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The director of Clearfield County Children, Youth, and Family Services says that they have been experiencing staffing issues and due to a lack of placement facilities, a few kids have had to stay overnight at their office in downtown Clearfield.

“CYS, we’re a 24-hour service and there’s no option to turn kids away," said Director Trudy Lumadue.

A report from different county leaders throughout the state showed that more than 250 youth slept somewhere like a hotel instead of a licensed facility. Lumadue says a lot of those facilities are full, which limits their options.

“We’ve had a few kids that have had to stay at our agency and we manage it I think very well, the staff that we have are great and everybody steps up and chips in and we take care of this child like they’re our own," said Lumadue.

Both Lumadue and Clearfield County Commissioner John Sobel say they have seen the number of mistreated children go up over the last couple of years. Sobel says that this is due to many reasons, such as the rise in drug addiction in the area. He says there needs to be a better protocol in place, and also says that more funding from the state would go a long way in operating these facilities and possibly opening new ones.

“We have case workers, administrators, watching them 24 hours a day but they’re not getting the behavioral health and mental health services they deserve for several days until we are able to get them into placement, so that’s really not a satisfactory solution," said Sobel.

“We also need more facilities, and more training and more staff, we’re going through some serious staffing crises with the rise in numbers of kids who are in trouble," said Sobel.

Lumadue says that over the last two weeks, they have received double the amount of reports of suspected child abuse or neglect that they usually get. She says the staff they have is incredible, but it’s simply not enough.

“We are currently in house, short-staffed, we’re at 42.8% staffing on our case workers, and then not all of those caseworkers are always out in the field," said Lumadue.

Lumadue also says they are always looking for help, and to reach out if you are someone with some experience in social work.

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