Thursday, October 25, 2012
Republican leaders remain silent on calls to improve CPS
Republican
leaders remain silent on calls to improve CPS
STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX – More than a month has passed
since Rep. Katie Hobbs, D-Phoenix (District 15), asked Speaker
of the House Andy Tobin, R-Paulden (District 1), and Senate President Steve
Pierce, R-Prescott (District 1), to convene the Child Protective Services
Oversight Committee and fulfill a legal obligation to find solutions for the
challenges the agency is facing. The request has gone unanswered.
This week, Hobbs renewed the call to
Tobin and Pierce, and she also sent the request to Gov. Jan Brewer. Hobbs’ second attempt to
encourage the creation of the committee follows a Department of Economic
Security budget request in early October that highlighted a need to hire 200
more CPS employees to maintain current workloads in the upcoming year. This
number is in addition to the 200 CPS employees hired earlier this year.
“CPS will need to hire more
employees because of the growing number of abuse and neglect cases being
reported and the shocking increase in the number of children in foster care,”
Hobbs said. “The
CPS system is being pushed to the brink.”
DES reports indicated that there
were more than 14,000 Arizona children in foster care in August
2012. An Arizona Children’s Action Alliance analysis of DES data indicates that
reports of child abuse and neglect have increased 24 percent since October 2009.
As of September 2012, more than a third of the abuse and neglect investigations
started between July 2011 and May 2012 were still open. An
article published in
The
Arizona
Republic
on
Oct. 21 reported that more children have
died from child abuse in 2012 than in 2010 or 2011. Also, there are 37 percent more
Arizona
children in foster care since October 2009, while the number of foster homes is
decreasing at an alarming rate.
“CPS needs support, and we have a
moral and a legal obligation to find ways to help this agency provide services
to children,” Hobbs said. “The CPS Oversight Committee was
established so that we would have a framework for working together to ensure
that CPS is operating as efficiently and effectively as possible. This should be
a priority.”
The CPS Oversight Committee,
created by HB 2249, is mandated to identify areas of improvement for the agency
and to make recommendations by Nov. 15, 2012. To date, the committee, which is
supposed to include several state legislators, a representative from DES, a
member of a law enforcement agency, a CPS caseworker, a foster parent, and a
guardian, has not been created.
“CPS plays a vital role in keeping
Arizona kids
safe. Speaker Tobin, President Pierce
and Gov. Brewer should take the lead in forming this committee,” Hobbs said. “The deadline
for the committee’s report is less than a month away, and the Republican
leadership has been silent on this issue. This is about the safety of Arizona children. It
can’t wait any longer; the stakes are too high and the Republicans have dropped
the ball on this.”
To see the Arizona Children’s Action Alliance analysis of DES data, go to http://www.azchildren.org/display.asp?pageId=75&parentId=23.
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