Maricopa County Attorney sees improvement in DCS
Nov 30, 2016, 6:48 PM
(Arizona Department of Child Safety Photo)
(Arizona Department of Child Safety Photo)
PHOENIX — Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery says things are improving with the Arizona Department of Child Safety.
Even though a state review shows that child abuse deaths in Arizona jumped 43 percent from 2009 to 2015, Montgomery cites improvement.
Many of the kids had already been reported as abuse victims but were left in their homes by the DCS.
“We don’t see that nearly as often as it used to be the frustrating circumstance previously,” Montgomery said. “That’s what led to the initial child safety task force.”
The DCS had been a mess according to Montgomery.
“We had a system that was so fundamentally broken, that we couldn’t even have a conversation about what to improve because we had a bureaucracy that many times wouldn’t share information for us to be able to identify a problem in the first place,” Montgomery said.
He said DCS is now moving in the right direction and has become more cooperative in improving services for kids.
