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Grand Jury Questions Case Loads For Child Welfare Social Workers In Ventura County

There’s been a new salvo in a disagreement between Ventura County, and some grand juries about the case load for child welfare social workers.

The 2016-17 Ventura County issued a report in which it called the case load for County’s Human Services Agency employees too high. The agency disagreed with the report, saying agency workers had what it called “reasonable” caseloads.

Now, a new report by the 2017-2018 Grand Jury is questioning the county’s response. The Grand Jury says the agency lacks clear cut standards, and that the way the statistics are used mask excessive caseloads.

The report also asserts that the hiring of more social workers, and a multi-year drop in the number of cases should have helped ease the caseload issue.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.