State standards for social workers are too high, dampening the Department for Children and Family’s ability to fill positions in a time when the need for foster care is growing, the agency’s leader said Friday in response to a state audit that showed contractors are finding it difficult to hire social workers.

The state audit found that many social workers, even when paired with an unlicensed family support worker, have high caseloads and at least 6 percent have workloads above the recommended level. Case workers told auditors that vacancies, some lasting as long as six months, forced social workers to take on heavy caseloads.

"We could further recruitment in Kansas by lessening restrictions," DCF secretary Phyllis Gilmore told the Legislative Post Audit committee, a joint House and Senate panel.

Kansas requires that social workers not only be licensed but also have a bachelor’s degree in social work. Some states allow degrees in closely related fields, such as psychology or sociology, Gilmore said.

"Kansas’ requirements are overly restrictive, out of step with national trends and have impacted staffing," Gilmore said in her written response.

To improve recruitment, DCF last year raised salaries and began offering relocation incentives to encourage recruitment. However, Gilmore told the committee, the number of college graduates pursuing careers in social work has dropped dramatically.

She suggested the Legislature address licensing and degree requirements.

Allowing people with closely related degrees to work as social workers "made sense," said Rep. Don Schroeder, R-Hesston. The move would open the pool of available staff without lowering standards, he said.

The bulk of social workers handle between 11 and 20 cases at a time, according to the audit, but at least 6 percent of case workers handled more than 30 cases at time, surpassing DCF’s maximum recommendations. On average, case workers in the eastern region, which includes Topeka and Shawnee County, have caseloads twice the state average.

The audit was also critical of the agency’s ability to track foster children once they have been placed with one of the two private contractors, KVC Health Services or St. Francis Community Services.

DCF lacks enough information to ensure children are placed appropriately, the audit found, because the two contractors keep separate databases. Those databases aren’t integrated with DCF, which prevents proper monitoring, the audit found.

Gilmore acknowledged that data was imperfect but defended the agency by noting the audit was a snapshot of a single day last June. Since then, she said, DCF has implemented a new system to track foster homes and where children are placed.

"We are working to identify solutions to create a more uniform system," she said. "However, this will require significant financial resources."

Sen. Laura Kelly, D-Topeka, said after the hearing that she wasn’t surprised to learn the state hadn’t been maintaining a standard database.

"What I’ve seen from this agency over the last six years, since this administration began, is to be totally reactive and only do something when they’ve been called on it," she said.

During the hearing, Kelly repeatedly asked DCF staffers about the agency’s level of oversight and how contractors guaranteed services. In response, DCF officials at least twice told Kelly that representatives from KVC and St. Francis should speak to the agency’s oversight.

"The reality is it’s the state’s responsibility to make sure the contractors are doing what they should be," Kelly told DCF staff. "You ought to be able to answer that question without having to ask them."

Meanwhile, the state’s performance on child outcomes as compared to federal standards remained relatively stagnant between 2000 and 2013. Kansas improved slightly on measures related to reducing time in foster care and increasing placement stability. The state’s ability to improve permanency rates among foster children declined.

"Kansas has one of the safest child welfare systems in the country," Gilmore said.

Contact reporter Luke Ranker at (785) 295-1270 or @lrankerNEWS on Twitter. Like him on Facebook at facebook.com/lukeranker.