Caseworker Contact Compliance Calculator — Are You on Pace This Month?

Why contact requirements exist

A contact requirement is a floor, not a plan. Child welfare, family support and home visiting programmes set a minimum number of contacts in a period — commonly monthly, often required to be face to face, and frequently required to happen in the home where the child or family lives — because regular sight of the family is the only reliable way to notice change. The exact number, the definition of a qualifying contact and the rules on who may make it are set by your state, tribe, county or programme, and they vary widely enough that no general figure is worth quoting. Read your own standard; it is the only one you will be measured against.

What the standards have in common is that compliance is judged per period and per client. A month with two contacts for one family and none for another is not half compliant — it is one family missed. That is why this tool works one client at a time and then multiplies, rather than averaging your caseload into a single comfortable number.

Planning a month around cancellations

Contacts fail for ordinary reasons: nobody home, a family in crisis somewhere else, a court date that eats a day, a car that will not start. If you plan the month at exactly the required number of contacts, the first cancellation puts you behind and the second makes the month impossible. The usual defence is front-loading — schedule the required contact in the first half of the period wherever the family's routine allows, and keep the second half as recovery room. The last feasible day in the results above is the point at which recovery room runs out.

The second defence is geography. Contacts that cluster by area survive a cancellation better than contacts scattered across the county, because the replacement visit is ten minutes away instead of an hour.

Documenting attempts

An attempt that is not written down did not happen. Where a policy gives any weight to unsuccessful attempts, it almost always asks for specifics: the date and time, the address or number tried, what was done to reach the family, and what the next step is. Record it the same day, while the detail is exact, and record it even when you are certain you will get the contact later in the month — the value of the note is that it exists if you do not.

Two-worker visits

Some visits are made in pairs, whether for safety, for a specific assessment, or because a supervisor is observing. Paired visits cost two calendar slots for one contact, and they are the first thing to slip when either diary fills. If a share of your month is paired, count those days as working days that can carry only one contact, and book them before the rest of the month is planned around them. The caseload capacity calculator turns the same month into hours, and the caseworker mileage calculator covers the travel those visits generate.

This tool is a planning aid based on the numbers you enter. It states no contact standard of its own, quotes no figure from any jurisdiction, and is not legal advice or a substitute for your agency's policy — confirm the requirement, the qualifying contact type and the documentation rules against your own standard. Last reviewed: September 2026.

Frequently asked questions

How does the calculator decide whether I am on pace?

It spreads the requirement evenly across the working days in the period. If the period has twenty working days and you owe four contacts, one contact is due after every five working days. The tool compares the contacts you have recorded against that even line: at or above it is on pace, below it is behind, and if the contacts still outstanding outnumber the working days left it is flagged as at risk, because more than one contact per working day would now be needed for that client.

What is the last day I can still finish the period?

It is the working day on which the contacts still outstanding exactly equal the working days remaining, counting back from the end of the period. Up to and including that date the period can still be completed at one contact per working day. After it, finishing requires doubling up — two contacts for the same client on one day, which is rarely what the requirement means. The tool shows that date so the decision to escalate happens while there is still room.

Do attempted contacts count?

That depends on the standard you are working to, and this tool does not decide it for you. Contact requirements are set by your state, tribe, county or programme, and they differ on whether an unsuccessful attempt counts toward the requirement, what evidence an attempt needs, and whether the contact must be face to face or in the home. Enter only the contacts that count under your own policy, and check the wording of that policy rather than assuming a general rule.