Nearly $4 million in grants to the University of Arizona for LGBTQ+ mental health services is raising concerns among some students.
The UA Southwest Institute for Research on Women recently received $3.7 million in federal grants, according to a university news release late last month. The two grants came from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
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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.Â
In a press release published ahead of the meeting, Parker 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.”
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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 Senate when it passed the legislature. Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs signed the bill into law on June 19th, 2023.
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Arizona State Sen. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Director Nominations (CDN), announced Wednesday that Hobbs’s choice to lead the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS), Matthew Stewart, was allegedly forced to resign following questionable behavior.
“It’s disgraceful that Katie Hobbs either did not conduct a thorough review of Mr. Stewart prior to offering him the position as DCS Director, or she thought she could sweep his history under the rug. This agency is tasked with protecting vulnerable children. While Katie Hobbs openly touted skin-color as her seemingly only priority in the search for the next potential DCS Director, it might have also been a good idea to look at experience and qualifications too,” said Hoffman.
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Mike Faust, Director of the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS), recently announced that there were under 12,000 children between the age of zero and 17 in the foster care system, the lowest the department has seen since 2012.
“Although this was one of the goals from the start, little did the team know how challenging it would be to reach this milestone,” Faust said in a press release. “DCS was deeply challenged a decade ago, and had it not been for the commitment of all those involved to make DCS a standalone agency, the resolve and steadfastness of Director Greg McKay from 2015-2019; the commitment of the thousands of employees and partners who devote their lives to protecting children; the loving support of kinship families; and the dedication of biological families to reunifying with their children, this would not have been possible.”
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