Readers React: Let the DCFS social workers have their perks

To the editor: I have worked with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services for the last year as a foster parent. There are deep, pervasive problems in this department that affect tens of thousands of kids and their families, and that desperately need to be addressed. (“A $374 headset? A $153 tape dispenser? DCFS faces fresh criticism over its spending,” Dec. 27)

Despite these problems, the social worker assigned to my foster child and her siblings is dedicated, smart, kind, tough and overworked. She has saved children’s lives, worked around insane bureaucratic obstacles to keep kids safe, faced danger and aggression from violent clients and has found reasons to continue in a thankless and, frankly, impossible job.

If a $375 wireless headset will make her impossible job a little bit easier, I say give it to her — and remember to say “thank you” when you do it.

Shelley Luce, Los Angeles

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