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The Arizona Legislature will hold a special session next week to debate the child safety reform proposal overhauling the state's child welfare system, said a press release from Gov. Jan Brewer's office.
Gov. Jan Brewer.Brewer signed a proclamation Thursday morning officially calling the Legislature into the session.
The bill would create and fund the Department of Child Safety - a cabinet-level child welfare agency, independent from the Department of Economic Security.
"There can be no higher priority for our state than the safety of its children, who for too long have been failed by a system plagued by a lack of transparency and accountability, a shortage of resources, a massive backlog of cases and a flawed focus," Brewer said in the press release.
"If we do not act strategically - and soon - to reverse this damage, the crisis will only continue to worsen. It is time that we establish a new department, with a mission focused on child safety, a culture conductive to fulfilling that mission, and the resources to do the job," she added.
A group of bipartisan lawmakers, the new agency's head Charles Flanagan, Brewer's chief of staff and others have been drafting the legislation for a few months.
The bill provides a blueprint to make the agency more transparent, equip it with improved child prevention tools, and other necessary resources to tackle thousands of backlog cases, the press release said.
During an interview with Arizona Week, Flanagan said he is confident the proposal will travel smoothly through the Legislature. He said the planning process was inclusive of all positions in the issue.
Charles Flanagan."There is a great opportunity here to fix a problem that has been present in our state for decades," Flanagan said in the interview. "I believe the moral of the agency is changing already. I have gotten a flood of emails from staff thanking me for what we have been doing, and the change they have seen with my accessibility and communication with them."
Brewer created the new agency after news that more than 6,500 abuse and neglect cases had gone un-investigated. Since then, six senior employees were fired, including then-Director Clarence Carter.
In the approved state budget, the Legislature appropriated $59 million to fund the new agency. However, Brewer had requested more, The Associated Press reported.
"I thank my Child Safety Reform Workgroup for working diligently and deliberatiely on this vital legislation, which is a historic step in creating a child safety system worthy of the vulnerable population it serves,” Brewer said in her statement. “Now, I am calling on the Arizona Legislature to do its part. We all agree our current system has been broken for decades, and we must not wait any longer to properly repair it. We need to act now – our children cannot wait.”
House Minority Whip Eric Meyers said Brewer's proposal is a good one overall, though he is concerned about the funding. He says the money is misplaced.
“It goes except for a small portion of it to establishing the new agency which is important but there isn’t much funding in there for the preventative services that catch the cases early and keep the kids out of the system.”
Legislative Republicans earlier this year balked at adding money to the budget for child protection. They said in recent years the budget has increased. Meyers says that is true but, "that increase in funding hasn’t increased to cover the caseload increase."
The special session begins Tuesday.
Read the governor's proposal here.
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