Child welfare session gets off to a slow start before bills introduced
Arizona lawmakers opened a special session to overhaul the state’s child welfare system with a sputter, beginning the session without having finished preparing the bills needed to create a new Department of Child Safety.
Governor asks for nearly $60 million to help solve child welfare problems
Gov. Jan Brewer is asking for nearly $60 million in a special session to begin May 27 to overhaul the state’s child-welfare agency and to close out a backlog of 14,777 abuse and neglect cases.
House approves plan for external child welfare audit
The House gave preliminary approval Monday to a measure that would require an external audit of the maligned department of Child Protective Services.
Team poring over uninvestigated CPS cases finds most are routine
The team assigned to check on the safety of children associated with abuse calls that went without investigation has found no “significant’’ cases after seeing more than 2,000 children in the first month of work.
Child abuse records found near dumpster unrelated to larger CPS investigation
Thousands of pages of confidential records of child abuse cases found last month outside a dumpster are unrelated to the discovery that more than 6,500 complaints went uninvestigated, the head of the Department of Economic Security said Monday.
No witnesses, no evidence
Senator blasts CPS after police decide not to pursue charges against him, CPS still investigating
Peoria police found no evidence to support allegations that state Sen. Rick Murphy sexually abused two children living in his home and did not recommend any charges against the senator, according to a police report released July 24. But officials with Child Protective Services are s[...]
CPS official wants to close gaps endangering kids
The head of the new investigations unit of Arizona's Child Protective Services wants to fill in cracks that he says can be deadly for children and haunting for those trying — but failing — to protect them.