Arizona Child Welfare Employees Failed To Investigate 6,500 Abuse Claims


Arizona child welfare employees are accused of failing to investigate more than 6,500 reports of abuse and neglect. Officials said the reports, which were received through a hotline, were closed without further investigation. An internal audit eventually led to the dismissal of six “upper-level managers and administrators.”

Charles Flanagan, who heads the new Division of Child Safety & Family Services, said the former employees’ behavior was clearly intentional:

“There was a lack of policy, a lack of procedure, lack in systems, people made decisions that they actually documented that they knew were wrong and did them anyway.”

As reported by Huffington Post, the six employees systematically chose which reports to investigate and which to ignore. As a result, more than 6,500 reports of child abuse and neglect were closed without any further investigation.

According to Child Protective Services‘ procedural guidelines, all cases must be investigated before they are closed. Flanagan said the cases were closed prematurely to reduce the agency’s workload:

“… they made a determination that with the increase in calls and cases that it was a crushing workload, they couldn’t do the workload,” he said. “And so they made the decision, a very bad decision, a dysfunctional decision, to remove cases from the field.”

As a result of the investigation, five Arizona child welfare employees were placed on administrative leave. On Wednesday, all five were fired. Flanagan said a sixth employee, who oversaw Child Protective Services’ operations, was also dismissed on Wednesday.

Following the internal investigation, Flanagan appointed a team to review the closed cases. Officials estimate one in six of the cases required further investigation. Although the reports are still being reviewed, the team has removed a total of 550 children from abusive homes thus far.

Attorney Terry Woods represents the fired employees. Woods said the terminations were unfair, as his clients were simply following their superior’s instructions. The attorney said his clients are considering a wrongful termination lawsuit.

Although the employees were “at will,” Woods said the law does not apply to those who are terminated “for no reason… or a reason that violates public policy.”

At the time the reports were made, Child Protective Services was overseen by the Department of Economic Security. As reported by Fox News, Governor Jan Brewer eventually founded the Division of Child Safety & Family Services to oversee CPS.

Throughout the investigation, DES Director Clarence Carter has retained his position Flanagan said Carter was not aware that the Arizona child welfare employees were closing cases without investigation.

[Image via Shutterstock]

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