Arizona Department of Child Safety meets goals months before deadline
Aug 21, 2019, 8:26 AM
(Pixabay Photo)
PHOENIX — The Arizona Department of Child Safety completed a federal review process and met its improvement goals months before its deadline, the agency announced Tuesday.
The government-mandated review, which Arizona started in 2015, required the agency to develop a program improvement plan, according to a press release.
The plan focused on increasing response times to hotline reports and eliminating the backlog of more than 33,000 investigations, among other goals, DCS said.
The agency completed the plan and met its goals eight months before its March 31, 2020 deadline, making it the first in the nation to complete the process.
“This is proof positive of not only Arizona’s commitment to improving outcomes for children and families, but to accountability to our federal partners at the Children’s Bureau and the American taxpayer,” DCS Director Greg McKay said in the release.
McKay will step down on Sept. 1 to become the chief operating officer of Phoenix-based nonprofit Childhelp, which works to prevent child abuse.
He will be replaced by Mike Faust, the agency’s deputy director of support services.