Significant Milestones for the Department of Child Safety

PHOENIX, AZ (September 7, 2016) 

Consistent improvements continue month-over-month as the Department of Child Safety diligently pursues its mission to serve the vulnerable children and families of Arizona with excellence.

Progress at DCS is measured by scorecards that track strategic performance metrics.  At the end of August, the agency achieved significant milestones that signal that the agency has shed the broken model it inherited in February 2015.

Significant milestones and positive trends include:

• The number of open inactive cases hit its lowest number since January 2010. Open inactive cases are now below 5,500 from a previous all-time high of over 16,000 in February 2015. 
• The critical reversal of an annual 9 - 10% increase in the number of children residing in out-of-home care. The steady year-over-year growth has been halted, and the number of children in out-of-home care has declined for the last four straight months.  
• The very positive trend of more children leaving DCS' care than entering for the past eight continuous months.
• Steady efficiency improvements in completing more reports than assigning new ones for the past eleven straight months, and sixteen out of the last eighteen months.

All agency milestones and positive trends have the impact of freeing capacity to provide better care to Arizona’s children and families. This, in turn, not only provides better services for the children in DCS' care, it also helps shift the focus to prevention of abuse and neglect, safely keeping more families intact.

According to DCS Director Gregory McKay, "Real change is hard work, but so very worth it.  I'm extremely grateful to the men and women of DCS for realizing a preferred future for so many.  But still, there is much to do."

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