Nassau to hire 13 former law enforcement workers for part-time CPS help

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman on Thursday said his administration will hire 13 former law enforcement officials to work in the Department of Social Services to help investigate allegations of child abuse and neglect. 

The part-time positions are part of a plan to alleviate the rising load of Child Protective Service workers, many of whom have more active cases than recommended by the state. 

The former law enforcement employees would include police officers, detectives, fire marshals and correction officers who either retired from the force or left for other reasons. They would complete a mandatory six-week training course, allowing them to onboard faster than the six to 12 months it would take to hire from the county and state civil service list, Blakeman said. 

Nassau and Suffolk counties have struggled to fill vacant caseworker jobs despite efforts to reform the CPS system after the ongoing abuse and subsequent 2020 hypothermia death of Thomas Valva, 8, of Suffolk County. The boy's father, ex-NYPD officer Michael Valva, and his former fiancee, Angela Pollina, in January 2020 ordered him to spend the night in their unheated Center Moriches garage as temperatures outside fell to 19 degrees. Both are serving prison sentences of 25 years to life. 

"We don't want any children to fall between the cracks. That's our motive for being proactive," Blakeman said. "In addition, we don't want to burn out our caseworkers. We want to make sure that our caseworkers have a caseload that is manageable."

The state recommends caseworkers carry no more than 15 open cases at a time. 

Nassau had 24 caseworkers with more than 15 cases per month from July to September, according to administration officials. Caseloads are reported quarterly.

Suffolk's CPS had six caseworkers with more than 15 cases per month, outgoing Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said Wednesday at the unveiling of a publicly accessible dashboard with caseload statistics. 

The new Nassau civil service positions for "part-time caseworkers from law enforcement" are a stopgap measure as the administration struggles to hire full-time caseworkers, said Blakeman. 

"Why law enforcement? Because they understand the law, they got investigative experience and most of them have already been vetted and their background checks would go a lot quicker than it would for someone who started off as an individual," Blakeman said. 

Nassau has 90 budgeted CPS caseworker positions and 38 vacancies. Blakeman said he plans to fill 20 of those immediately with seven full-time caseworkers from the civil service list and the 13 former officers. 

Nassau County Social Services Commissioner Nancy Nunziata said the new jobs will pay $30 per hour and not exceed 17 hours per week.

Blakeman earlier this year approved a 17% starting salary increase for CPS caseworkers to $51,000 from $44,000 annually.  

Nunziata said many current full-time caseworkers have higher education degrees in social work. The minimum educational requirement for the new positions is a bachelor's degree. 

The initiative does not require legislative approval but Legis. Debra Mulé, a trained social worker, said the Democratic Minority caucus will be "closely monitoring the rollout." 

"Any initiative that involves the delivery of such critical and sensitive services must be scrutinized closely," said Mulé (D-Freeport).  

By Candice Ferrette

candice.ferrette@newsday.comcandiceferrette

Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.