|
According to this article the government bureaucrats at CPS have stolen 5,000 kids from their parents in the last 6 months. That means the terrorists at CPS steal 10,000 kids a year from their parents. At that rate the folks at CPS steal 27 kids everyday from their parents.
I suspect a large number of these kids were taken away from parents who were accused of the victimless crime of using marijuana or some other illegal drug. Sure it must suck for the children and parents involved. But I am sure the folks at CPS love it, after all it is a jobs program for CPS workers. Arizona child-welfare system stagnant Data show more backlogged CPS cases, record number of children in foster care by Mary K. Reinhart - Aug. 2, 2012 09:56 PM The Republic | azcentral.com Arizona's child-welfare system shows little sign of improvement, despite dozens of policy changes, new staff and nearly $1 million spent on consultants over the past two years. New data released Thursday show growth in all the wrong areas -- hotline reports, backlogs of unfinished cases, the number of children in foster care and the length of time babies and toddlers spend in shelters. During the six-month period ending March 31, state figures also show continuation of a troubling two-year trend, with foster parents closing their doors faster than new homes are opening. "The trends and the backlogs remain very distressing," said Dana Wolfe Naimark, CEO of the Children's Action Alliance, a non-profit advocacy group. "The department is working on a range of initiatives, but at this point, the backlogs are so high that we know that some kids are in danger." Nearly 5,000 children were removed from their homes and placed in foster care -- a new six-month record, according to the latest biannual report on state Child Protective Services -- and a total of 12,453 children were in the state's custody as of March 31, a 15 percent increase over March 2011. A monthly report released in July shows the number of foster children has since grown even higher, to more than 13,000 kids as of May 31, also a new record. During a briefing Thursday with child-welfare administrators, advocates, providers and a handful of state lawmakers, state officials introduced two recently hired administrators who filled new positions to revamp the child-abuse hotline and recruit staff, and they touted internal changes they say pose promise for the future. Department of Economic Security Director Clarence Carter, who oversees CPS, stopped short of saying he will ask for additional staff and money in his budget request for fiscal 2014, due in September, but did not rule it out given the growing numbers and annual staff turnover that now tops 30 percent. "We are developing our budget request in the context of those trends," Carter said. In the meantime, CPS investigators continue to struggle with caseloads that top 100 children in some offices and a stubborn backlog of inactive or abandoned cases that remains at nearly 10,000. A team of seasoned caseworkers and supervisors has been working on reducing the backlog, caused in part by the crush of new cases and workers quitting abruptly. But the new cases are stacking up almost as quickly as old ones are closed. State law requires CPS to complete investigations with 45 days, but some cases opened last summer remain unfinished. The new data also show that, despite a mandate to investigate 100 percent of abuse and neglect reports, caseworkers were unable to respond to nearly 1,000 cases during the six-month period, including 841 in Maricopa County. More than 20 percent of the cases that have received no CPS response include allegations of injury to a child, according to a random sample of the reports. State officials are banking on several internal improvements to reduce case backlogs, ease worker caseloads and stem rampant turnover. The state has paid nearly $1 million to a Kansas City, Mo.-based consultant to recommend changes at the hotline and to investigations, ongoing case management and training. A streamlined process for documenting investigations, tested this year in three CPS offices, can shorten the time it takes CPS workers to complete investigations to 40 days from the current average of six months or more. Early results are promising, and the practice has been expanded statewide. Hiring is under way for a permanent unit to tackle case backlog and work on staff training and development. And two new administrators, hired this summer to oversee the hotline and staff recruitment, say they've already seen improvements in hotline wait times and hiring. A third top staffer, who will lead an investigative unit targeting the most serious cases, has yet to be hired. The new unit was the centerpiece of reforms from a gubernatorial task force that met late last year in the wake of several high-profile child-abuse deaths. Dr. Kathryn Coffman, division chief of the child-protection team at Phoenix Children's Hospital, said she's seeing more severe cases of child abuse and neglect over the past year. But she said hospital staff are more alert to the signs, so fewer cases are being missed. "So many children who end up in the ICU or the morgue have been injured before, and somebody saw them and missed it," Coffman said. "That probably means more kids in foster care, but it's better than the graveyard." CPS workers are doing the best they can under impossible circumstances, she said, but an ever-expanding foster-care system isn't the answer. "Most people don't have babies intending to abuse them. What a lot of these young, inexperienced parents need is support," Coffman said. "There is absolutely no question that front-end prevention is the way to go." Among the report's findings CPS workers didn't make the required monthly visits to 20 percent of all foster homes and the children that live there, an increase of 100 percent over the previous period. The average length of stay for children in shelters increased by nearly 60 percent, to about five and a half months. Shelters are intended as temporary placements for children until they can return to their parents, go with relatives or settle into a foster home. The number of babies and small children in shelters and group homes continued to grow, to 45 youngsters as of March 31. The latest monthly report shows that number has grown even higher in the past two months, with 35 babies and children under 3 years old living in crisis shelters and 41 children ages 6 and younger living in group homes. Five children with open CPS cases died from suspected abuse, compared with six children during the previous six-month period. The state licensed 663 new family foster homes, but 679 foster families closed their doors during the same period. |