Social worker proposal moves

House and Senate negotiators Wednesday agreed to a bill that would authorize the hiring of four extra social workers to help address a crisis in the child-welfare system on the east side of Hawaiiisland.
But the compromise measure removed a proposed cap on the number of abused or neglected children each social worker in the Child Welfare Services’ Hilo office could supervise.
House Bill 2277 originally set a limit of 20 children per social worker and, to be able to meet that, would have ap