A new Arizona law requiring mandatory 24-hour reporting with detailed deliverables and protocols for each situation of missing, abducted, or runaway children within foster care is to take effect this fall.
House Bill (HB) 2651, sponsored by State Representative Barbara Parker (R-Mesa), received bipartisan support in both the State House and State Senate when it passed the legislature. Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs signed the bill into law on June 19th.
The National Foster Youth Institute estimates that law enforcement often finds 60 percent of child sex trafficking victims in state-controlled foster care or child welfare systems.
Twelve days after Parker took the oath of office, a Mesa resident found two teen girls dead in a water-filled retention basin in her legislative district mere blocks away from their group home. According to Parker, no media outlets covered the girls’ disappearance until the Mesa resident found their bodies 15 days later. Parker said that the community where the girls lived never got the opportunity to look for them.
“There was no media coverage of their disappearance until their bodies were found 15 days later. The community where they lived was never given the opportunity to look for them,” Parker said.
Following the incident, Parker said that a constituent and foster care advocate Anika Robinson, president of ASA Now and Jacob’s Mission Community Center, reached out to her to discuss serious issues regarding the Arizona Department of Child Safety reporting standards.
Before HB 2651 Arizona Revised Statute 8-810, the Child Safety Statute detailed no time frame requirement to report when a child in state custody went missing.
In 2014, Congress passed the Preventing Sex Trafficking Act, which required states to develop policies and procedures for “expeditiously locating any child missing from foster care” and “determining the child’s experiences while absent from care, including screening the child to determine if the child is a possible sex-trafficking victim.”
Audits from the Federal Inspector General’s Office and State Auditor General’s Office showed that Arizona’s Department of Child Safety did not comply with state or federal standards for reporting missing children.
According to Robinson, this bill becoming law brings renewed hope to foster parents and establishes a strong framework of collaborative efforts between state agencies, foster parents, and the community in protecting and finding missing foster children.
“By prioritizing the prompt reporting of missing foster children in accordance with federal requirements, engaging the public through the media package, and having proper training for state personnel, Arizona sets an exemplary standard for other states to follow, reaffirming its commitment to the well-being and safety of foster children,” Robinson said.
The new law takes effect on October 30th.
The Arizona Sun Times reached out to Parker for additional comment but did not receive a reply before press time.
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star, The Star News Network, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]
