CPS fails families at risk, audit says

While the worst cases make headlines and grab attention, each day Child Protective Services workers find themselves face-to-face with countless struggling families who have less severe needs that can be met while keeping children at home.

The idea is to keep the kids with their families while making the home safe.

Although spending on these services has more than doubled since 2005, the federal review found the services provided are often not enough "to address all of the safety and risk concerns in the family, leaving the children at risk in their homes."

This is partly because of scarce resources, the review said. But it also noted, among other concerns, that caseworkers often did not make consistent and frequent visits to children and parents, particularly fathers.

The review sets a high standard for compliance — 95 percent of all cases must meet seven benchmarks. Arizona missed the mark on every one.

State officials and representatives of agencies that provide in-home services said a literal reading of the criticism in the review is misleading. They said the program is improving and problems are largely attributable to too few resources and the unpredictability of families that have great needs.

"I think the challenges are, we are dealing with real-life people with real-life issues. We don't know what they are thinking. Sometimes families don't tell us everything," said Lillian Downing, program manager for CPS in Pima County.

"We have the ability to do that quick outreach to families and engage them to do the assessment. At that, we are pretty successful, and I think we do well. Where it breaks down is once the outreach is completed. . . . If folks are needing more hands-on, one-on-one, more-intensive services, that's a real challenge."

Contract workers

In-home services are provided by a handful of agencies that contract with CPS.

The level of services offered to families depends on their needs. Some get intensive services in which caseworkers visit at least three times a week. Other have more moderate assistance. Plans usually last six months.

Services can range from basic assistance with things like food boxes to helping people find jobs or get drug treatment. But they are all voluntary. Families don't have to agree to them.

"If in-home services are provided to reduce the risk, maybe the children don't go into the system, because once they go into the system, it's hard to get them back," said Andy Harclerode, clinical director for Our Family Services, a CPS contractor.

Harclerode said he hadn't read the federal review but noted mistakes and faults could be found in any child-welfare case. The key, he said, is if those mistakes are critical errors. His staff is in regular contact with CPS caseworkers, and if something critical arises, he said, the open communication makes addressing problems with cases or issues relatively smooth.

Ann Rosing, program director for Arizona Partnership for Children, the largest contractor in Pima County, said the biggest challenge to providing proper services isn't so much resources, or lack thereof, but the families themselves.

"The families we are dealing with, by and large, are multi-need," she said. "We are talking about a lifetime of multiple needs. The intent of the in-home services is to provide services to address the most immediate risk. . . . It would be very rare that a family referred to short-term service would exit that service with no risks."

Probably the greatest need among families that receive intensive in-home services is substance-abuse treatment.

Downing said it can be challenging to get parents to enroll in treatment, and what is out there isn't necessarily adequate.

"If someone has a meth addiction, and they quickly get plugged into a support group, that's not a bad thing, but it doesn't meet the level of intensity that they need," she said. "Sometimes getting them more intense services, that takes time. The demand is high."

High stakes

Not providing needed services can leave families frustrated and feeling they've been left adrift with nowhere to turn.

Bill and Theresa McPhedran took in four of their niece's children, ranging from 3 years old to mid-teens. The niece has been jailed on drug charges.

One was abandoned at their home, another was adopted and two were taken in as babies. All were drug-exposed, and the older children spent time on the streets.

The youngest was born with all her intestines and stomach in her diaphragm, so she has only one lung. "She has severe gastric reflux disease. She has had a stroke, which affects her left side," Theresa McPhedran said.

When the McPhedrans, who raised their own three kids without problems, began taking in their niece's children, they were financially able to handle the added responsibility.

But a bad fall at work put Bill McPhedran on disability. And Theresa McPhedran said she had to retire from the VA Hospital of Southern Arizona because of severe back problems.

They struggled controlling the oldest child. CPS became involved when he claimed Bill McPhedran kicked him.

The claim was not substantiated, documents show. But the CPS investigator suggested in-home services.

"It's remarkable that you have devoted so much of your time and energy to taking care of four young children who have no other caretaker; their mother is incarcerated and has never been able to safely parent them," wrote the investigator, who transferred their case to the in-home-services program.

Theresa McPhedran, 47, said she expected respite care to help with the youngest child as well as assistance with food, clothing, education materials and counseling.

What she got was a parenting class, documents show.

"I took a parenting class; they thought that I needed a parenting class," Theresa McPhedran said. "And they thought that I needed counseling because I was depressed, but nothing for the children. . . . It was very insulting."

Eventually the children did get some counseling, but not enough to make a difference, she said.

She said ongoing concerns about the oldest child came to a head in November when she caught him abusing the other children.

The oldest child is no longer in the home. And although the state initially considered removing the other children, Theresa McPhedran said the state is now helping her adopt the children and has offered more intensive services.

"It was quite a traumatic experience," she said. "It's just amazing how CPS is just not there."

Legislative response

To state Rep. Pete Hershberger, a Republican who co-owned an agency that provided services, the review only highlights the need for more funding. "There aren't . . . enough services and treatment options available to families, he said.

"I don't think we spend enough money compared to other states," Hershberger said. Adequate funding for families, he said, will ultimately save taxpayers down the line.

To state Rep. Jonathan Paton, a Republican who pushed for CPS reforms, there needs to be a legislative review of what programs are working and what services are being offered.

"At the end of the day, this is what their business has become," Paton said. "I would like to see statistical evidence of which programs are working and which ones aren't."

Otherwise, he said, the state is falling short for its families.

How state funding has increased

The state has increased funding for in-home services to families each year. Despite more spending, a recent federal review found in many cases the services offered weren't sufficient for the families and children in need.

Year Statewide Pima County

FY 2005 $12,604,293.45 $992,208.48

FY 2006 $19,197,380.15 $1,287,674.75

FY 2007 $26,763,547.69 $2,501,702.50

Source: Arizona Department of Economic Security