Arizona -- Lawmakers should ensure that CPS " Child Protective Services"lives up to promises...

Lawmakers should ensure that CPS lives up to promises

Tribune Editorial

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/95971

In mid-December 2003, the Arizona Legislature finished an exhausting

55-day special session with a new plan for protecting the welfare of

children, a measure that received strong endorsements from lawmakers,

Gov. Janet Napolitano and former Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley.

An additional $17 million for Child Protective Services was supposed to

be a down-payment on hiring more caseworkers, raising the pay of current

ones and providing everyone with better equipment. The intent was to

reduce the workload and improve the experience of CPS staff members so

they could devote more time and attention to each potential case of

abuse or neglect.

While Napolitano had denied it months earlier, the CPS reforms also

carried the implicit understanding that more children would end up in

foster care, as a key allegation had been that CPS was failing to act to

protect children before they were seriously abused or killed by parents

or other family members.

At the time, the Tribune Editorial Board said the plan was acceptable

because the reforms included two key elements. First was a promise that

making child safety the highest priority of CPS would not displace

family preservation as a central focus of state policy. The Napolitano

administration pledged to rebuild some programs to provide better

services for parents who found themselves in difficult circumstances and

were putting their children at risk. Some of the new funds provided for

pilot programs such as parental drug treatment that were to be tested

and then expanded to the rest of the state.

Secondly, CPS was supposed to become more transparent. CPS officials

would be permitted to explain their actions as individual cases came to

light. The public and the media would be allowed to examine some case

records and the state would try opening up court hearings to outside

scrutiny.

A new independent review is highly critical of the 2003 reforms, as

neither of those elements have been carried out. Richard Wexler,

executive director of National Coalition for Child Protection Reform,

objected four years ago that foster care cases would skyrocket and he

argues now that Arizona has only made a bad system bigger and

potentially more dangerous for children. As we noted on this page

Sunday, child welfare statistics and research about the negatives of

foster care appear to support Wexler’s points.

No one disputes that children threatened with serious physical abuse or

sexual assault should be taken from their homes. But the most common

threat to children comes from parental neglect, unexpected financial

crises and lack of supervision.

Wexler argues a stalemate between conservative and liberal lawmakers has

prevented the state from seriously funding programs that would

temporarily aid families in such circumstances and avoid the need for

foster care.

He suggests a “grand compromise.” The Legislature would agree to spend

another $54 million (double of what Napolitano requested but didn’t

receive this year), but none of the money could be used on foster care.

Instead, the money would be directed toward parent support programs

including rent subsidies, child care and in-patient drug treatment.

This would be a hard sell, as it could be argued this simply expands

welfare. But fierce restrictions against using new funds for additional

foster care could force the child-welfare system to get more creative

about addressing situations where families need help but there’s no

immediate threat to children.

Meanwhile, we join Wexler in calling for the state to stop stonewalling

on the release of information about CPS cases to the public. Other

newspapers had to sue to see records related to three Tucson children

who were killed after CPS had conducted abuse investigations. State

lawmakers have clashed with CPS officials about how much of their own

investigation in those cases can take place publicly.

Child-welfare advocates claim that public scrutiny can traumatize child

victims and their siblings. We say these advocates should be forced to

prove this. Show us a single state that made child-welfare records or

court hearings public, and then closed them again because of the harm to

children.

We don’t think they can, and it’s time to stop letting CPS secrecy

further cloud everyone’s understanding of what is working and, more

importantly, of where the state is failing to protect the children.

CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A

DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA

WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...

It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even

killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from

connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US

These numbers come from The National Center on

Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)

Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

Perpetrators of Maltreatment

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59

Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13

Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241

Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12

Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT

FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...

BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF

REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES

TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY

ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...