Parents and foster parents urged reform during a Wednesday committee meeting in the Arizona House of Representatives led by State Representative Barbara Parker (R-Mesa), who successfully passed a 2022 bill to address missing children in the foster care system.
In a press release published ahead of the meeting, Parker (pictured above) acknowledged “the heart-wrenching disappearance of five children from foster homes” in her district, identifying the missing children as “an issue that strikes at the very core of our commitment to the welfare of vulnerable children.”
She referenced the passage of HB 2651, “aimed at strengthening reporting requirements when a child goes missing, is abducted, or runs away” from the DCS. Parker noted, “the recent incidents raise concerns about the effective implementation of those measures.”
In the hearing, legislators heard from parents and foster parents who experienced runaways and deaths of children in DCS care.
One mother, Janell Jones, told legislators she and her husband “were not notified for over 48 hours” after the disappearance of their 16-year-old daughter, who ran away from a group home. Jones told lawmakers that her daughter was away from the facility for four days, during which time she was raped and exposed to drug use.
Foster parent Alisa Zoccoli, who said she adopted six sons from foster care, testified that DCS and law enforcement both once refused to pick up their missing son, even after the child’s exact physical location was provided, citing staffing issues.
“DCS prioritized their ineffective systems and bureaucracies over locating our child and allowing us to coordinate his care,” she testified. Zoccoli reported spending “hundreds of hours searching” for her missing child, but said the agency made it difficult to contact other government officials due to DCS rules against sharing information.
She said that despite being commended as “exceptional parents” by judges and others involved in her case, the agency attempted to find information to use against them instead of working to find the missing minor.
“This is my child, I am fighting for him, DCS is not our child’s parent,” said Zoccoli.
She continued, “I know and love my child more than anyone, including the countless DCS managers, social workers, therapists, and probation officers who have strolled in and out of his life, some claiming they know better for him after minutes of meeting him.”
Parker admitted she “thought it was so simple” to fix issues with DCS with her legislation, which requires missing children in DCS care to be immediately reported to local media and law enforcement. Foster parent Anika Robinson suggested the law ultimately duplicated existing federal requirements that were “simply not being followed,” with parents suffering as a result.
Robinson suggested DCS form a new unit with the sole responsibility of locating missing children in the agency’s care, but DCS general counsel Katie Ptak argued the agency’s Office of Child Welfare Investigations is already responsible for such investigations.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
