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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Seventh Legislature, Second Regular Session
AMENDED
DCS; intake hotline: case history
Purpose
Effective January 1, 2027, requires the Department of Child Safety (DCS) central intake hotline to generate a single report that includes the entire history of a child and the child's siblings who have been the subject of prior hotline calls or DCS investigations for use in determining if a new allegation meets report criteria and requires DCS to assign investigations involving repeated reports of abuse or neglect by the same caregiver to an experienced or forensically trained child safety specialist.
Background
DCS is responsible for investigating reports of abuse and neglect relating to children and coordinating services to maintain permanency on behalf of the child, strengthening the family and providing prevention, intervention and treatment services. DCS must operate a 24/7 centralized intake hotline that receives communications concerning suspected child abuse or neglect. The hotline must be operated to record communications, identify prior reports related to the current communication, provide information to a law enforcement agency if necessary, create DCS reports and determine priority level of investigation (A.R.S. §§ 8-451 and 8-455).
The Joint Legislative Budget Committee estimates that S.B. 1174 would result in additional IT costs to update DCS’s case management system, which does not currently aggregate prior calls into a single report, but cannot estimate the fiscal impact without agency input (JLBC fiscal note).
Provisions
1. Requires the DCS central intake hotline to quickly and efficiently show, in a single report, the entire history of a child and the child's siblings who have been the subject of prior hotline calls or DCS investigations.
2. Requires hotline workers, upon receipt of a call, to review the narrative of every call received for that child in the prior 90 days.
4. Requires DCS, upon receipt of four or more reports of abuse or neglect by the same caregiver in less than 12 months, to assign the investigation to a child safety specialist with at least two years of experience or, if available, a specialist who has advanced forensic training.
5. Requires DCS to disclose a hotline call that alleges abuse or neglect of a child who is the subject of a dependency action to the court that has jurisdiction over the child's dependency action.
6. Makes technical and conforming changes.
7. Becomes effective on January 1, 2027.
Amendments Adopted by Committee
1. Extends the period for review of a child's prior hotline call history from 60 to 90 days.
2. Allows hotline workers to use information from calls received in the previous 90 days, rather than three months, when determining if an allegation meets the criteria for a DCS report.
Amendments Adopted by the House of Representatives
1. Requires DCS to assign investigations involving repeated reports of abuse or neglect by the same caregiver to an experienced or forensically trained child safety specialist.
2. Requires DCS to provide the court with jurisdiction with hotline reports alleging abuse or neglect in child dependency cases.
3. Makes technical and conforming changes.
Senate Action House Action
HHS 1/28/26 DPA 5-2-0 HHS 3/23/26 DPA 11-0-0-1
3rd Read 2/24/26 22-5-3 3rd Read 4/16/26 50-0-10
Prepared by Senate Research
April 16, 2026
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