The budget for D.C.’s Child and Family Services Agency — slated to increase by about 4 percent next year — does not allocate nearly enough for the overtime payments or increased staffing needed to cope with a spike in reports of abuse and neglect trigged by the deaths of four sisters late last year, according to a new analysis.

D.C. Action For Children, a nonprofit that keeps watch over the District’s child welfare system, raises myriad questions about CFSA’s proposed $292 million budget, especially in light of the alleged slaying of four D.C. children by their mother, Banita Jacks.

Since the Jacks case, calls to CFSA’s referral hotline have quadrupled, creating a threefold increase in subsequent child abuse and neglect investigations.

But in spite of these surges, only five more workers are to be added to the agency’s Intake and Investigation Activity program. This meager increase has D.C. Action for Children worried, according to senior policy analyst Beth Jamieson.

This story continues below
Advertisement

“We want to make sure they have the support they need to do the job they’re charged with,” she said. “That’s the issue we’re raising here.”

D.C. Action for Children’s analysis also highlights overtime as a key concern. In the aftermath of the Jacks case, CFSA has depended on having employees work extra hours to keep up with the added workload.

The agency’s budget, though, has not increased the amount set aside for overtime. Jamieson pointed out that more local dollars are destined to go toward overtime spending to compensate for lower federal spending. In the end, the total budget amount — $925,000 — is the same, she said.

“We know ... they’ve relied on overtime to meet their mandate to investigate these calls,” she said. “So it’s another one of those ‘Is this enough?’ and ‘Is this a place where we maybe should have thought this out and put more money in?’ ”

Mindy Good, spokeswoman for CFSA, declined to comment on the analysis and said the agency would speak about all aspects of the budget during an April 8 forum.

“Anything you want to know about our budget — you can come to the forum,” Good said in a phone message.

dlevitz@dcexaminer.com