It’s good to hear that staffing levels are improving in the county Child Protective Services Department and that caseworkers are handling normal caseloads.

But, as we’ve said in this space before, making employees’ lives easier is only half of the battle when it comes to CPS oversight. And it still seems as if county lawmakers only care about workers’ complaints.

Legislator Susan Parker, D-Fredonia, is pushing county officials for a written plan of what happens when law enforcement is not available. Laurie Dolce, director of certification for the Department of Social Services responsible for child protection, told Parker that if there’s an emergency, police send help. If a CPS worker is requesting an officer to serve as a “peace officer” and be present when entering a home, occasionally police have requested to delay a visit due a pending emergency.

“We’ve never had a situation where law enforcement has told us ‘you’re on your own,'” she said.

Parker said she was aware of two complaints by a CPS worker who didn’t get police assistance. She said she would talk to Dolce privately about the specifics of those two concerns.

We won’t say police availability for difficult CPS situations isn’t an issue. But we sincerely hope the end of worker-related complaints isn’t the end of the legislature’s oversight of CPS. Working conditions are important because CPS workers have to be secure in their jobs to carry out their mandated duty. But working conditions are not the most important consideration when it comes to CPS. Children are the focus – and it’s about time our oversight of CPS starts there rather than being an afterthought. .

For every case CPS takes on, there are cases it turns away. For every child CPS helps, there are children who continue to live in situations that border on abuse and neglect. And until we can explain those discrepancies publicly the county’s oversight responsibility won’t be finished.

Worker complaints are easy to fix. The baffling decision making when it comes to children is not.