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After an initial visit, DHS investigators have 60 days to decide what to do with a case. They have to retrieve old files, wait for medical reports, and locate all the children in the family, who are sometimes spread out across the city.

Legally, social workers are not supposed to carry more than 30 cases, but in reality, DHS workers say, any more than 10 will sink you. That is when caseworkers become overwhelmed and burned out.

As an investigator, Soloman's involvement with a family ends once she determines their needs - remove the child, get the family help, or close the case. She is efficient about keeping her caseload manageable. But Nakesha Bridges was not going to be quick and easy.

She wanted to be trusted. She wanted to keep her kids. But she also wanted to live with a man old enough to be her father.

Back at the office, Soloman looked up the records on Bridges' new boyfriend.

She found a file.

He had two children, both neglected.

Child Abuse and DHS

By the numbers

15,000    Approximate number of reports of abuse and neglect

    received in a year

30    Approximate percentage substantiated

161    Number of social workers investigating cases for DHS

4.5    Average number of years they stay in their jobs

6.5    Annual percentage attrition rate for all social work staff

    in the Children and Youth Division

$30,134    Salary range

- $52,133   

What is abuse?