When CPS gets it wrong, children suffer

A similar situation happened in Houston a few years ago.

An infant had hairline fractures on its ribs, and so the attending physician reported the matter to Texas CPS... an organization so incompetent that a river of ink was spent cataloging its many failures and the organization has been deemed a threat to the well-being of children.

The CPS caseworker assigned to investigate rolled in and rattled off a list of demands. The parents, desperate to prove that they had done nothing wrong, followed the demands to the letter. In response, the caseworker went to a judge and falsely claimed that the parents were refusing to cooperate. The judge ordered the kids taken away, and the parents had to fight it out in court to have them returned.

It was during this battle that a second doctor was brought in, a doctor who was actually aware of the fact that some infants have brittle bones. The doctor noted that the hairline fractures were most likely the result of the parents not knowing that their infant had brittle bones and thus attempting to pick the infant up as if it was a completely healthy child. As such, the whole thing could have been avoided had a competent physician caught the condition early on and arranged for the parents to receive the needed training in how to handle the child.

God have mercy. It is a HUGE problem, and is growing.

The corruption is astounding.

I'm not going to now, but I could tell a horrific story about an elderly mother being removed from her family by APS (Adult Protective Services). These bureaucrats advance their careers by making cases against people. They can be monsters.

Chesterton said:

I'm not going to now, but I could tell a horrific story about an elderly mother being removed from her family by APS (Adult Protective Services). These bureaucrats advance their careers by making cases against people. They can be monsters.

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That's despicable.

God have mercy!

There's definitely been cases when CPS has screwed up. Times when they've overreacted & when they've under-reacted. There's also been a lot of times when they've gotten things right. Most ppl don't give them the credit when they get things right. My family has been fostering for like 10 yrs now. My grandparents fostered since the 70s. We've had a whole lot of experience with CPS. Some of these people are the right hand of God. For real, they have hearts of gold and they put in very hard work to help kids, w/out getting a whole lot of pay for it. It's very hard work if you care enough to do it right.
One thing we've learned too is that lots of times what the parents claim & what their kids say to us once we've built up trust are totally different.

brinny said:

God have mercy. It is a HUGE problem, and is growing.

The corruption is astounding.

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I'm not so sure about corruption. Incompetence I think would be a more likely accusation.

How often does CPS get it right? At least to gain some perspective here.

Belk said:

I'm not so sure about corruption. Incompetence I think would be a more likely accusation.

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it is possibly both, yet, when CPS does something totally bizarre, the organization plays "hide n' seek" and turns the tables on the one wronged and many times there are despicable outcomes with the hurt family 110% worse and no remedy or even an apology or setting the record straight.

When that happens there is reason to suspect corruption that is perhaps even bigger than CPS.

If there is one area where the government messes up, its CPS. I'm bearing witness to their work as we speak due to my roomates cousin having family issues.

One problem is you have underpaid workers getting so many cases. They cut down on the number of cases, which seemed to help, but still. I have a degree that I could have used to get into social work. I looked at the pay and laughed, and went into a field paying 3 times as much that requires only a high school diploma.

an interesting study
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-02-foster-study_N.htm

Read the full study here

Often, the problem is that each social worker has a case load that's way too high. The most effective solution would be higher taxes or fewer abusive parents.

One of the problems is that a good system requires proper funding. Some states are better than others.

Also the courts are a "hoot". There is nothing like watching a kid's father who is in jail for attempted murder use his kid to get parole in a painfully transparent way. It wasn't til parole started getting close that suddenly this dad showed interest. And how many times the mother has to ignore the kid to get high until you realize she isn't going to be a mother and just hand over custody to the other family taking care of the kid. They need to tell the parents to get their act together and THEN they can get a hearing about custody. Otherwise they are just going to be awful.

I can tell you all a story about a girl who's crack addicted mother poured alcohol all around her and then set her bed on fire. CPS (equivalent) felt it was appropriate to take the kid away and they did. I could tell you another story of a family that had such messy conflicts that they would frequently be assaulting each other. CPS felt that counselling support was sufficient to keep the family together with a safety plan. Turns out they were right and, while it took a while, the family learned how to manage their conflict better.

As someone involved in this industry, it's not always easy to differentiate between safety concern and actual, serious risk. My cousin has been the victim of a story like this in the Netherlands. It is sad when it happens, but the job is a complicated one.

PreachersWife2004 said:

Funding and training are huge issues with CPS. I've known some really excellent caseworkers that just got too burnt out. I don't envy them their job.

But I think Brinny nailed it. When they do get it wrong, they can't seem to actually admit that and go on about their business. Suddenly, everything gets trumped up and it couldn't possibly be the agency's fault.

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Vylo said:

If there is one area where the government messes up, its CPS. I'm bearing witness to their work as we speak due to my roomates cousin having family issues.

One problem is you have underpaid workers getting so many cases. They cut down on the number of cases, which seemed to help, but still. I have a degree that I could have used to get into social work.
I looked at the pay and laughed, and went into a field paying 3 times as much that requires only a high school diploma.

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I don't find that a laughing matter and congrats for having a degree in that field.
Perhaps some take the low pay just so they can honestly help the children in need, even tho there is perhaps corruption around. Ah well, onward thru the fog!

1Ti 6:10
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness,
and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.






.

SummerMadness said:

How often does CPS get it right? At least to gain some perspective here.

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I think they get it right a lot more often than they're ever credited for, cause it's really only the times they get it wrong that make the news. There's also all the times when they haven't actually got it wrong, but it's presented in the media like they have. The parents are allowed to say as much as they please but CPS cannot for confidentiality reasons, so the public gets a 1-sided story sometimes. I think where you live also matters because the quality of CPS can vary. Some social workers simply have far too many cases to handle to be able to handle all of them well. The budget is so tight CPS can't hire as many ppl as they really need. I think where we live they do a pretty good job & they aren't as overloaded as in another city. My grandparents have fostered in W. VA, Maryland, and VA over the past 30 yrs & they have a whole lot of respect for social workers. Oh of course there have been some who are lousy, but there are ones who saved children's lives, helped put families back together. These are people who have jobs that are very hard spiritually & emotionally. On top of that you have folks who are determined to paint with broad strokes & demonize everyone cause of a few. That only hurts families instead of helping them, cause when families think all of CPS is corrupt & they refuse to cooperate it makes it much harder on all involved. I've seen this 1st hand with the kids we've fostered. Most work for CPS cause they want to do good. They're definitely not in it for the money. Where we live they need a college degree but they get paid a lot less than what other jobs that require degrees pay. They could go get a job working at Home Depot or someplace where you don't need a degree & you don't have to deal w anything heartbreaking or hard & make their lives simpler, but they want to do something meaningful. That should get more props than it does.

CPS can get it right - wrong - that's a given. The department is indeed needed. We had foster children growing up.

Sadly, its cases like this where they were clearly in the wrong...and they won't back down. CPS isn't the only government agency that acts like this.

When you are dealing with small children you really do need to act quickly - I mean they are being harmed. Yet, when you clearly made a mistake? You need to do the same.

At that point to me its not the worker that has the power to do that, but those above the worker. Heck, even in this case the lawyer that represents the State too. The doctors that the state uses to treat these babies, etc. They also have a responsibility. It's not on the worker completely, but they get the ball rolling. Its the whole system, and every human their case falls on their desk's responsibility to get this right.

Problem is many times its the system that can't admit their error, and makes the circumstances worse. It's just as traumatizing for the child to deal with this - whether they are abused or not. They have to get a court order - or some legal paper - to remove them. They should be able to get the same to do the opposite in the same time frame - for the sake of the children too.

Although, I do acknowledge their lack of funding. These children are voiceless most of the time, and those that do advocate for them are overworked, etc. This department - and these children - are the forgotten ones overall...WELL until something like this happens. IMO.