Former Department of Child Safety Director David Lujan spent much of his career focused on the needs of Arizona’s children and creating public policy to improve their lives.
“We need to be able to create a child welfare system where we are supporting each other and working together for better outcomes, rather than always trying to point the finger,” he said.
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Before leading DCS from 2023 to 2025, Lujan was a state legislator and the CEO of Children’s Action Alliance.
“Every DCS caseworker I met is very passionate and committed to having the absolute best outcomes for children and families,” Lujan said.
But some children have slipped through the DCS safety net. Emily Pike, Zariah Dodd, and Rebekah Baptiste, three girls who had been involved in the child welfare system, were murdered in 2025.
Officials acknowledge that high DCS staff turnover rates can make the job of protecting children more difficult.
In September, the ABC15 Investigators reported that fewer than 15% of DCS employees remain on the job for five years, according to the department’s most recent strategic plan.
Officials have acknowledged low job retention pose challenges for case continuity and experienced decision-making.
Lujan explained that low pay for caseworkers could be a factor in the turnover rate. Child Safety Specialist trainee pay starts are $45,150 per year, according to the DCS website.
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“I think the number one thing is the state legislature needs to appropriate funds to increase the salaries for all of DCS field staff,” Lujan said. “There are actually many state DCS workers that are on government assistance because they're not making enough money."
According to a police report, Rebekah Baptiste's family had at least five different DCS caseworkers assigned to them prior to the 10-year-old's murder. Rebekah’s dad and his girlfriend are charged in the case.
In addition, some tipster calls about the Baptiste family to the Arizona child abuse hotline were not followed up, and DCS explained that the call information had not met the statutory criteria to prompt an investigation.
There are 160,000 hotline calls a year, according to DCS statistics. Lujan sees more opportunities for earlier intervention in conjunction with community partners.
“It's families that are struggling, for example, with poverty, and they just don't have the resources,” Lujan said.
As DCS director, Lujan oversaw the formation of the MARC Unit, a task group to help find missing and runaway foster kids.
New scrutiny about prevention arose in 2025 after both Emily Pike, 14, and Zariah Dodd, 16, went missing from their DCS-licensed group homes and were later murdered. Two suspects in the Dodd case are facing criminal charges. The homicide investigation continues in Pike’s case.
“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 said. “They're going to be disruptive, and they're going to have these issues of running away and other things.”
Lujan said it was a priority, during his time at DCS, to find better alternatives to group home care, especially for harder-to-place kids who were older teens with complex needs.
“If you want to reduce the group home population, then you need more family-like settings, which are going to be kinship, aunts, uncles, but also traditional foster families,” Lujan said. “We need to raise the incentive for people to want to be foster families.”
The number of traditional foster homes has dropped in the last couple of years. According to the DCS Licensed Foster Home Recruitment Annual Report from December 2025, there has been an 18.9% decrease in licensed homes between January 2024 and October 2025.
You can reach ABC15 Senior Investigator Melissa Blasius by email at melissa.blasius@abc15.com or call 602-803-2506. Follow her on X @MelissaBlasius or Facebook.
