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A child care group today assailed Arizona’s child welfare system, saying it is in a “state of perennial panic.”
Child welfare system hobbled by 'left-right' stalemate
By Luige del Puerto, http://www.azcapitoltimes.com/story.cfm?id=5812 Call for change Former state lawmaker Laura Knaperek joins Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, at a news conference in the Capitol today to call for more openness in cases involving foster children. Photo by Bill Coates A child care group today assailed Arizona’s child welfare system, saying it is in a “state of perennial panic.” From October 2002 to October 2004, the group said the number of children taken away from homes increased by 40 percent, the largest two-year spike in the country at the time. The move did not necessarily result in fewer child abuse fatalities, according to the Virginia-based National Coalition for Child Protection and Reform. “Four days after taking office in 2003, Gov. Napolitano ordered the Child Protective Services workers to ‘err on the side of protecting the child and we’ll sort it out later’. Four-and-a-half-years later, they still haven’t sorted it out,” said the group’s executive director, Richard Wexler. Department of Economic Security spokeswoman Liz Barker did not dispute data that the number children taken away from home had increased in previous years. But she emphasized that a new program to provide in-home service is slowing the numbers. A 2006 DES report the annual rate of increase has “slowed from a high of 20 percent in FY 2003 to 12 percent in FY 2005.” “Preliminary data suggests that the number of children in out-of-home care has stabilized in the first half of (FY 2006),” the report said, adding in-home service as an alternative to out-of-home care is a priority of the department. In a briefing at the Capitol today, Wexler detailed troubles in Arizona’s childcare welfare system here and offered several recommendations, including opening court hearings and asking the Legislature to pump some $54 million in new child welfare spending. “But every penny should go into safe, proven alternatives to substitute care. No new money should go to taking away children and holding them in foster care,” the group said. The NCCPR cited an MIT study that compared foster children with comparably maltreated children left in their own homes. The study had looked into the cases of more than 15,000 children. “Children left in their own homes are far less likely to become pregnant as teenagers, far less likely to wind up in the juvenile justice system and far more likely to hold a job for at least three months than comparably maltreated children who were placed in foster care,” the group said on its Web site. Removing children from their homes should be done “sparingly and in small doses,” the group said. “There is nothing more important than protecting children,” former state lawmaker Laura Knaperek said in a press release. “However, the philosophy of ‘when in doubt, remove the child’ is a recipe for disaster. It puts a target on children for physical, emotional and educational risk,” she said. Reform in the state has also been frustrated by a left-right stalemate, according to NCCPR. “Conservatives think DES can be stopped from needlessly taking away more children by starving the agency,” NCCPR said. “But when Liberals wring more money out of the Legislature, they throw almost all of it away on hiring more workers to take away more children.” The result is that the state ends up with the same system, only bigger. “Arizona needs to spend more, but spend smarter,” the group said. The group’s recommendations include: * Accelerate the reduction in the use of shelters, group homes and other institutions. * Create an institutional provider of defense counsel for families with support staff to do their own investigations and recommend alternatives to CPS case plans. “I’m not sure about the $54 million,” Sen. Linda Gray, R-10, who sponsored the briefing, said. “(But) I’m willing to put more money into bringing the services for parents to be able to work with their children and not be under the stress that causes them to abuse their children.” Gray said she will push for legislation to open court hearings. “I think the media has been responsible in not exposing victims, in the newspapers, and I hope that would continue,” she said. Asked what would be the benefit of that, she said: “It opens to everybody to be able to find out what’s going on in Arizona concerning children and the courts.” 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 HUNDREDS 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... |
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