Months after the Arizona Child Safety Task Force identified more than 70 reforms needed in the child-welfare system, most of the serious reform bills remain mired in the legislative process and critical funding for Child Protective Services is in jeopardy.
House Democrats are working to implement some of the report’s recommendations and fighting to ensure Child Protective Services receives funding. CPS is facing a drastic budget shortfall because of the expiration of the federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families fund.
Little actually has been done in the legislature to support the overwhelmed child-welfare system. The Department of Economic Security allocated a large portion of TANF money to keep CPS operational. The proposed Republican budget fails to make up for that funding.
Unless the state budget replaces that loss, DES will have to cut CPS services, leaving children at risk. CPS is overburdened already. There are a record number of children in foster care at a time when there is a foster parenting shortage, on top of astronomical caseload growth and a high turnover rate among CPS workers. Several high-profile child abuse cases, including the deaths of four children involved in with CPS, prompted Brewer to create the task force.
HB 2794 would eliminate the need for the Department of Economic Security to establish “removal review teams” to determine whether a child should be taken from a home. The House Democratic Budget proposal provides DES with enough money to keep current agency funding levels stable.
Representative Katie Hobbs, who is also a social worker, sponsored the legislation after reading the task force report. Eliminating removal review teams was one of the report recommendations.
“By eliminating these teams, CPS will be better able to get children out of unhealthy environments and into welcoming and safe homes.” Hobbs said.
If DES does not receive state funding, the consequences would have a ripple effect for other agencies providing services to at risk children and families, according to Darlene Newsom, chief executive officer of UMOM New Day Centers, the state’s largest homeless shelter for families.