STATE OF NEVADA - Division of Child and Family Services

District provides services to Carson City, the State’s Capitol, Douglas County, Storey County, and a portion of Lyon
County. District 3 covers the eastern/central part of the state and is based out of Fallon. This office provides services to
Churchill, Lyon, Pershing and Mineral Counties. District 4 covers the southern rural part of the state and is based out of
Pahrump. This office provides services to Esmeralda and Nye Counties. For the most part, growth in Nevada’s rural
counties has been fairly stable. Elko has seen substantial growth in the past few years.
Staff and Work Load:
There are currently 490 caseworker and 121 supervisory/management positions in child welfare filled statewide. There is
currently an 8.2% vacancy rate statewide for all child welfare caseworker and supervisory/management positions.
Clark County Department of Family Services: CCDFS currently has 335 caseworker and 80 supervisory/management
positions filled and 20 vacancies. CCDFS has a current case load ratio of approximately 1 worker to 15.7 cases for child
protective services; 26.6 children per worker for permanency out-of-home workers and 24.6 children per worker for
permanency in-home workers.
Washoe County Department of Social Services: WCDSS currently has 94 caseworker (case manager) and 25
supervisory/management positions filled and 19 vacancies (17 vacant caseworker and 2 vacant supervisory/management
positions). The turnover rate for WCDSS case workers for SFY 09 was 12.12%. This is a 4.55% decrease from the
previous fiscal year. Exit interviews were initiated this current year to analyze trends in staff turnover with the most
common characteristic being job demands and timeframes. WCDSS has a current case load ratio of approximately 1
worker to 25 children for ongoing services and 1 worker to 12 cases for assessment workers.
DCFS – Rural Region: DCFS currently has 61 case worker (Social Worker II/III) positions filled, 49 of which are in the
CPS/Substitute care area and the remainder in adoption and ICPC (5), adoption recruitment (1), quality assurance - QA
(2) and licensing (4). There are four district office manager positions filled, nine Social Work Supervisors for CPS and
Substitute Care and three for QA, Adoption and Licensing. Four of the above supervisors are new during the past fiscal
year. There are currently five caseworker vacancies in the Rural Region, including four in CPS/Substitute Care and one
in QA. In the past fiscal year, 13 staff either retired or were terminated and 17 new staff were hired. There has been a
50% decrease in vacancies in the rural region from July 2009 (10 vacancies) to April 2010 (5 vacancies). The DCFS
Rural Region has a current caseload size of 15-18 cases for each CPS worker and 16 – 18 cases for substitute care
workers.
Children in Care in Nevada
For the State Fiscal Year period of July 1, 2009 through May 31, 2010; Nevada had a total of 7,921 children in care.
Table 01 shows a variety of information on how many children are currently in care; how many entered and left care
during the year long period and how many had previous exposure to the foster care system. Compared to SFY 2009 data
for the same time period (July 1 – May 31); there were a total of 7730 children in care during the fiscal year. Nevada has
shown a 5.68% decrease in the number of children in care from this fiscal year to last fiscal year.
Table 01: Foster Care Summary Information
Summary Total Rural Washoe Clark
Total during this current time frame 7291 605 1336 5350
Total Entering 2461 218 481 1762
Entered with less than 2 placements in first year 2120 189 415 1516
Total with prior Foster Care Experience 20 1 6 13
Total Leaving Care During this time frame 2481 189 508 1784
Source: UNITY Report CFS721 for July 1, 2009 – May 31, 2010.
The majority of children entering care are birth to five years of age (50.9%); with an average of 1.55 placements. Youth
age 15 to 19 years were the smallest group entering care (7.23%), but this group had the highest average number of
placements (2.12) Table 02 shows the breakdown of children in care during SFY 2010 and includes a breakdown of the
ages of the children entering and leaving care during the year.
Nevada APSR – SFY 2010
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