Memo backs 22 percent raises for federally funded Children and Family Services jobs
Submitted | Navajo Division for Children and Family Services
Thomas Cody, the executive director of the Navajo Division of Children and Family Services, speaks during an announcement supporting salary-scale increases for federally funded staff.
WINDOW ROCK
President Buu Nygren has signed a memorandum to the Division of Human Resources backing a salary-scale increase for federally funded employees in the Division of Children and Family Services.
Thomas Cody, the executive director for the Division of Children and Family Services, said improving pay has been a priority since he joined the division last July and that the action follows more than two years of internal work.
“We worked on this for over two years,” Cody said. He told staff he is committed to making salaries “equitable and competitive,” noting that most positions in the division are paid with external funds. The Nygren Administration stated the adjustments average about 22.13% across several DCFS programs.
The pay changes roll out in phases: Department for Child Care and Development on Oct. 1, 2024; Developmental Disabilities Program and the Arizona Long Term Care Services on July 1, 2025; and Family Services, Self Reliance, the Navajo Indian Child Welfare Act Program, the Navajo Treatment Center for Children and Their Families, and the Family Assistance Unit on Oct. 1, 2025.
Nygren said the goal is to align DCFS pay with federal scales. “You’re going to have the same wages as the federal people get to have every year,” he said. “I want to make sure we do that for all our federal programs and all our Navajo Nation federal employees.”
Reycita Toddy, the executive director for the Division of Human Resources, said Cody pressed the issue “nearly every day,” but the timeline was shaped by a government-wide compensation study covering the Executive and Legislative branches.
“I know it took a long time, but we were going through a compensation study for the entire Navajo Nation which includes the Executive and Legislative branches,” Toddy said. “Because that also included the Division for Children and Family Services, we couldn’t just say we’re going to approve it now without considering and doing some comparison of the salaries and the work that each of the programs do.”
She added that the Office of the Controller and the Office of Management and Budget provided assurances that the Nation can sustain the higher pay beyond the current fiscal year.
Cody said the DCFS will step up recruiting to reopen child-care sites and fill vacant posts. “With the new salary rate, we think we can do that, bring more people back into the division,” he said, adding that some centers have closed because of staffing shortages.
Deannah Neswood-Gishey, who manages the Department of Child Care and Development, said DCFS operates 16 childcare centers but only 11 are open. “We have beautiful facilities that we cannot open because we don’t have livable wages,” she said.
Program managers said higher pay is necessary to keep licensed staff. “Many social workers get paid at a higher level when they go to the state side, so being able to have them stay with the Nation and provide those direct services to our people is extremely needed,” said Crescentia Tso, the manager of the Department of Family Services.
Antoinette Miller, who leads the Department for Self Reliance, said some positions there pay minimum wage and the increase will help fill them. She added that many DCFS employees hold master’s degrees and should be paid competitively.
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