A review of the state's Department of Child Safety shows it should take steps to improve its work to permanently place children in new family settings after being removed from homes due to abuse or neglect.
A special report by the state Auditor General says the department doesn't consistently provide juvenile courts with timely and detailed status reports about children's cases and that caseworkers frequently don't attend sessions to review foster care.
The report recommends that they track its submissions to courts, develop new guidance for supervisors to review court reports and formalize its process for reviewing whether caseworkers attend review sessions.
The department responded to the report by saying it agrees with some of the report's recommendations and will implement them but that it disagrees with others and won't implement those.
