News

January 31, 2014
PHOENIX—An independent team named by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer to review the state's troubled child welfare agency on Friday called for a top-to-bottom overhaul of the department to focus it purely on child safety.
The team released a 54-page review outlining steps needed to address yearslong problems at Child Protective Services. The most severe issue was revealed in November when more than 6,500 child abuse and neglect reports were found to have not been investigated.

January 31, 2014
Forensic scientists from North Carolina State University will use their research expertise to identify and hopefully prevent child abuse and starvation. 

January 29, 2014
People are buzzing about volunteering these days, and with good reason: Studies have shown that volunteering strengthens communities, is good for your health—and can even help you land a job. 

January 23, 2014
The woman hit her 8-month-old daughter because she wouldn't stop crying, the Harford County State's Attorney said. 

January 20, 2014
OLYMPIA — The state Senate is once again weighing a bill to require legal representation for foster children, a proposal that social-service advocates consider as a top priority. 

January 15, 2014
PHOENIX (AP) — Nearly 400 children have been removed from Arizona homes identified through thousands of child abuse and neglect reports that were ignored in recent years, according to new figures released by a special team created by Gov. Jan Brewer after the reports came to light in November.

January 15, 2014
Sixty children have been removed from their homes under the direction of Gov. Jan Brewer's child-welfare team charged with examining thousands of uninvestigated reports of neglect and abuse. Yet the team's leader said he doesn't know the nature of the allegations that required the children to be separated from their parents.

January 11, 2014
Most school officials try to apply disciplinary policies fairly and in compliance with federal laws that forbid racial discrimination. Even so, a large and troubling body of data — some if it gathered by the federal government — shows that black and Hispanic students are disproportionately and unjustifiably subjected to suspension, expulsion or even arrest for nonviolent offenses that should be dealt with in the principal's office. 

January 9, 2014
Trying to make the best out of a bad situation is a tough way to go through life.
For those estimated 400,000 kids nationally in the foster care system, which may have the best of intentions but eventually falls short in many regards, the future isn't bright. At stake for these kids is a potentially vicious circle where adult life mirrors their dysfunctional childhood. 

January 7, 2014
Attorney General and gubernatorial hopeful Martha Coakley wants to shake up the state's child welfare system, which she says currently “puts children at risk and overburdens social workers” as she floated plans for a new investigation team inside the embattled Department of Children and Families tasked solely with investigating abuse.