Clearfield County CYS retains operational license due to vital improvements

Officials in Clearfield County say they were able to make the needed improvements to keep the operating license for their Children, Youth, and Family Services (CYFS) for at least the next six months. Commissioner Dave Glass says they haven’t been able to fix every problem yet, but the state says they are on the ‘right trajectory.’

On Monday, the Department of Human Services sent out a release saying they revoked the license for Blair County Children, Youth, and Families (BCCYF) due to multiple violations, including a large backlog of reports.

The same thing almost happened in Clearfield County. According to Glass, many of these violations come from staffing issues, which he and the other commissioners have been trying to help by raising the salary and increasing the sign-on bonus for caseworkers.

“Frankly I just woke up one morning and I was frustrated like we can do better," said Clearfield County Commissioner Dave Glass. "There’s no reason just because it’s always been this way that these people don’t get paid enough that we have to continue to do this, so it was a thoughtful and intentional process to try and break this cycle and say maybe this a problem elsewhere but it doesn’t have to be a problem here," he continued.

Clearfield County’s CYFS director says that provisional licenses are issued when the state finds that an agency has committed multiple violations. She says representatives from the state have been coming to their office weekly for the past two years and have been a big help.

“They know the whole state, you know they have that information and they have that knowledge because they deal with those entities and those facilities as well, so it can be very helpful and I would say use them as a tool and a resource," said Director Trudy Lumadue.

She says that how involved the county commissioners were was one of the main reasons why the state granted them the license to operate, and why they were just recently able to get through their backlogged reports.

Glass says they will continue to do what they can to make sure every case gets looked at properly.

“We're the frontline in this battle against child abuse and protecting children so c-y-s has to be fully staffed, if we aren’t doing our job here then the rest of the system falls apart," said Glass.

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