Let's Improve Child Custody by Paying DHR Social Workers More

Let’s talk about Money and DHR on a #FoxtrotFriday. You may not expect it coming from us, but let’s make it rain on DHR! We’ve got our share of problems with DHR, no diggity, no doubt. But at Foxtrot, we also understand something about putting together a good team. Social workers are overworked and underpaid. What would we expect from our lawyers if we ran them ragged for about what a school teacher makes but with being on call 24/7 and without summer breaks?

Turnover is a related issue. DHR and CPS, in other states, are chalk full of it. Some of our clients have had 3 or more different social workers in the same case (and I’m talking about 3 different “ongoing” workers, not just different folks in different roles).

I’ve heard many of my colleagues say this, and I agree with them, that “it’s easier to go up a good lawyer than a bad one.” That’s because the information is on the table, it’s reliable, the process works (win, lose or draw), due process is served and everyone gets a fair shake. When one side is doing shoddy work, either investigation-wise or legally, the Judge, an elected official ostensibly with some interest in keeping his or her job, ends up in the position of choosing to either strictly apply the law and proper procedure, and throwing DHR under the bus, or giving DHR a free pass on a case against parents that should never see the inside of a courtroom, much less succeed in one.

Let’s pay DHR workers as if they were the folks making decisions to uproot children from their homes. Oh wait. Let’s pay DHR workers as if Judges across the State rubber stamped their bogus reports and recommendations chalk full of hearsay and unsubstantiated, inadmissible evidence. Oh wait. We should think of DHR Social Workers the way we think of FBI agents.

Let’s inject competition, compensation and the best training money can buy so social work is less like martyrdom and more accountable. The dirty little secret, guys, is that money creates accountability. I mean the Bible talks about it. With DHR...with anything...you get the exact amount of accountability you pay for, lest you pay with something much more dear.