Showing a commitment to improving outcomes for Arizona children in the state’s care, lawmakers made child welfare one of the greatest beneficiaries of the $9.6 billion budget adopted earlier this month.

Child welfare workers can interview children without the consent of their parents, Attorney General Mark Brnovich concluded Monday.

Dear Legislature: Don’t give up on Arizona’s children and the Department of Child Safety yet, please.

Officials at the Department of Child Safety know the beleaguered agency has problems, but Director Greg McKay says previous administrations are to blame.

A decade ago, a team of auditors embedded themselves in the agency charged with protecting Arizona’s children and found that some reports of child abuse or neglect weren’t properly investigated. Other cases lacked the relevant information necessary to ensure children’s safety. Ten years, hundreds of millions of dollars and a new agency later, the problems that plague the Department of Child Safety echo those that caseworkers faced a decade ago.

One year and $29 million later, Arizona’s child welfare agency is no closer to eliminating a sizeable backlog of stagnant child safety cases, a goal the agency’s director now says was unattainable.

A judge Thursday threw out a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by five former Arizona child welfare workers who were fired last year amid an agency scandal.

The Department of Child Safety’s new director outlined plans on March 23 to turn around Arizona’s ailing child welfare services in front of a legislative committee.

Outgoing Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said Monday she is preparing a budget proposal that protects her top priorities but that she acknowledges can be ignored by governor-elect Doug Ducey.

A special team formed by Gov. Jan Brewer to address 6,596 reports of neglect and abuse that child-welfare workers set aside without investigating has finished examining the cases.