Child advocates still concerned after DCS releases semi-annual report

PHOENIX — The Arizona Department of Child Safety released its latest semi-annual report on Monday and while there were improvements, some child advocates said they are still concerned.

The 70-page report detailed a comprehensive look at how the department is performing and is the first such report released under the leadership of Director Greg McKay.

Kris Jacober with the Arizona Association for Foster and Adoptive Parents said she was happy to see some improvements in the report’s statistics.

“Less kids came into foster care and more foster care licenses were granted than have been granted in a long time,” she said.

In fact, the new report showed Arizona had a more than 100 percent increase in new foster care homes since the last report and the rate at which kids are being removed slowed by more than 16 percent.

However, Jacober said those improvements are not enough to overlook the 17,592 kids in out-of-home care, which was a net increase of 602 over the six-month period of October 2014 to March 2015.

During that time, Charles Flanagan was replaced as Director by Greg McKay. Jacober said he believes the next semi-annual report will be a more telling indicator as to whether the department is on the right track.

DCS Spokesman Doug Nick said the department is continually working to address the high number of kids in the system.

One way it is doing that is by examining the way DCS prioritizes cases, according to Nick.

“We want to make sure we’re looking at this holistically,” he said. “Are there cases that we’re taking in that should be characterized as another priority? Are there cases that need to be dealt with in a different way?”

Nick said better prioritization would allow the department to go after the highest priority cases with the most resources and help the department avoid pulling kids from homes that might not need to be.

The department is also looking to other states for answers, Nick said. DCS is examining the practices of other states to see how they handle caseloads and whether some of those techniques could be used in Arizona.