Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is calling for a Special Session of the Legislature for Tuesday, May 27, to address a child safety reform proposal. After years of neglect by the Brewer administration, when thousands of Arizona’s abused children were ignored and fell though the cracks, the governor is now calling reform her “top priority.”
Brewer’s proposal statutorily creates and funds the Department of Child Safety – a new, stand-alone agency.
Brewer said in a statement released Thursday, the “long-needed reform” is “taken to improve Arizona’s beleaguered child safety system.”
In November, the Office of Child Welfare Investigations (OCWI) – created by Brewer and the State Legislature in 2012 – discovered that thousands of cases of potential child abuse and neglect had gone uninvestigated. In January, she signed an Executive Order abolishing Child Protective Services and reorganizing a new Division of Child Safety and Family Services – led by Director Charles Flanagan – which reports directly to her.