Sigh..... Thanks for tuning in NC. Read up a bit on FL system please. I know of kids in the Foster system who were yanked from place to place AT NIGHT! We have had kids taken, and ended up sleeping in DCF offices.
And no, they are not only removed if thought to be in immediate danger.
We need the DCF. It does save childrens lives. But the reality is that they are over worked, and understaffed. Folks are low paid. Much of the investigation is checked against what the investigator believes is the correct way of parenting. Last time I checked, no 2 parents agree 100% on how to raise a child.
I'm not slamming DCF. I'm slamming folks who think calling DCF is the answer to every situation that they don't approve of. Unless it's a serious situation, they might cause more problem then there was. which would make WHOM the child abuser?
How many of the folks here who think that DCF should have been called, really thought that the parents was going to go home and hurt this child? Or that the parents wasn't going to seek medical care for the child if needed?
I don't need to read up on the FL system - I lived there for 32 years and worked the last +5 with homeless families with children. As a family specialist I worked very closely with DCF, the courts, CMS and nearly every other agency in the county and quite a few outside of it. Before that I worked for another agency that focused on the needs and well-being of children (for roughly 10 years).
I realize you don't know anything about me, and I didn't see any reason to qualify myself before posting as it was not relevant to the subject. But since I apparently do need to clarify, I have worked with DCF to have children removed from their families; to help reunite families; to keep children with their families; for said families to comply with the conditions set forth by the court; and to assist families in obtaining every available service/resource to help improve their lives, their parenting skills, and their health and socioeconomic status.
And I've had to tell families to leave with as little as a 72 hour notice - and trust me that is not a fun thing to do. Especially not when there are children involved - and there always were. All in all having DCF involved for a set amount of time is not the worst thing that can happen to a family or to children living in dangerous environments!
I do agree that DCF workers are overworked, underpaid and I'll add unappreciated. They do however follow guidelines and there is not as much subjectivity involved as you are implying. Children aren't removed from a home based on a worker's intuition or personal beliefs about child care - although having good intuition sure can be an asset. But it takes solid facts to remove a child. No judge is going to accept a 'well that's not how I raise my children' or 'but they're just not like my family' as a reason for removing a child. In fact such statements would put one more person in the unemployment line real fast!
Yes, sometimes people are quick to report something that looks suspicious; but is it not better to report it than to read in the paper or see on the news that the child had been killed or severely injured? --To realize you might have saved that child if you'd picked up the phone and done something instead of feeling everything would be just peachy after everyone calmed down? Yeah, I do believe I'd go with making the call over having to live with that kind of guilt the rest of my life!!!
I have seen situations where reports were determined to be unfounded within a matter of days -- without taking the child from the home, but I've yet to see a case where DCF got and stayed involved without reason.
With this particular family IMO the call was justified based on the behaviors displayed. The child was up way too late and was brought into a volatile situation - made more volatile by the actions of the 'mother' and even the child himself. The child was injured because the 'mother' needed to be restrained. The seemingly injured child was ignored because his 'mother' apparently felt it was more appropriate to continue screaming obscenities and insults rather than tending to him. And when they finally decide to leave it's with the child doing his best imitation of his 'mother' -- I'm sure that made her proud.
So could I be certain she wouldn't go off on him at home or even just down the street? Absolutely and unequivocally NO I could not!! She was, at best, in a confrontational and aggressive mood, and who knows maybe she felt that he ruined her fun for the night by getting himself hurt! Better a kid with a bruised arm than one slammed against a wall or worse.
...Stepping off my soapbox...