Carbon County's Children and Youth program is seeing an increase in child abuse reports because of changes to laws, but the funding is not increasing, officials report.

On Thursday, during the county commissioners' meeting, Sallianne Schatz Newton, director of children and youth, spoke about the 2016-2017 needs-based plan and budget that is proposed for the department.The $4.6 million budget earmarks $1,716,575 for in-home services, $1,063,677 for community placements, $1,724,389 for residential services, and $149,630 for administrative costs."Children and youth is seeing about a 25 percent increase in its reports made to the agency," Schatz Newton said, noting that the budget does not increase from last year's spending plan. "The increases are attributed to many changes to the child protective services law."The updated law, which went into effect on Jan. 1, changes who is required to report suspected cases of child abuse, how reports are investigated, and the definitions of who are perpetrators and what constitutes child abuse.Many of these reports, under the former law would be investigated by local law enforcement and if necessary then turned over to children and youth. With the new changes, children and youth caseworkers do the investigating first.For example, Schatz Newton said that in a typical month under the old law, the department receives about 10 child abuse reports.In July alone, now under the new law, 29 child abuse reports were filed. That doesn't includes the dozens of other types of reports filed with the department."That is alarming," Commissioners Chairman Wayne Nothstein said. "It has almost tripled so it is a huge amount of time that the caseworkers will have to investigate. Now that there are more mandated laws for teachers and others working with children, I fear that they will be reporting a lot more just out of fear of failing to report something, even if it is not found (to be abuse)."These extra reports, and the new law requirements are taxing the staff and the state because qualified civil service applicants are minimal.She said that currently, the office has 10 caseworkers that handle dozens of cases for various child- and family-related reports, and is looking to fill one vacancy."My staff does a great job working to stay within the budget," Schatz Newton said. "But with the changes that went into effect on Jan. 1, we are seeing increases in reports and believe we will see an increase in the placements too, meaning that it will be taxing our agency."Commissioner William O'Gurek said that it is impressive what the department accomplishes based on the number of cases they handle and the amount of money it takes to make sure children are safe."Our people here in the office of children and youth have a very difficult job, dealing with very emotional issues," he said. "The fact that we can keep the budget where it is, is attributed to the work they have been doing in these difficult circumstances."He pointed out that from 2009 to 2015, placements have dropped significantly, from over 100 to approximately 35, because of various programs and collaborative efforts between the department, the courts, juvenile probation and outside agencies that deal with children and families.In other matters, Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard reported that the county will shut down the covered bridge in Lower Towamensing Township sometime after Labor Day so work on demolishing the existing footers of the height restriction beams can proceed. The steel I-beams are being constructed and work to install them will take place in the near future.