Mollyandme
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- Joined
- May 29, 2013
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Hi all,
I just wanted to give some CPS perspective from a former caseworker. I think I said this in a previous thread but I used to work for CPS outside of a large city for a while before I had kids. I left because the system was so messed up and there is way too much legal tape to get through to keep kids safe (imo). In many cases, parents were given too many chances. It was a never ending cycle.
In regards to how my experience working at CPS relates to this case, we received a call after a child was killed under suspicious circumstances while under the care of the boyfriend. I'm trying to be vague but basically, we had no involvement with the family and had no reports on them before the incident occurred. I was the caseworker assigned and there was a young baby in the home as well. Even though the mom wasn't home when the suspicious death occurred, there was drug paraphernalia in the home and out of an abundance of caution, a decision was made by myself and my supervisor to remove the infant from the mothers care until more information could be gathered. Thankfully there was a suitable relative (somewhat distant relative but still they volunteered and you are supposed to look at family as a safety plan first) who we ran a thorough background check on that kept the baby until we could get more information. A relative ended up petitioning for custody and the family court system took it from there. when doing a risk assessment if there's a threat of immediate harm or endangerment a child must be removed. Obviously thats what happened in this case.
In terms of CPS being involved with families already and something like this happening, let's just say this is another reason i left. I could never sleep at night, always worried about kids who we didn't have enough to remove and could only go visit once or twice a week. If it's neglect, like parents on drugs, poor living conditions, children left unsupervised, etc...it is not always easy to get a court order to take children into protective custody. The parents have so many rights, and they are given court appointed attorneys that the county or state pays for to represent them at any CPS related court proceedings. It's just a very sad and broken system. With all that being said, there were plenty of people i worked with who were incompetent, going so far as to skip home visits and turn in fake reports about a home visit that never occurred just so they could leave work early, and more...it's a very difficult job and at least where I lived it seemed like they would hire anyone. I'm not sure what level of involvement CPS had in this case but this would be my worst nightmare and was one of the reasons i left.
Sorry about the long post, just trying to give some perspective from my time working at CPS. If you want to read about the ultimate disgrace I have ever heard about involving CPS, read this report on Danieal (pronounced Danielle) Kelly. It's very graphic but it shows just how bad the system can be.
http://www.phila.gov/districtattorney/pdfs/Grand_jury_DHS_new.pdf
I just wanted to give some CPS perspective from a former caseworker. I think I said this in a previous thread but I used to work for CPS outside of a large city for a while before I had kids. I left because the system was so messed up and there is way too much legal tape to get through to keep kids safe (imo). In many cases, parents were given too many chances. It was a never ending cycle.
In regards to how my experience working at CPS relates to this case, we received a call after a child was killed under suspicious circumstances while under the care of the boyfriend. I'm trying to be vague but basically, we had no involvement with the family and had no reports on them before the incident occurred. I was the caseworker assigned and there was a young baby in the home as well. Even though the mom wasn't home when the suspicious death occurred, there was drug paraphernalia in the home and out of an abundance of caution, a decision was made by myself and my supervisor to remove the infant from the mothers care until more information could be gathered. Thankfully there was a suitable relative (somewhat distant relative but still they volunteered and you are supposed to look at family as a safety plan first) who we ran a thorough background check on that kept the baby until we could get more information. A relative ended up petitioning for custody and the family court system took it from there. when doing a risk assessment if there's a threat of immediate harm or endangerment a child must be removed. Obviously thats what happened in this case.
In terms of CPS being involved with families already and something like this happening, let's just say this is another reason i left. I could never sleep at night, always worried about kids who we didn't have enough to remove and could only go visit once or twice a week. If it's neglect, like parents on drugs, poor living conditions, children left unsupervised, etc...it is not always easy to get a court order to take children into protective custody. The parents have so many rights, and they are given court appointed attorneys that the county or state pays for to represent them at any CPS related court proceedings. It's just a very sad and broken system. With all that being said, there were plenty of people i worked with who were incompetent, going so far as to skip home visits and turn in fake reports about a home visit that never occurred just so they could leave work early, and more...it's a very difficult job and at least where I lived it seemed like they would hire anyone. I'm not sure what level of involvement CPS had in this case but this would be my worst nightmare and was one of the reasons i left.
Sorry about the long post, just trying to give some perspective from my time working at CPS. If you want to read about the ultimate disgrace I have ever heard about involving CPS, read this report on Danieal (pronounced Danielle) Kelly. It's very graphic but it shows just how bad the system can be.
http://www.phila.gov/districtattorney/pdfs/Grand_jury_DHS_new.pdf
