Suffolk CPS caseloads still higher than goal set after Thomas Valva's death, Bellone says

Suffolk County has failed to keep Child Protective Services caseload levels below its reform goal of 12 cases or fewer per caseworker nearly four years after the hypothermia murder of 8-year-old Thomas Valva, but it's on track to reach its goal in May, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said Wednesday as he provided a progress report on a series of CPS reforms. 

Bellone, speaking at a news conference in Hauppauge to provide an update on the 2020 CPS Transformation Act that was passed six months after Thomas' killing, said the county has struggled to hire enough caseworkers to fill the county's 138 budgeted caseworker positions, “which is what we believe we need to maintain 12 or fewer caseloads.”

Bellone called it “the strictest standard of any county in New York.” The state standard is 15 or fewer cases per caseworker.

Suffolk's CPS now has 38 caseworkers with more than 12 cases, and six with more than 15, Bellone said, demonstrating a new, publicly accessible dashboard with statistics on caseloads as part of the effort to be more transparent.

“CPS has been transformed since Thomas' murder,” Bellone said. The county adopted all 13 of the recommendations in a state report on the Valva case, he said. “The only part of the CPS Transformation Act that we have continued to have a challenge meeting is hiring enough caseworkers to meet budgeted levels.”

Bellone says the county consistently has budgeted for more CPS caseworkers than it's been able to hire. Lower caseloads give caseworkers more time to investigate allegations of abuse and neglect and make mistakes less likely, experts say.

Thomas died of hypothermia on Jan. 17, 2020, after his father, NYPD officer Michael Valva, and the father's then-fiancee, Angela Pollina, ordered him to spend the night in their unheated Center Moriches garage. The temperature outside fell to 19 degrees that night.

Both were convicted of second-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child in Thomas' death and are serving sentences of 25 years to life in upstate prisons.

At Valva's and Pollina's separate trials, teachers, administrators and a school psychologist testified Thomas and his older brother, Anthony, came to school bruised and beaten and that they appeared “emaciated” at times in the two years leading up to Thomas' death. The teachers filed multiple reports to CPS, and the school psychologist said she witnessed Thomas in 2019 tell a CPS investigator that he slept in the garage. But the boys continued to live with their father until Thomas' murder.

Thomas’ mother, Justyna Zubko-Valva, has rejected a $3 million settlement offer from the county and CPS, which she sued for more than $200 million for failing to protect Thomas, Newsday has reported. She and her lawyer have parted ways and the presiding judge gave her until Jan. 14 to find a new civil attorney. She couldn't be reached for comment.

As of Wednesday, CPS had 110 caseworkers — short of the 138 that county has budgeted for, Bellone said.

But Bellone said the county has hired another 21 caseworkers that are weeks away from finishing their nine-month training program and getting started. Twenty-five more will finish their training between March and May, though not all will be CPS caseworkers, as some will handle adult clients. Another 13 caseworkers will begin the training program in January. 

In the past year, the county has hired 46 caseworkers, Bellone said.

The county needs to hire an additional 42 caseworkers in 2024 to maintain the 138-employee level, factoring in attrition, Bellone said.

The county took a number of measures to increase staffing, including raising the pay of CPS caseworkers, Bellone said, but the county has been affected by a shrinking workforce after the pandemic. Bellone said the county needs to continue to bolster its human resources functions and data analysis ability, which he called “critical to the long-term success of the CPS Transformation Act.”

Mike Martino, a spokesman for County Executive-elect Ed Romaine, who takes office on Jan. 1, said a strong CPS is a top priority of his administration.

“As the grandfather of one of Thomas Valva’s classmates, Ed Romaine has been on record from Day 1 of his campaign to reforming and addressing the needs of CPS," Martino said.

Bellone said staffing increases have allowed CPS to bring down the average number of cases per caseworker: 12.7 in 2021 and 11.5 in 2022. This year, the number is 9.5, Bellone said.

Among the other CPS reforms, Bellone said, is enhanced training and oversight review, better supervision and coordination between CPS and the police, and a new specialized team to handle cases of children with autism.

“At the end of the day, we have to do everything we possibly can to make sure that a case like Thomas Valva never happens again,” Bellone said.

Suffolk Department of Social Services Commissioner Frances Pierre, who oversees CPS, said she’s seen big   improvement since she began her tenure in 2019, when 73% of caseworkers carried caseloads of more than 15. Ten percent of those were over 26 cases, she said, adding that CPS now has no one with more than 16 cases in the CPS investigations unit.

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.