Arizona Department of Economic Security—Division of Developmental Disabilities

The Arizona Department of Economic Security’s Division of Developmental Disabilities (Division) provides diverse services to individuals with developmental disabilities, based on their eligibility and regulates service providers and community residential settings, including child and adult developmental homes that provide 24-hour care for its members. The Division primarily relies on contractors, called monitoring agencies, to help fulfill its statutory responsibilities to license developmental homes and monitor them for compliance with administrative rules. We found that although monitoring agencies complete the Division’s qualified vendor process, this process may not ensure that monitoring agencies and their staff are qualified to fulfill their responsibilities. Additionally, the Division lacks a process for overseeing its monitoring agencies due to several factors, including not clearly defining monitoring agencies’ responsibilities and requirements and lacking policies and procedures that direct oversight activities. Therefore, the Division should establish minimum qualification requirements for its monitoring agencies and take several steps to establish a process for overseeing them.