How To Become A Child Welfare Caseworker: What It Is and Career Path

What is a child welfare caseworker and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Debra Minsky-Kelly

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a child welfare caseworker. For example, did you know that they make an average of $23.79 an hour? That's $49,485 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 9% and produce 64,000 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a child welfare caseworker?

Debra Minsky-Kelly

Director of Field Education / Clinical Assistant Professor of Social Work, Carthage College

I think there are two critical skills for social workers, whether they are first entering the workforce or seasoned professionals. These skills are humility and an appreciation for ambiguity in our work. A humble approach to our work empowers clients to become experts on their circumstances. Social workers are then positioned in a collaborative role to help clients use existing skills and resources to improve their situations. An appreciation for ambiguity is closely related to the idea of humility. It helps us to remember that practice situations we face in this field are often far more complicated than they appear on the surface. Thus, all social workers need to make a strong commitment to lifelong learning and ongoing consultation with colleagues to ensure that multiple perspectives are included as we work to solve complex problems.

ScoreChild Welfare CaseworkerUS Average

Salary

3.9

Avg. Salary $49,485

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

10.0

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.51%

Asian 2.67%

Black or African American 13.37%

Hispanic or Latino 15.12%

Unknown 4.19%

White 63.14%

Gender

female 83.62%

male 16.38%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress level

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.5

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.2

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a child welfare caseworker

Explore child welfare caseworker education requirements

Most common child welfare caseworker degrees

Bachelor's

72.3 %

Master's

15.2 %

Associate

9.5 %

Start to develop specific child welfare caseworker skills

Skills	Percentages
Social Work	26.31%
Foster Care	18.96%
Child Welfare	6.20%
Child Safety	5.45%
Mental Health	4.26%

Complete relevant child welfare caseworker training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New child welfare caseworkers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a child welfare caseworker based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real child welfare caseworker resumes.

Research child welfare caseworker duties and responsibilities

Make outbound calls to clients to gather information and data to process Medicaid applications timely.
Create a referral to the fraud department if there are discrepancies on the Medicaid application submit by clients.
Provide bilingual support to residents and families through regular provision of caseworker activities.
Act as a liaison for DHS and consults with other caseworkers and community professionals.

Prepare your child welfare caseworker resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your child welfare caseworker resume.

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