whateveryparentshouldknow

Tucson Citizen
letters@tucsoncitizen.com

The slayings of Ariana Payne, Tyler Payne and Brandon Williams in 2006 and 2007 shocked and sickened Tucson and brought public scrutiny to bear on the failings of Child Protective Services.
But out of those tragedies, some good can come.
On Gov. Janet Napolitano’s desk are a quartet of bills intended to increase accountability in Arizona’s child welfare system, whose breakdowns in the cases of the three children have been well-documented:
• CPS workers told Tucson police that Ariana, 4, and her brother Tyler, 5, should stay with their father, even though a court had awarded custody to the mother of the two. Their father and his girlfriend are charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of the children.
• CPS workers, though concerned with the safety of Brandon, 5, could not locate him or his mother in the weeks before his death. The mother is facing a first-degree murder charge.
The bills are the hard work of Republican House members Jonathan Paton of Tucson and Kirk Adams of Mesa, who after holding public hearings crafted the legislation.
They know that transparency in government can force the hand of public officials to make needed changes in a dysfunctional system.
Among other improvements, the bills would:
• Increase public access to CPS information after the death or serious injury of a child.
• Open certain CPS-related court proceedings and state employee disciplinary records.
• Force law enforcement and CPS to work together on child protection.
Getting the legislation to this point has not been easy. Paton and Adams had to head off an amendment that would have reduced the amount of information released by CPS in cases of deaths or serious injuries to children.
The two legislators know that in cases where the stakes can be life and death, privacy issues must be trumped by concerns for the well-being of the children.
Ariana, Tyler and Brandon can’t be brought back. But Arizona has an opportunity, by drawing back the curtains on the CPS system, to prevent the egregious errors of the past from repeating.
Gov. Napolitano should sign the bills into law so that trust can be restored in how our state cares for its most vulnerable citizens.

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