Two years after Governor Napolitano stepped up the state’s child protection enforcement, her administration is moving to bolster services for families so fewer children are removed from their homes and so more can be returned home sooner when they are.

The Department of Economic Security on Sept. 16 released a plan that the agency said was intended to help keep children safe from abuse and neglect while strengthening troubled families.

The release of the plan, “A Blueprint for Realigning Arizona’s Child Welfare System,” is the latest of several significant steps by Ms. Napolitano to revamp Child Protective Services, which is part of DES.

Upon taking office as governor in January 2003, the Democratic former state attorney general directed CPS to remove children from homes if there was any sign of danger from abuse or neglect. Later in 2003, she won legislative approval of a budget increase largely aimed at hiring more CPS case workers so the state could investigate all reports of child abuse or neglect.

Between March 2003 and March 2005, the number of children in out-of-home care increased 39.7 percent, according to figures listed in the plan. “These trends display the reliance of CPS on out-of-home care as a service delivery system, even though we know that positive outcomes for children are best achieved when children are able to live safely in their homes,” it said.

Key elements of the plan include making more services available to families, intensifying efforts to recruit foster and adoptive families, creating new CPS teams to coordinate and monitor services for families and increasing collaboration between CPS and social-service agencies, family support programs and faith-based organizations.

Specific goals cited in the plan for achievement by next summer include reducing the number of children in foster care by 5 percent, virtually eliminating the use of group homes and shelters for very young children and reducing the number of older children in group homes and shelters by 10 percent.

Many of the nearly 10,000 children in state care could have safely remained at home if the state intervened earlier and provided better support for families, the DES said.

Tracing Wareing, an acting DES deputy director who oversees CPS, said the new emphasis will help families and children along with taxpayers who carry high costs for care of children placed in group homes or shelters.

“There are many opportunities with families to do a better job with intervening earlier, providing intensive in-home services,” she said.

Mixed Reaction From Lawmakers

Legislative reaction was somewhat mixed.

House Human Services Committee Chairman Pete Hershberger, R-26, who is usually allied with Ms. Napolitano on CPS issues, said the blueprint continues the administration’s efforts to improve CPS.

“We are shifting resources to the front of the system,” Mr. Hershberger said, referring to the plan’s focus on services for families.

Along with the when-in-doubt removal policy, other factors that have resulted in more removals include the new practice of investigating all reports and a growth in cases involving children whose parents are involved with the illegal stimulant methamphetamine, Mr. Hershberger said.

Rep. Laura Knaperek, R-17, who has criticized CPS as overzealous and heavy-fisted in removing children from homes, called the blueprint’s emphasis on family services a tardy but welcome way to cope with affects of Ms. Napolitano’s removal policy.

Ms. Knaperek said that policy led to unnecessary removals and a clogging of shelters and the foster-home system.

Added Ms. Knaperek: “Now they’re going to change the system the way it should have been changed in the beginning.”

The plan does not represent a retreat, Ms. Wareing said. “We’re not going to stop investigating reports of abuse and neglect. We’re not going to stop removing children if the risk assessment shows they cannot remain safely in the home.” —

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