More than 3500 at-risk children in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven have been let down by the Baird government, according to the Public Service Association.
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Just 969 of the 4564 children deemed at risk of significant harm in the region received a face-to-face child protection response assessment from January to March this year.
PSA assistant general secretary Steve Turner said the latest quarterly figures from the Department of Family and Community Services' "caseworker dashboard" were "shocking".
"The figures reveal that statewide just one in four at-risk children and young people are being seen by a caseworker - while in the Illawarra Shoalhaven that figure drops to one in five children," he said.
Mr Turner said the figures were evidence the department's decision to cut caseworkers in the region had backfired.
While the government has committed to funding 107 full-time equivalent caseworkers in the region, staffing levels had been higher for some time due to demand.
Last December there were 110 caseworkers, but by March this year that had dropped to 102, leaving the district five caseworkers short.
"The Illawarra Shoalhaven had allocated extra staff; they withdrew those staff and that's why staff walked off the job for an hour in March," Mr Turner said.
"The department claimed that those extra staff weren't assisting with increased service but these dashboard figures shows that staffing has fallen even below the established 107 positions.
"With only one in five children being seen, here's a clear demonstration that a reduction in staffing and resources allocated to a district has had a direct effect on community services' ability to look after children at risk."
Mr Turner said high vacancy rates combined with a high staff turnover was causing stress and frustration among workers.
PSA Illawarra workplace delegate Frank Kovic called on the state government to fund more positions to ease the strain.
"The figure of 107 is an arbitrary figure put in place after positions were cut before the first caseworker dashboard almost two years ago," he said.
"At that time we had around 131 caseworkers between the region's four community service centres at Coniston, Shellharbour, Nowra and Ulladulla.
"Our concern is that if we don't have the caseworkers to get to these children at risk, then often that risk will escalate over a period of time."
A Family and Community Services (FACS) spokesman said the statewide caseworker vacancy rate remained unchanged at 5 per cent for the March 2015 quarter. "Caseworker vacancy rates dropped from 9 per cent in the March 2014 quarter, to 5 per cent in the March 2015 quarter," he said.
"FACS is continuing initiatives to attract and retain caseworkers."
