Bello: CPS will be fully staffed around Thanksgiving

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Right now the average child protective case worker in Monroe County handles 30 to 35 cases. The state recommendation is 15. So, the information News10NBC got from the county executive Monday should be good for children and the people who love them. 

At the peak of the pandemic, Monroe County had a 50% vacancy rate with child protective case workers.
That’s been cut that in half. And County Executive Adam Bello says CPS will be fully staffed around Thanksgiving.

At his office today, Bello said he attributes this to a few things:
Better pay.
Better vacation.
A full time recruiter.
A civil service exam with no fee.
And a program with the U of R that waives the civil service exam for a handful of new recruits.

Right now, Monroe County CPS gets 800 new case referrals every month.

Brean: Adam, when to you think this gets down to actually helping children who need help?

Adam Bello, Monroe County Executive: So the training process is several months for new employees, but make no mistake: Child protective services cases filed with our office are followed up on. The challenge we’re trying to address by bringing on additional staff is to reduce the number of case load sizes.

Once again, the average CPS case worker has 30 to 35 cases in Monroe County. The state recommends that each worker have only 15. The county believes that when they get fully staffed that will drop to about 20 to 25, which the county calls “manageable.”