Undisclosed CPS records downplayed

Written By empatlima on Selasa, 18 September 2012 | 01.02

by Mary K. Reinhart - Sept. 17, 2012 10:04 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com

Questions remained Monday about records that Arizona's child-welfare agency has failed to disclose for more than a decade, but state and county officials generally downplayed the significance of the computer error that supposedly caused the problem.

Requests for information about Child Protective Services cases began to trickle in as more than 30,000 people were notified that they may not have received all the documents to which they were entitled under state law.

The state Department of Economic Security, which oversees CPS, brought in several paralegals and other staff members to work on processing records requests from parents, attorneys, law enforcement and the media. DES spokeswoman Tasya Peterson said they received eight requests on Monday.

The withheld information could include details of Child Abuse Hotline reports, services provided to the family and case notes from CPS workers and supervisors.

In June, the DES discovered what it says was a programming error during a review of the agency's public-disclosure practices. The database system that tracks CPS cases, called CHILDS, had been programmed to print about one-third of the information that was supposed to be released, an error that had been in place since CHILDS was created in 1996. The DES alerted the public to the error on Friday.

Peterson could not say when the last such review had taken place or why the error wasn't found earlier.

In addition to the missing records, another seven reports also have not been released that should have been. Peterson also could not say Monday what was contained in those reports, and the DES has not yet responded to The Arizona Republic's public-records request for that information.

The missing records could prompt attorneys to reopen child-dependency, civil or criminal cases if it can be shown that the information would have changed the outcome.

The DES officials say their review determined that most of the undisclosed information was redundant and already contained on the pages that were released.

And the Arizona Attorney General's Office, which represents CPS in dependency cases, said missing documents likely would have had little impact on cases because attorneys for the parents receive the same information that the prosecutors have.

"We have disclosure obligations in our cases, and we disclose the information that we're going to rely upon to prove our case," said Nicole Davis, chief counsel for the Child and Family Protection Division. "We don't have any reason to believe that the outcome of any of the cases that we've handled would've been different."

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery co-chaired a gubernatorial task force last winter that issued dozens of recommendations about how to improve the child-welfare system.

Gov. Jan Brewer created the task force following several high-profile child deaths. Since then CPS has been struggling to handle a record number of foster children, stem staff turnover and reduce caseloads.

Montgomery declined to comment on the missing records.

Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk said she's hopeful that none of the criminal prosecutions in her county will have been compromised by the state's failure to disclose information. Polk said child-abuse and neglect cases are handled jointly with law enforcement, prosecutors and CPS.

"Because of the joint investigative nature of what we do, we're working as a team to gather that information," Polk said.

Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson said the governor has "absolute confidence" in DES Director Clarence Carter and is pleased that the agency moved to rectify the problem once it was discovered.

"This problem did not begin under his leadership, nor did it begin under this administration," Benson said. "Apparently, it went on unnoticed for quite some time."

Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Tucson, a former foster parent, said lawmakers overlooked CPS last session when they approved funding to upgrade other state computer systems, despite testimony about the agency's antiquated system.

In addition, she's concerned that CPS has been unable to track the number of children who spend the night in field offices or the number who enter foster care because their parents have been picked up by immigration officials.

"What else are they keeping from the Legislature, from the media and the public?" she said. "It seems to me that there's a systemic problem here. It's more than just a computer glitch."

18 Sep, 2012


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Source: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/09/17/20120917arizona-cps-undisclosed-records-downplayed.html
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