As Beacon Hill lawmakers begin budget debates this week, social workers around the state are staging lunchtime rallies, calling for millions in funding to hire additional workers. They say caseloads per worker are dangerously high, endangering children under their watch.

Earlier this year, many frontline workers had high hopes for swift change after Governor Charlie Baker appointed Linda Spears as DCF Commissioner. As the former head of the D.C.-based Child Welfare League of America, she  oversaw a 2014 independent audit of the state agency, on the heels of the high-profile death of 5-year-old Jeremiah Oliver, whose social worker reportedly missed months of visits with Oliver’s family.

Spears recommended social workers have a maximum caseload of 15 families. But with a spike in reporting after Oliver’s death and new state guidelines for reporting abuse and neglect, more calls came in to DCF, and caseloads increased.

Debi Belkin, a social worker and supervisor in the Greenfield office, which covers Franklin and Hampshire Counties, says in her more than 30 years at the agency, she in fact has never seen caseloads this high.

“When you factor in the increase in parental substance abuse, domestic violence, it increases our work ten-fold in trying to keep kids safe,” Belkin says.

In an email, DCF confirms it has experienced a significant increase in the number of child abuse and neglect reports filed in the past year. The department also said it is committed to reducing caseloads.