Reps. David Bradley, left, and Pete Hershberger say that the push for openness might do Child Protective Services more harm than good.

angela pittenger / arizona daily star

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The Arizona House Government Committee will hold a hearing on Child Protective Services in late August. The intent, as articulated by the organizers, is to push for improvement and better oversight in the state agency charged with protecting Arizona's children.

Lawmakers will focus on the circumstances surrounding the deaths of three Tucson children from two families who were killed, police say, by their parents. All of the children — Ariana Payne, 4; Tyler Payne, 5; and Brandon Williams, 5 — were on the radar of CPS investigators.

The hearing, however, will be closed. State and federal laws require confidentiality in child- abuse and neglect cases. Lawmakers who are briefed on the cases are legally barred from discussing the cases publicly.

CPS last week released summaries of its actions in the two cases, about four months after a records request by the Arizona Daily Star, but the agency has refused to release the complete case files for the children. The Star and Phoenix Newspapers have filed a lawsuit to obtain the complete files, and that is pending.

The brewing fight over CPS pits Tucson lawmakers — specifically Rep. Jonathan Paton, who doesn't have direct legislative or professional experience with CPS — against lawmakers — specifically Rep. Pete Hershberger and Rep. David Bradley — who have worked with the system for years. They all make good arguments to improve child welfare in Arizona.

Hershberger and Bradley, both members of the House Children's Caucus, don't think the House Government Committee is the appropriate venue for such a hearing. They say the Human Services Committee, where Hershberger is chairman and Bradley is a member, would be more appropriate because members are more familiar with CPS.

But those are political questions that matter little to a child being abused by a meth-addicted mother.

Paton, a Republican and vice chairman of the Government Committee, says CPS must be more open with its work in order for lawmakers and the public to know if the agency is doing its job. He wants to make the findings of the committee hearings public and argues that CPS' confidentiality should end with the death of a child. He filed an affidavit on behalf of the newspapers seeking the Payne and Williams CPS records.

O

pening the file cabinets of CPS to public inspection, by itself, won't protect kids in a state where almost 10,000 are in the state's custody because their own homes are deemed dangerous or neglectful.

"I don't see how these hearings are going to help child welfare in the state," Bradley said last week.

Hershberger, a Republican, and Bradley, a Democrat, warn that lawmakers who don't fully understand the extremely sensitive, potentially dangerous and grinding work of Child Protective Services can do more harm than good with their push for openness. Instead of stripping confidentiality rules, they say, lawmakers should give CPS enough highly trained caseworkers and substance abuse treatment resources.

"The quality of the CPS worker should improve," Hershberger said. The more qualified people who can look at a case and evaluate the circumstances, the better the result for kids, Bradley said.

The department's shortcomings, the two argue, are largely the result of lawmakers ideologically opposed to CPS' trying to shape public policy by financially starving the agency.

Hershberger and Bradley contend that headlines too often drive legislative interest in CPS. The solution, they say, is to strike a balance where Arizona properly supports a professional CPS agency and adequately funds drug treatment and support programs that can better help families stay together safely.

That's a reasonable, educated idea. But we're talking about the Arizona Legislature, the same group that continues to largely ignore the connected web of child welfare, substance abuse, poverty and mental-health care. The latest budget allocates $5 million for the Families First initiative, $2 million of which was a one-time allocation lawmakers had to vigorously push to keep. "It's far less than we need," Hershberger said. "We fight every year."

Bradley, who runs La Paloma Family Services Inc., a nonprofit that operates residential care facilities and foster care that handles children in CPS' care, said more than 90 percent of kids in La Paloma's care are affected by substance abuse in the family.

"The fact we have to go up and explain why substance abuse treatment is so important to child welfare is ludicrous," he said.

CPS caseworkers are overloaded, even by standards set in 2003 after the special legislative session on CPS. As of last Dec. 31, according to CPS, caseworkers were handling an average of 15 investigations (five more than the standard), 27 families who were receiving support services but the child remains in the home (eight above the standard), and 23 children in out-of-home care (seven above the standard).

Until lawmakers truly understand what daily life is like for children in precarious living situations and what CPS workers face on the job, they'll continue to make blind policy and budget determinations about the value and adequacy of CPS' work.

Lawmakers should follow the example of another Tucson lawmaker, Rep. Steve Farley, a Democrat, and go on a ride-along with a CPS caseworker and see firsthand how legislators' decisions affect children and families who desperately need help.

Hershberger said that, for some lawmakers, funding to help Arizonans with developmental disabilities is an easier sell because the people in need were born that way and they didn't do anything to deserve their circumstances. "But the attitude is with mental health or substance abuse, the people aren't personally responsible and why should we give money to people who aren't personally responsible?" he said.

Mental illness isn't a failure of personal will. Tackling addiction isn't as simple as just saying no. Lawmakers must look past their prejudices and see life through the eyes of families living with the effects of these challenges.

The public needs to know what happened to Ariana and Tyler Payne and Brandon Williams.

In the summary case files released last week, it's clear that CPS workers could have done things differently and, in hindsight, it's easy to proclaim that mistakes were made. But no one can say for sure, because CPS says confidentiality laws prevent it from explaining why Ariana and Tyler were allowed to stay with their father, Christopher Matthew Payne, who did not have custody of the children in 2006.

CPS was investigating the children's mother in 2006, but the complaint was unsubstantiated and the case was closed. No complaints of abuse or neglect were made against Christopher Matthew Payne — who is now charged with murdering his kids.

CPS e-mails indicate that policy wasn't followed, because it appears a background check of Christopher Matthew Payne wasn't done, so child welfare workers didn't know of his extensive arrest record. But without the complete picture, it's difficult to know if other mistakes were made.

CPS first heard of Brandon Williams on Aug. 31, 2006, when it received a report that his mother said his older brother had injured the boy during an argument. CPS workers tried to speak with his mother, Diane Williams, but couldn't find the family.

On March 22, the agency learned that Brandon had died. Medical workers found "ligature injuries to his neck, wrist and ankles." Brandon, 5, died of a skull fracture and had a large amount of cold medicine in his system. His mother, Diane Williams, and a roommate, Flower Tompson, have been charged with killing the boy.

The public has a legitimate right to know how CPS operates and if it is doing its job protecting children in crisis. CPS workers deal with extremely volatile situations and that confidentiality is required. But after a child is dead, the need for confidentiality is gone. The reports should be released.

Our community must understand the problem so that it can push legislators to act responsibly, protect children and adequately fund CPS — and to do that, the public needs facts.