Arizona Governor Jan Brewer received the report from the newly formed Independent Child Advocate Response Examination (CARE) Team, which details the failings of CPS, its findings and recommendations to improve Arizona’s child welfare system.
Brewer’s administration created the CARE Team in early December in response to the discovery that the her administration’s child welfare agency had ignored 6,000 cases of child abuse and neglect. By Executive Order, Brewer created a Cabinet-level Child Safety and Family Services Division, thereby moving CPS out from under DES.
The CARE team, chaired by Director Charles Flanagan, was charged to initiate the investigations of each one of these cases, as well as to assess the policies, processes and personnel of Arizona’s child protection system.
“The CARE Team and its staff have worked deliberatively, diligently and transparently in short order to see that cases were assigned for investigation and that each child was safe,” said Governor Brewer. “I look forward to fully reviewing the Team’s report and recommendations, which will be an important part of the conversation as we move forward in our mission to restore public trust in our child welfare system and create a new, standalone agency whose core focus is the safety and well-being of Arizona’s abused and neglected children. I extend my sincerest appreciation to all members and staff for their devoted service and commitment to this critical pursuit.”
According to DES head Clarence Carter, nothing will improve for Arizona’s children until the Legislature approves more funding. According to many legislators, no amount of money will improve the situation until true reforms occur. However, this week a legislative committee unanimously approved S1224 (supplemental appropriation; child safety positions), which will provide a supplemental appropriation to hire 192 new workers.
According to the Yellow Sheet:
Senator Rick Murphy “demanded to know if any plans are in the works to provide independent oversight of the new child safety division, which he said is a crucial method of ensuring accountability. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable giving one more dime to CPS without that accountability,” Murphy told the committee. He brought up some of his own personal issues with CPS as an example of how the agency pushes its “narrative” of doing no wrong. For instance, Murphy claimed that he was never notified by CPS of a court proceeding involving one of his foster children last year and claimed that a lack of communication about those proceedings occurs roughly 90 percent of the time. CPS would intentionally not notify parents to prevent them from speaking at the hearings, Murphy said. “CPS has a narrative. They go to court, they cherry pick what they say and they give the judge what they want the judge to have [in order] to get the outcome they want. And they don’t want foster parents coming in there and saying something that’s not part of the narrative. And that’s why they don’t tell us,” Murphy said. Flanagan acknowledged that CPS has its share of issues, but said that, in the future, efforts to hold the agency accountable should be done through him. “I will tell you that it has been shocking to me to see the kinds of things that happened that do not follow the law and do not follow policy,” Flanagan said.”
The CARE Team is chaired by Charles Flanagan, Director of the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections. Other team members include Arizona State Senator Leah Landrum Taylor; Arizona State Representative Kate Brophy McGee; Robert Bell, Children’s Justice Coordinator at the Childhelp Children’s Center of Arizona; Cindi Nannetti, a veteran prosecutor with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office; Deb Gullett, child advocate and former legislator; Greg McKay, Chief of the Office of Child Welfare Investigations (OCWI); Jan Strauss, a former Mesa Police Chief; and a CPS representative (TBD).
The Office of Child Welfare Investigations (OCWI), which uncovered the practice within CPS to disposition cases as “not investigated,” is headed by Chief Greg McKay and employs child welfare investigators to handle criminal conduct allegations of child abuse.
Executive Summary of CARE Team Report:
This report highlights the work of the CARE Team to investigate reports of child abuse and neglect that were not investigated as required by law and policy. The CARE Team conducted a thorough examination of the agency, with a focus on identifying contributing factors to failures, such as the thousands of cases dispositioned Not Investigated (NI), but also beyond that specific problem. The work included a comprehensive analysis of the points, where a child might be at risk due to agency process or decision making failure, an examination of why and how demand exceeds capacity and how to mitigate the consequences, and finally, a series of recommendations designed to improve child safety and agency effectiveness.
Charge 1: Provide oversight for 6,554 cases Not Investigated (NI).
One hundred percent of the cases assigned an NI status have been assigned to an investigator.
More than 60% of the NI cases are actively being worked.
Experts have put eyes on more than 5,000 children at risk, associated with the NI cases.
Over 400 children have been removed, to date, due to safety concerns.
Ongoing structure in place to expeditiously bring the investigations of these cases to closure.
Lessons Learned:
NI happened due to systemic failure, a lack of accountability and transparency and bad decision making.
Law enforcement is a critical and underused partner.
Multi-disciplinary teams (embedded in the community) made up of law enforcement, OCWI, agency specialists and social services offer the best results for ensuring child safety.
Given the proper staffing levels, statutory and policy compliance and efficient systems, the Agency can accomplish its mission with quality.
Charge 2: Examine the agency to identify areas of concern, including personnel, operations, process and policy, and recommend improvements to the Governor.
The scope of the CARE Team’s agency review was primarily focused on the points where a child could be in harm’s way, including the call center known as the Hotline, coordination with the Office of Child Welfare Investigations (OCWI) and law enforcement, and the case management of investigations into reports of abuse and neglect. However, a broader perspective was taken, based upon the questions, comments and concerns from those with whom we interacted and from personal team member observations.
Findings include issues that are varied, complex and inter-related. Solving any one problem will not produce lasting results, because the root cause is that demand exceeds capacity, which leads to policies not being followed.
Insufficient capacity leads to high employee turnover, caseload backlog, a high reoccurrence rate for families with prior reports, high wait times and abandoned call rates at the hotline, inefficient caseload management and a daily struggle to keep up.
Insufficient capacity ultimately drives management and process challenges, among them a lack of clear performance standards, inexperienced supervisors, ineffective management of front line staff, no standardized leadership work product, insufficient training, and individual judgment routinely replaces standardized process.
Highlights of the Recommendations:
Create an agency that is laser-focused on the core mission of child safety with direct accountability to the Governor, as articulated by Governor Brewer in her Executive Order. Once a child’s safety has been verified, ensure the child’s well-being in a stable home and provide the requisite services to achieve that goal.
Work with the Attorney General’s Office to reevaluate the current interpretation of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), including looking at how other states and the federal government operate regarding transparency (reporting data and outcomes, telling the stories of success and being honest about failures) in order to encourage and accept accountability.
Recommend authorization for an emergency exception to procurement rules, within clearly defined parameters for the CHILDS/database replacement.
Provide investigator training to the Child Safety Specialists that will conduct field investigations.
Determine whether such training may be done in-concert with a community college law enforcement training program that can provide credits to “students”.
Consider bringing all of the former DCYF/CPS employees under the Governor’s Personnel Reform as “uncovered” when the new agency is legislatively created. Such a move would allow for the Department to reward good employees for performance and provide incentive for retaining the best employees.
Work collaboratively and openly with human services providers, the foster care community, the courts, experts in the related fields and our community partners.
Create true “quality control” by creating a rigorous inspections bureau and process that reports only to the Director, ensuring that operations are compliant with statute, policy and procedure.
Create a permanent process improvement team that reports to the Director as part of the Inspections Bureau that is analogous to the Government Transformation Office (GTO) housed at the Arizona Department of Administration (ADOA).
Identify the resources required to bring in a high quality team conversant in Lean Six Sigma (best practices) which is a wise investment in preventing recurring problems, as well as creating best practices and efficiencies.
Create an efficient call center/hotline process, and staff it with people trained and skilled in gathering essential facts, assessing the correct referral process (OCWI, law enforcement, Child Safety investigators, etc.) and, with the correct tools and staffing, being responsive to those calling.
The CARE Team collected voluminous material in support of our work, which is provided in the appendices.
Ultimately, there is broad consensus that the child safety and welfare system is broken and that the creation of a separate Department of Child Safety and Family Services is a critical and necessary first step. There is broad consensus that the agency needs a clear mission in statute, as well as the resources to do the job of protecting vulnerable children and providing family services that allow, once child safety is assured, family preservation, family reunification and permanency.
There is a palpable hunger for collaboration in our shared communities, so that we create best practices, develop efficient and effective partnerships and leverage our communal resources to impact the entirety of the children protection/child welfare spectrum.
Reports can serve as an initial roadmap to fix the problems that virtually everyone has identified, as well as be a cornerstone as Arizona develops a Child Safety and Family Services system that will be a positive legacy of which we can be proud.
To read the rest of the report click here.