The Arizona Legislature has approved emergency funding to hire more child welfare workers.
The money is part of Gov. Jan Brewer’s plan to reform Child Protective Services, which revealed last year that thousands of reports of abuse and neglect were ignored. Thursday afternoon, the state House and Senate both passed a $6.8 million appropriation bill to hire 192 new child welfare workers right away. The governor also asked for nearly $10 million to immediately fund things like parenting skill training, foster care recruitment and emergency child placement, and she wants to see more than $70 million in child welfare funding in the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
No lawmaker voted against the bill, though some Democrats called for restoring abuse prevention programs that have been cut in recent years.
Updated 1/30/2014 6:04 p.m.