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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Fourth Legislature, Second Regular Session
AMENDED
DCS; missing children; report
(NOW: missing children; DCS; required reporting)
Purpose
Requires the Department of Child Safety (DCS) to make semi-annual reports concerning runaway and abducted children.
Background
DCS was created in 2014 and its primary purpose is to protect children through investigation, assessment and support for the safety of a child from abuse, neglect and other criminal conduct allegations (A.R.S. § 8-451). In the case of missing children, DCS is also involved in aiding the location of an abducted or missing child (DCS: Policy and Procedure Manual, Ch. 4 § 08.2).
If DCS receives information during the course of providing services that indicates a child is at risk of serious harm and the child's location is unknown, DCS is required to notify the appropriate law enforcement agency and provide the information required to make the record entry immediately into the Arizona crime information center and the national crime information center missing person databases (A.R.S. § 8-810). This information includes the physical characteristics of the child, date of birth and, if abducted, any information concerning the abductor. If the missing child is located, DCS will confirm that the child's basic needs are immediately met upon their return and inform all necessary parties (DCS: Policy and Procedure Manual, Ch. 4 § 08.2).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Requires DCS to report information on runaway and abducted children semi-annually and to make the information available within three months of the applicable reporting period.
2. Requires DCS to report the following information on runaway children:
a) the number of children who have run away for a period of more than 24 hours at least once during the reporting period;
b) the distribution of the total length of time the children have been on runaway status during the reporting period;
c) the average number of days on runaway status of all children on runaway status;
d)
the number of children who have had a prior runaway episode before their
current
out-of-home episode for all children who experience a runaway episode during
the reporting period;
e) the age and race of the children who experienced at least one runaway episode during the reporting period;
f) the placement location from which each child ran away, including all licensed foster homes, nonlicensed kinship placements, DCS licensed and contracted placements, group homes or other placements; and
g) if
available, the number of children who have been on runaway status who were
adjudicated as delinquent, or incorrigible.
3. Requires DCS to report the following information on abducted children:
a) the number of children who have been abducted during the reporting period;
b) for all children who were abducted during the reporting period, the distribution of the total length of time the children were abducted;
c) the average number of days missing of all children abducted during the reporting period;
d) the number of children who have had a prior abduction during the current out-of-home episode for all children who have been abducted during the reporting period;
e) the age and race of the children who were abducted at least once during the reporting period; and
f) the placement location from which the child was abducted including all licensed foster homes, nonlicensed kinship placements, DCS licensed and contracted placements, group homes or other placements.
4. Defines abducted child and runaway status.
5. Requires DCS to make the data available on the DCS website in a format that can be downloaded and that is conducive to analysis.
6. Requires DCS to notify the President of Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Governor when the reported information is made available.
7. Requires the first reporting period to be from January 1, 2021, to June 30, 2021.
8. Repeals the semi-annual reporting requirement on January 1, 2025.
9. Makes technical and conforming changes.
10. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Amendments Adopted by Committee
· Adopted the strike-everything amendment.
Amendments Adopted by Committee of the Whole
1. Delays the first reporting period by six months so that the DCS's first reporting period begins January 1, 2021.
2. Modifies the term taken to abducted.
3. Makes clarifying changes to the data that DCS is required to report regarding runaway and abducted children.
Senate Action
JUD 2/13/20 DPA/SE 7-0-0
Prepared by Senate Research
February 27, 2020
JA/SH/kja