Reaction To Brewer's CPS Plan Muted

By Dennis Lambert
Published: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 - 10:43am
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Reaction to Gov. Jan Brewer’s plan to re-create Child Protective Services as a separate agency has been muted.

A leading children’s advocate, Dana Wolfe Naimark of the Children’s Action Alliance, says the tough work is just getting underway because CPS is a complex, multi-layered system with overlapping responsibilities.

"Reports of abuse and neglect, investigations, community response and community services, foster care, adoptions, reunification with families,” Naimark said. “So, there are actually many components and often, the public only thinks of the investigations.”

Naimark, says CPS also interacts with other parts of state government, like the behavioral health and juvenile justice systems. She hopes the reform effort will start by assembling a team of national and Arizona-based experts on child welfare, abuse and neglect to oversee the process.