Fired D.C. Social Worker's Caseload Had Ballooned

Johnson said "initially . . . they had given her the wrong contact information, wrong phone number, wrong address."

"Then, through searching, she was able to track it down through another source," he said.

Johnson and other union leaders said yesterday that there is a policy to make contact with a family before visiting.

"You have to get permission to come there," said Deborah Courtney, president of Local 2401 of AFSCME, which represents employees in the Department of Human Services. "They have to be willing to allow you to come into their door."

Johnson said the social worker told him that the case was not originally hers -- an example of the shuffling other union leaders say has occurred as workers scramble in the wake of the Jacks case.

On Jan. 9, the bodies of Jacks's four daughters were found decomposed in a Southeast Washington rowhouse, estimated to have been there for several months. The case was closed despite a school counselor's desperate calls to the agency and even though police said that the girls were being held hostage and that their mother appeared to be mentally ill.

Fenty fired six workers in that case. A hearing officer recommended three for reinstatement.

It was the kind of swift action Fenty has become known for, although he is sometimes reversed. Fenty said he has instituted the approach of quickly terminating those he finds accountable, because that is what constituents demand. In the past, employees got "a slap on the wrist," he said. "People are tired of that."

The brisk style, coupled with the increase in reported cases, has created an atmosphere of fear and has lowered morale at CFSA, Courtney said. "With our new mayor, it's a fix-it. Get it done or lose your job," she said. Although the drive is there, union leaders said, the resources are not, and more social workers are needed.

The national standard for a social worker's caseload is 12, but after the Jacks case, District social workers were dealing with 20 on average, and some had more than 30.

"You expect someone with 40 or 50 cases to perform at the level they would if they had 12 cases. That's unrealistic," said Wayne L. Enoch, a shop steward for Local 2401.

Courtney said the social workers are constantly struggling with decisions about which cases to pursue.

"You meet the day for that moment," she said. "You get the hot spot. That's it. That's how you lose these children in the system."