Tim Steller: Turnover rampant in CPS jobs, keeping agency in crisis

It's not the recruitment video you'd expect. One by one, workers hit you with the tough reality of working for Child Protective Services.

Tim Steller: Yet another child dies - Are we doing all we can?

We're already forgetting Adyson Gaxiola. When the toddler died of abuse March 15, at 18 months old, it merited a short item in this paper.

Critics, CPS differ over whether agency's keeping up on parent-child visits

Child Protective Services is falling down on providing supervised parental visits and other critical services, private agencies hired by the state to provide those services say.

New law allots $4.4M to hire 50 CPS workers

Clarence Carter, director of the Department of Economic Security, right, and state lawmakers watch as Gov. Jan Brewer signs legislation to hire more CPS caseworkers.

New law allots $4.4M to hire 50 CPS workers

PHOENIX - A new law providing $4.4 million to fund 50 more Child Protective Services workers will be just a stopgap measure without efforts to halt abuse in the first place, the head of the agency said Thursday.

Mom pleads guilty in child-starvation case

Ashley Kammerer, 23, right, is accompanied by Pima County Public Defender Dawn Priestman. With her guilty plea, Kammerer could get probation or prison.

Mom pleads guilty in child-starvation case

Caption unavailable

Mom pleads guilty in child-starvation case

Superior Court Judge Richard Fields delayed sentencing to let Kammerer share Christmas and birthdays with her kids.

Mom pleads guilty in child-starvation case

A single mother of four who was accused of starving one of her preschoolers could be placed on probation or receive between five and 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of child abuse Tuesday.

Josh Brodesky: CPS covered up tragic fact: Za' Naya could have been saved

This might be the saddest CPS story I have ever told. Considering how many tragedies we've seen over the years with Child Protective Services, that's really saying something.

Incomplete records latest failure of an overwhelmed CPS

Arizona's Child Protective Services can't keep up. The agency can't hire enough new workers to reach appropriate staffing levels. It can't keep workers long enough to build stability. It struggles to keep kids safe. It can't provide adequate foster placements for kids in trouble, forcing the…

Officials minimize glitch that hid some CPS records

PHOENIX - State and county officials generally downplayed the significance of a computer glitch at Arizona's child-welfare agency that kept some public records hidden from parents and their lawyers for more than 15 years.

Josh Brodesky: 'SWAT' team formed to protect abused Tucson kids failed them instead

Case file on Za' Naya Flores. The CPS SWAT team in Pima County picked up Za' Naya's case on Dec. 12, 2011, exactly one month before she died.

Josh Brodesky: SWAT team formed to protect abused Tucson kids failed them instead

Child Protective Services had a backlog of nearly 10,000 unfinished cases by the time it kicked off its SWAT program to respond to the overload.

Josh Brodesky: It's hard to see what could drain the fetid morass that we call CPS

Joy Spencer-Austin was supposed to be the last line of defense for at-risk kids in troubled homes.

Josh Brodesky: Children sleeping in CPS offices

A Child Protective Services office morphed into a children's shelter this weekend. Because there weren't enough beds in Pima County foster and group homes, eight or nine children ended up staying in a CPS office.