Keep up the clamor to fix Arizona's broken CPS system

Keep up the clamor to fix Arizona's broken system

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepu...09sun1-09.html

Sept. 9, 2007 12:00 AM
If you want to see real change in child welfare, you are going to have
to yell longer, not louder.

Child-protective systems nationwide were molded by sporadic bursts of
negative attention on the state level and a perverse funding mechanism
on the federal level.

Both encourage quick-fix approaches.

"Child welfare does not make it onto the list of critical issues unless
something terrible happens," says Steve Christian, child-welfare expert
at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Arizona is no different.

When Gov. Janet Napolitano pushed for major reforms in Arizona's Child
Protective Services, the state was reeling from news of children who had
died horrible deaths despite prior contact with CPS. That was 2003.

On Sept. 25, lawmakers will hold legislative hearings on the deaths of
three Tucson children. Their parents are accused of murdering them. CPS
is accused of not protecting them.

The hearings may result in positive changes, but the danger is that a
frenzied rush to "do something" could undermine the meager progress
that's been made.

The 2003 reforms pumped a relatively large amount of money into CPS, but
it wasn't enough to expect perfection.

Between fiscal year 2004 and fiscal year 2007, state funding for the
Division of Children Youth and Families, which includes Child Protective
Services, increased by 93.1 percent, to $215.7 million from $111.7
million, according to Liz Barker Alvarez, spokeswoman for the Department
of Economic Security. Federal funds bring the total budget to $495
million in fiscal year 2007.

In Arizona, Uncle Sam provides about 56 percent of the child-welfare
budget. Nationwide, the number averages about 49 percent, according to a
2006 report by Urban Institute.

Comparing how states fund child welfare is difficult because
child-welfare agencies are organized differently and may serve different
populations. Even in Arizona, the DES includes CPS funding in the larger
Division of Children, Youth and Families budget, which funds other
activities.

Nevertheless, the Urban Institute tried to take differences into account
and came up with a list of what states spent in 2004. When compared with
10 other states that have similar populations, Arizona ranked eighth,
right between Kentucky and Alabama. That was before Arizona nearly
doubled state funding.

But Arizona has not become a believer in properly funding child welfare.
CPS needs 220 new positions just to meet the state's own caseload
standards. There's no money to do the hiring.

Arizona is not alone in its failure. U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services says no state is fully in compliance with the federal
child-welfare requirements.

But Washington is in no position to criticize. Congress talks about the
importance of services to prevent unnecessary family breakups. But the
biggest chunk of federal child-welfare money is tied to foster care and
adoption. This is an open-ended entitlement program that will serve any
number of children who are removed from their homes.

Funding aimed at prevention and services to keep families together is
about 5 percent of what the feds send to states, and this funding is capped.

The perverse incentive is to remove children rather than attempt to heal
families.

If the upcoming hearings about the Tucson children lead to a call to
remove more children from their homes, that would be a crisis-motivated
response. And a mistake.

The emphasis on child safety that was the centerpiece of the 2003
reforms resulted in a spike in the number of children in out-of-home
care from 7,535 in September 2003 to 9,906 in September 2005.
Child-welfare advocates say it was an appropriate result of heightened
attention. But the numbers have begun leveling off and stood at 9,773 in
March. That's still too high.

Keeping children safe by helping their families overcome problems was
also a goal of Arizona's 2003 reforms. CPS boasts a 67 percent increase
since July 2003 in the number of children being safely served in their
homes. But family services take money. A substance-abuse treatment
program for CPS families is not funded to fully meet the need even
though Barker Alvarez says 60 to 70 percent of the reports CPS
investigates involve substance abuse by one or both parents.

A recently published study by Joseph Doyle, an economics professor at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, backs up the importance of
providing services to families. Doyle tracked 15,000 kids in Illinois'
child-welfare system from 1990 to 2002. These were not severely abused
children, but those whose cases could have gone either way. Doyle found
that kids who remained with their families were less likely to become
juvenile delinquents or teen mothers than those who had been placed in
foster care.

As Arizona takes a look at the cases of three Tucson children who might
be alive today if they had been removed from their homes, the temptation
will be to punish a system that failed.

A better response is to acknowledge that while the state has made
progress in recent years, it still fails to adequately fund the system.

That will only happen if Arizonans remain focused on the long-term goal
of structuring an effective child-welfare system.

As Christian said, "Legislators care about what their constituents care
about."

When the constituents look away, so do the legislators.

So keep yelling.


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

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.


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...