Texas Lowering Degree Requirements for CPS Caseworkers

“New Child Protective Services caseworkers will need a two-year college degree — not simply a high school education and four years in the workforce — to waive a decades-old rule that they must have bachelor’s degrees, the agency said Friday.

Earlier this month, CPS changed online descriptions of vacant jobs to suggest that even applicants who never went to college might be considered for caseworker jobs if they have four years of “equivalent work experience” in a social or human services job.

Someone with an associate’s degree could be considered if the person had two years of related work experience, the agency said.

After sharp criticism, CPS said this week that its intent all along was a maximum credit of two years for work experience — and a minimum of an associate’s degree or two years of college.

Spokesman Patrick Crimmins said the initial intent was “lost in translation” when employees changed the online job postings.

“It was an oversight,” he said.

CPS changed the policy to try to expand applicant pools and improve worker retention.

A month ago, Crimmins explained the rationale.

“We just have to try new things,” he said in an email. “Many individuals out there without college degrees have direct and varied and practical work experience working with children, young adults, and people with disabilities — and the passion to do it. [Combining] that experience, … passion and our caseworker training program … will be a winning combination.”

The need for new blood — and loyalty — is dire. From September through February, CPS child-abuse investigators in Dallas County quit at an annual rate of 57 percent, forcing the agency to bring in scores of workers from other parts of Texas to temporarily handle cases.

Officials hope many of the longtime secretarial-type employees and “human services technicians” at CPS, who for years have helped caseworkers fill out paperwork and transport children to family visits and appointments, will apply for caseworker jobs. Those workers start at about $25,000 a year versus the $34,000 minimum for caseworkers.

Critics, such as a former CPS program director and a leading child advocate, said Texas would have the lowest educational requirements for child-welfare caseworkers in the nation. The agency should strengthen, not weaken educational requirements, so that caseworkers have critical-thinking skills, can write well and detect risks of child abuse in certain dysfunctional families, they said.

Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, said that instead of scrapping the college-degree requirement, the state protective-services department should hire an outside entity to study and recommend “a fair starting salary” that considers the job that CPS workers are asked to perform and the cost of living in Texas’ fast-growing urban areas.

In late April, Crimmins said CPS has a free hand in setting educational requirements.

“There is no federal or state law which requires the four-year degree, just long-standing policy,” he wrote.

Departing Protective Services Commissioner John Specia, an appointee of former Gov. Rick Perry, clarified the policy in a letter to Uresti on Wednesday. (Specia’s last day on the job was Thursday. Gov. Greg Abbott’s social services czar has named former Texas Rangers chief Henry “Hank” Whitman to succeed him.)

Specia wrote that some of the people lacking bachelor’s degrees who get the nod to become caseworkers will “feel that their employer is invested in their success [and] are more likely to remain on a long-term basis.”

He said the applicant pool will be more diverse if work experience, not just “formal education,” is considered.

Specia acknowledged, though, that “hiring alone will not solve the high turnover rate.” He said CPS is trying to improve recruitment. It is reaching out to universities to customize curriculums that could lead to CPS careers. And he said the department “is working with the University of Houston to conduct a compensation study.”

Crimmins could provide no details of the pay study.

Late Friday, Uresti said he continues to object to changing the education level required.

“The areas with the most vacancies and highest turnover are in our cities, where the cost of living is the highest and where our caseworkers are paid significantly less than other comparable professions,” he said in a written statement.

“Maintaining an educated workforce can only be achieved by providing our frontline workers with the livable salaries they deserve,” Uresti said. “Lowering standards is not going to fix the problem.”

CPS clarifies rule: New caseworkers in Texas must have at least 2-year degree [The Dallas Morning News 5/27/16 by Robert T. Garrett]

REFORM Puzzle  Piece