made in child protection. The county has not complied with a court agreement made years ago to limit the number of cases handled by each caseworker, the Star reported.\nMarion County caseworkers average nearly 40 cases each, said Ken Falk, attorney for the Indiana Civil Liberties Union. They should handle half that many, he said.\nThis year, the Family and Social Services Administration was authorized to hire 40 more caseworkers, 19 for Marion County, Falk said.\nCaseworkers frequently quit, which means the remaining staff must take on extra, said FSSA spokeswoman Cindy Collier. Statewide, the average caseload is 35 per worker when it should be 17, she said.\nAs of Dec. 31, more than 10,800 children were wards of the state, an 8 percent increase from 2002, according to state statistics. About half were in foster care.