Former Department of Child Safety Director David Lujan has made a public plea for higher funding and alternatives to group homes following severe shortcomings in Arizona's child welfare system. Lujan, with a background as a state legislator and CEO of Children's Action Alliance, emphasized the need for a collaborative child welfare system focused on better outcomes, without succumbing to blame games, as reported by ABC15.
Lujan's career, which included leading DCS from 2023 to 2025, highlighted issues such as high staff turnover rates and inadequate pay for caseworkers. He stressed, "I think the number one thing is the state legislature needs to appropriate funds to increase the salaries for all of DCS field staff," during a discussion with ABC15. As per the DCS website, trainees for Child Safety Specialists start at $45,150 per year, a salary so low that some workers need government assistance to make ends meet.
The consequences of the system's failures became tragically evident with the murders of three girls, Emily Pike, Zariah Dodd, and Rebekah Baptiste, who had been under the care of DCS. In the harrowing case of Rebekah Baptiste, the family saw at least five different DCS caseworkers before the 10-year-old's murder, and multiple tipster calls to the child abuse hotline pertaining to her family were left uninvestigated, because they did not meet the statutory criteria for launching an inquiry. This detail emerged from a police report as noted by ABC15.
The establishment of the MARC Unit, which Lujan oversaw, was one initiative aimed at finding missing and runaway foster children. In 2025, the murders of Pike and Dodd followed their disappearances from DCS-licensed group homes, bringing to light the need for better support and additional options beyond such institutions. "The group homes' job is to provide a safe living structure, but if those kids aren’t getting the other supports that they need, then they're going to act out," Lujan told ABC15. He further emphasized the importance of kinship and traditional foster families in providing family-like settings for these children.
However, the dire situation is further compounded by a significant decrease in traditional foster homes, with an 18.9% drop in licensed homes from January 2024 to October 2025, according to the DCS Licensed Foster Home Recruitment Annual Report. The reduction in family-centric care options underscores the urgency for reform and investment, a sentiment firmly conveyed by the former DCS director in his post-tenure reflections, as noted by Yahoo News.
