PHOENIX — An Arizona lawmaker introduced legislation giving the Department of Child Safety more authority to investigate allegations of abuse involving group home employees after the agency said current laws don’t allow them to look into these cases.
“What can we do better? What have we learned from this? And then what things in the statute can we put in to make sure that it never happens again?” said bill sponsor Senator T.J. Shope (R) of Casa Grande.
The proposed new law comes after an ABC15 Investigation found DCS failed to make sure a diabetic child in their custody received his life-saving medication at a group home and a scathing state audit also found an overall lack of oversight in group homes and the agency was slow to investigate in other cases.
Jakob Blodgett, 9, died a day after Christmas two years ago after Maricopa County investigators said employees at a Phoenix group home let him refuse his insulin.
“Jakob's case is obviously a wakeup call, for many folks, especially myself and others who've been watching this agency for some time, and we do know that it's troubled,” said Shope who chairs the Health and Human Services Committee with direct oversight over DCS.
Shope and other state lawmakers on the committee grilled the new head of DCS about the state audit’s findings and what the agency is doing to better protect kids with medical conditions during more than five hours of testimony at its sunset review hearing in early January.
"What about children who have diabetes? Do you have people on staff who are readily able to handle a child who is a type one diabetic?” asked Senator Justine Wadsack, (R) Tucson.
“That’s always been an ongoing issue or priority at DCS, our ability to provide the services for all children,” said David Lujan the new head of DCS during the hearing.
Lujan also told lawmakers an opinion it received from the Attorney General’s Office found, under current law, DCS does not have the authority to investigate allegations of abuse or neglect by group home employees.
“That statute essentially says we are authorized to investigate cases where it’s the family members, people in the house who are committing the abuse or neglect,” Lujan said. “Legal advice we received that a group home employee does not meet that definition.”
Instead, currently, those cases involving allegations in group homes are handed off to local law enforcement for review as was the case with Blodgett. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office still has an active investigation looking into his death.
As a result, DCS never completed its own child fatality report into Blodgett's death which would have detailed what went wrong to potentially prevent another tragedy. Shope said he hopes Senate Bill 1067 will change that.
“I would say this is a good first step,” said Shope. “I am a little concerned that it only covers abuse. I'd like to see us move in the direction of where we would talk about some form of neglect within these group homes, I'm going to continue pressing upon that to make sure that something that happened to Jacob doesn't happen to anybody else.”
SB1067 in its current version only allows DCS to investigate allegations of abuse in group homes and not allegations of neglect. The bill goes before the Senate Health and Services Committee on Tuesday.
Shope said he has been working with Lujan on the bill and it also came out of the state audit’s findings regarding oversight in group homes.
During the sunset review hearing in January, Arizona lawmakers recommended reauthorizing DCS for only four years. Lawmakers historically have extended state agencies for eight years at a time.
