The Department of Child Safety is opening a new office in downtown Mesa. The agency replaced Child Protective Services last year after it failed to investigate more than 6,500 cases of child abuse. Children in shelters and foster homes hit a record high of nearly 17,000 last year.
This new office will have visitation rooms for kids and families, but won’t have a shelter. This fiscal year the department is hiring 212 new caseworkers. This new office is expected to house 140 employees. The Department of Child Safety still contracts with outside organizations to provide shelter, foster home placement and prevention services to struggling families.
“All of the prevention of child abuse has fallen onto our community and onto nonprofits to address and the state is paying virtually for none of that," said Terry Hines with the Child Crisis Center in Mesa.
HInes said opening this office is a step in the right direction, but won’t fix the system-wide problems for the agency.
