It is too late for the baby taken to the Phoenix morgue last week. It is too late for the thousands of children in our nation’s child protection system who have already died on the state’s watch. But it is not too late to save the lives of children going forward by making it a priority to require agency transparency including immediate, independent investigations. The state’s fatality report says these deaths are preventable. Let’s make it so.
Read More »AZ Supreme Court changes criminal defense of duress
People who say they were forced by fear of death or injury to break the law need not prove they were in imminent danger at the time of the offense to escape being convicted, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday.
Read More »Foster child who suffered horrific ordeal sues state
The court-appointed guardian of a 6-year-old foster child is suing two state agencies, several adoption entities and two sets of foster and adoptive parents, claiming the child suffered a horrific ordeal while in foster care.
Read More »Arizona child safety unit looking at new regulations
Arizona's Department of Child Safety is putting together a team to explore whether investigators should have to get a court order before removing children from unsafe homes.
Read More »Court to hear arguments in appeal by fired state workers
Appellate judges will hear arguments Oct. 20 in an appeal by five former state child welfare employees who contend they were wrongly fired in 2014 amid an agency scandal.
Read More »Child safety director rejects much of auditor general’s critique
Inadequate reports and failure to attend some hearings by the Department of Child Safety may be delaying some Arizona children getting permanent placement, according to a new report on the agency.
Read More »Justice worries innocent parents could be charged for changing child’s diaper
The chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court is openly worrying that a new ruling will let police charge parents with child molesting for changing a baby’s diaper.
Read More »Arizona’s children can’t languish in a malaise of more trauma and neglect
Have the Legislature and governor finally given up on Arizona’s children? Is there Department of Child Safety “DCS fatigue?” Have the Legislature’s and the governor’s frustration and disappointment in DCS with its lack of any reliable results for children rendered them powerless to do anything about it?
Read More »Bill limits child abuse investigations from hotline calls
The House has passed a bill that would cut the number of child abuse hotline calls that require full investigations to focus child safety workers on cases that actually involve abuse and neglect.
Read More »Panel advances bill to ease child safety caseloads 
A House panel advanced a bill that would exempt the Department of Child Safety from investigating certain non-criminal reports of abuse or neglect.
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