Proposed pay raise for CPS staff

The commissioner of the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services has proposed giving $12,000 raises to each Child Protective Services caseworker, supervisor and administrator.

The raises are part of a plan Commissioner Hank Whitman submitted to lawmakers late Thursday.

Whitman submitted the plan after a Texas Senate committee ordered him to provide a revised plan for caseworkers or law enforcement officers to visit thousands of youth reported as abused or neglected.

Committee Chairwoman Jane Nelson of Flower Mound had given Whitman until the close of business Thursday to submit the new plan and demanded that higher pay be a key part of it.

Whitman said last week that he wanted to hire more than 800 investigators, caseworkers and staffers at a cost of $53 million.