Mike Carroll calls child protective investigators ‘heroes,’ calls for more funding

child welfare

Calling child protective investigators “absolute heroes” who are overworked and under-appreciated, the head of Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) pitched a House of Representatives committee for money to hire more.

DCF Secretary Mike Carroll told the House Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee Wednesday that his department struggles to keep enough investigators on staff because their workloads can be overwhelming in addition to being thankless as they seek to determine if children are living in horrible situations, and to do something about it.

The committee members responded with support but also with concerns that they want to know more about what DCF is, and how they can minimize turnovers, a rate that’s now about 45 percent. The lawmakers also wondered whether DCF has fully thought through the prospects of bringing on retired law enforcement officers, teachers, veterans and others as part-timers to ease the workload, or whether pay levels are an issue.

Carroll replied that all of that has only limited opportunity to help, but that some of it was being done, and promised follow-up information. But he also made it clear, as he had done in a Florida Senate committee meeting two weeks ago, that the investigators’ jobs are tough, and that the workloads and the nature of the job — being on call to work nights, weekends, holidays, whenever a child needs help — simply burns people out.

The only times they ever get public attention is when there is a tragedy and media focuses on the investigator involved, never focusing on the countless successful cases where children were saved from horrible situations, he said.

“One of the things that makes this a high burnout job as it’s pretty thankless,” Carroll said. “One of the things that angers me the most is when I read in the press they characterize our folks as bureaucrats. Far from it. These people do not make a lot of money. These people work unbelievable hours. Their job is unpredictable. They do not work an eight to five job. They’re often working on holidays and overtime. They’re on call on weekends. They don’t have any free time They do the best they can.”

His ask was for $4.4 million more from the state, which could bring a $3.6 million federal match to hire 69 more investigators and others. That’s in addition to 61 new investigator slots he intends to create by transferring positions from other functions. The department currently has 1,064 child protective investigators, 215 senior child protective investigators, 26 field supervisors and 230 supervisors. He plans to add 80 new investigators, 30 new supervisors, and 20 criminal intelligence specialists.

“To me, the folks that do this job are absolute heroes. Absolute heroes. They’re not treated that way by folks. They’re first responders, but they’re not treated that way,” Carroll added.

Carroll’s appearance was only a briefing; there was no immediate legislation for the panel to consider. But several members expressed strong support for offering what it could.

“I think everybody understands that if the role of government is to protect the most vulnerable, these are the folks who do that,” said Chairman Jason Brodeur, a Sanford Republican.

Scott Powers

Scott Powers is an Orlando-based political journalist with 30+ years’ experience, mostly at newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel and the Columbus Dispatch. He covers local, state and federal politics and space news across much of Central Florida. His career earned numerous journalism awards for stories ranging from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster to presidential elections to misplaced nuclear waste. He and his wife Connie have three grown children. Besides them, he’s into mystery and suspense books and movies, rock, blues, basketball, baseball, writing unpublished novels, and being amused. Email him at [email protected].


One comment

  • Lisa V.

    November 16, 2017 at 1:38 pm

    While I don’t disagree I feel that the case managers are left out of these discussions and advocacy work as they are not state employees. They also have high case loads, work crazy hours and drive all over the state to meet the placement needs of the children. Their cases last 12 months or more while CPIs are only involved for around 60 days. More case managers with lower case loads will also help families and keep them from coming back into care.

Comments are closed.


#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, Anne Geggis, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Gray Rohrer, Jesse Scheckner, Christine Sexton, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704




Sign up for Sunburn


Categories