FYI: The U.S. General Accounting Office reports that child welfare agencies around the country are caught in a staff turnover cycle that’s hindering their ability to provide adequate services: Low pay and high administrative burdens on their work encourage case workers to leave after short periods, which increases the burden on workers who have been around for a while, in turn encouraging them to move on as well. Caseworkers who quit their job told GAO that administrative work took up 50 to 80 percent of their time. Staff also told the agency that large case loads, combined with the high turnover of their colleagues, routinely delay investigations and limit the number of times they can visit children. [4/1/03]