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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

A House panel advanced a bill that would exempt the Department of Child Safety from investigating certain non-criminal reports of abuse or neglect.

Fired Department of Child Safety director Charles Flanagan defended himself against allegations his process of getting through a backlog of cases was dangerous to abused children, and said he’s speaking out for the first time since his firing to defend the record of his administration and DCS employees who have been smeared by recent news reports based on allegations from Greg McKay, the newly appointed director of the agency.