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...