Greg McKay stepping down as head of Arizona Department of Child Safety

McKay will leave the Department of Child Safety Sept. 1 to become chief operating officer of Childhelp USA. Two decades ago, McKay, as a Phoenix police detective, worked with the agency on cases involving child abuse.

In announcing the pending departure of one of his longer-serving cabinet members, Ducey praised the agency’s turnaround from a “broken” agency to a “national model for finding kids safe, loving homes.”

When Ducey tapped McKay to take the DCS post in February 2015, DCS was a mere 7 months old. There were more than 17,500 children living apart from their families due to allegations of neglect or abuse. The numbers continued to climb for the next year and a half, then started a decline to the current level of 13,400.

Ducey praised McKay for his leadership and ticked off metrics that showed progress, such as a 70% decline in caseloads. As director, McKay earned $215,250.

In a farewell letter to the agency’s staff, McKay credited the DCS workforce for turning it from an agency “with seemingly insurmountable problems” into one that won praise for the fastest reduction in foster-care ranks while keeping kids safe. Casey Family Programs recognized that accomplishment last year with a national award.

McKay will depart with many critics for how he handled an agency with the power to remove children from their parents, and legal challenges that will linger beyond his tenure.

The state is still enmeshed in a long-running, class-action lawsuit that seeks changes in what critics call a dismal foster-care system that leaves children without needed medical and behavioral-health services.

A state appeals court recently lambasted the agency for errors that it said led to a father losing his rights to his daughter.

Ducey’s office would not comment on McKay’s successor, saying an announcement will be “forthcoming.”

But many observers don’t expect much change at DCS, noting that McKay’s two deputy directors — Shalom Jacobs and Mike Faust — remain to guide the agency’s day-to-day operations.

State Sen. Kate Brophy McGee, R-Phoenix, has worked extensively with DCS and has faith in its top leadership.

“I think the agency is in good hands,” she said.

When McKay was appointed director nearly 4ƒ years ago, the agency was in disarray — and he played a role in creating the situation.

At the time, McKay, as head of the agency’s Office of Child Welfare Investigations, was openly feuding with Charles Flanagan, former Gov. Jan Brewer’s appointee as DCS director.

Earlier, McKay had blown the whistle on a practice at the then-Child Protective Services division that let more than 6,000 reports of child abuse or neglect sit idle. These reports were not investigated as case managers grappled with a mountain of reports, apparently setting the files aside as a sort of triage.

That discovery prompted Brewer to pull the agency out of the wide-ranging Department of Economic Security and make it a stand-alone agency to focus on child safety.

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, who lobbied Ducey to make McKay DCS director, said child welfare is in a better state today because of McKay’s tenure.

“Greg did such a fantastic job in such a difficult situation,” Montgomery said.

McKay led a culture change at the agency that saw a drop in caseworker turnover, as well as in the foster-care ranks, Montgomery said. Plus, with legislative backing, DCS cleared up a backlog of 16,000 case files that was bogging down work on current cases, he said.

Four years after his appointment, critics note McKay lacks the credentials to be a caseworker at the agency because he does not hold a bachelor’s degree.