The Arizona child welfare system has been accused of failing to provide youths in foster care with adequate medical and dental care as well as needed therapeutic housing, in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday on behalf of 10 children.
The complaint filed by three legal groups against the state's Department of Child Safety and Department of Health Services alleges that there is a “severe shortage” of physical, mental and behavioral health services available to children in state foster care. The suit charges that the department has failed to conduct timely investigations of reports that children have been maltreated while in state foster care.
It also alleges that there is a shortage of family foster homes in the state and a “widespread failure” on the part if the state to help troubled children maintain relationship with their families.
[For more of this story, written by Samantha Masunaga, go to http://www.latimes.com/nation/...-20150203-story.html]
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