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SUMMARY
The Office of the Auditor General has conducted a performance audit of
the Arizona Department of Economic Security, Division of Children, Youth and Families,
pursuant to a May 29, 1995, resolution of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.
During fiscal year 1997, the Division of Children, Youth and Families
(Division) received 55,645 calls regarding suspected child abuse, neglect, or exploitation
of Arizona children. Based on information callers provided, the Division determined that
38,063 of these calls (involving 62,839 children) required a Child Protective Services
(CPS) investigation. The Division is responsible for ensuring these cases are investigated
and that the children involved are safe from imminent danger.
To improve its efficiency and effectiveness in providing child
protective services (CPS), the Division, over the last three years, has undertaken a
number of major initiatives. Specifically, it has successfully implemented a statewide
child abuse hotline, and it has developed a case weighting system for managing its CPS
workload. Additionally, Arizona is a lead state in developing and implementing a
comprehensive information system that is intended to capture information on the entire CPS
process. The Division expects to complete implementation of this system, the
Children’s Information Library and Data Source (CHILDS), by the end of 1997.
The Division Is Unable to Investigate
All Child Maltreatment Reports
(See pages 9 through 14)
The Division is required to take calls regarding suspected child abuse
and investigate those it deems appropriate. Such calls are referred to as CPS reports.
Although the Division is mandated to investigate 100 percent of CPS reports, its fiscal
year 1997 statewide investigation rate is 84 percent. Without conducting investigations in
all cases deemed appropriate for investigation, the Division cannot ensure that the
children involved are safe. Despite this, the number of uninvestigated reports increased
between fiscal year 1996 and fiscal year 1997. Specifically, during fiscal year 1996, more
than 1,500 cases went uninvestigated, and approximately 5,900 cases went uninvestigated
during fiscal year 1997.
To ensure the Division can investigate all its cases, additional staff
will be needed. Although the Division is developing staffing estimates, it could not
provide auditors with historical information regarding workload because its workload
measurement methods have recently changed. Although this Office’s audit work does not
dispute the need for additional staff, without this historical data, it was not possible
to determine how reasonable the Division’s estimates are. In addition, other factors
may influence the need for additional staff and
resources and should be studied. For example, the Division should
analyze whether the 34 percent increase in CPS reports during fiscal year 1997 will
continue. Similarly, the Division should continue to review the process it uses to
classify reports, since the Division received fewer calls regarding suspected child abuse
in fiscal year 1997 than in 1996 (55,645 vs. 59,145), but determined that a much higher
percentage of these reports required investigations (70 vs. 49 percent). Another factor
the Division should review is the impact of the recently approved Family Builders Pilot
Program, which is expected to provide services to families whose cases might otherwise
remain uninvestigated. The Division anticipates that, over time, this program will reduce
the number of staff it needs, so the Division will need to continually assess how many
cases this program will handle once it is implemented in January 1998.
The Division’s Investigations Are
Not Always Timely or Thorough
(See pages 15 through 21)
A review of 196 randomly selected District I (Maricopa County)
investigative files found that nearly 40 percent of these investigations were not
initiated within the required response time. In addition, some investigations were poorly
documented, some cases were left open for extended periods when no further investigative
activity was needed, and only about 40 percent of the investigated cases were reviewed by
a supervisor in some manner prior to closure. Moreover, 6 percent of the case files were
missing, so it was not possible to determine if any investigative activities were
performed for these files.
The Division's problems with investigation timeliness and thoroughness are likely
to continue because there were more reports requiring investigations during fiscal year
1997. While the Division is currently developing plans that would increase the number of
investigative staff, it should make changes now in two other areas. First, the
Division should develop additional training for its investigators covering both the basic
investigative tasks required as well as specific investigative policies and procedures. Second,
the Division should increase its oversight of investigations by ensuring that supervisors
review cases prior to closure, and that Division management conduct random case file
reviews to help assess the quality of its investigations.
Workload Measurement
Model Needs Further Improvement
(See pages 23 through 28)
Although the Division has recently implemented a better method for
determining its CPS workload, the Division's case weighting model needs further improvement. Recognizing that
case counts are not the best measure of workload, in 1994, the Division sought to
implement a more accurate means for assessing workload. The Division hired a consultant to
design a case weighting model that measures workload by considering some of the
complexities involved in handling a case, including the number of children and type of
case plan established. However, when conducting the time study necessary to design the
model, the Division collected information from too few cases, did not consider the
differences between types of caseworkers, and excluded several important factors that can
impact a caseworker’s ability to manage caseloads, such as cases involving delinquent
children or substance abuse, and children needing behavioral health services. To improve
its case weighting model, the Division should increase its sample size so that it can
gather more information for analysis when it conducts its next time study, scheduled for
1998.
The Division’s Oversight of Group
and Shelter Homes Is Inadequate
(See pages 29 through 33)
The Division should improve its oversight of group and shelter homes. A
review of 16 group care agencies' licensing files (chosen because they had been the subject of at least
2 child abuse and neglect reports during 1996) revealed that the Division did not
adequately document or resolve the problems occurring at these agencies. Specifically, the
Division did not adequately document all of these reports in the agencies' licensing files, and did
not document whether it considered them during the agencies’ licensing renewal
process. Some agencies were allowed to alternate between regular and provisional licenses
without adequately addressing the problems that originally caused them to receive a
provisional license.
To help improve the Division’s oversight of group and shelter
homes, the Legislature should consider providing the Division with the authority to impose
civil penalties. In the meantime, the Division should use its current authority to suspend
or revoke the licenses of agencies that continually fail to adhere to licensing
requirements.
Current Foster Homes Unable
to Meet Certain Placement Needs
(See pages 35 through 40)
More children who are removed from their homes are being placed in
temporary shelter care, for longer periods, because it is difficult to find appropriate
placements for them. Placement specialists and caseworkers cited three primary reasons for
this problem: the inability or unwillingness of many homes to accept certain children,
such as teenagers or large sibling groups; difficulty in finding placements for children
with special needs; and the overall shortage of foster homes located in the metropolitan
areas. Placement delays are not only costly, they are not in the child’s best
interest.
To ensure there are enough foster homes to meet placement needs, the
Division needs to centralize foster home recruiting oversight and coordination, and expand
its efforts to retain current foster families.
Data Integrity Should Remain a
Continuous Priority for the Division’s
New Information System
(See pages 41 through 44)
The Division should continue to monitor data integrity after the
implementation of its new information system, the Children’s Information Library and
Data Source (CHILDS). During CHILDS’ planning and implementation phases, the Division
ensured that the system contained quality control features that would help address the
previous data systems’ problems identified in two prior Auditor General Reports (Nos.
91-6 and 94-L9). To ensure the Division remains committed to monitoring data integrity, it
should continue with its development and implementation of a formal, written quality
assurance program.
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