The Need for Child Protective Services Reform in the United States
Litigation is Our Only Hope for True Child Protective and Child Welfare Reform
While there have been attempts at child protective reform in recent years, there has not been any meaningful child protective reform in the United States, but there needs to be. One of the biggest problems with Child Protective Services (CPS) is that child protective caseworkers spend too much time investigating false allegations and therefore are unable to investigate real cases of neglect and abuse. So we have the anomaly of innocent parents rotting in prison, while children still die from abuse.
The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta claims that there are three million child abuse reports made every year. Two million of those reports are without merit. What has created this situation?
Mandated reporting is the primary culprit. Doctors, nurses, teachers, psychiatrists and numerous other professions are required by law to report any suspicions of child abuse and neglect. If they don't, they can be charged with a felony and go to jail. So to protect themselves, mandated reporters report things that they wouldn't report if the threat of jail wasn't hanging over their heads.
We need to get rid of mandated reporting. We need to trust doctors, nurses and teachers to make the right decision when they suspect abuse and neglect. This would cut down on the number of baseless child abuse reports and give Child Protective Services the time and money to concentrate on real abuse.
Currently, filing false abuse reports is only a misdemeanor in most states, and it is not taken very seriously. It needs to be made a felony. I listened to a guy on talk radio the other day who has had twelve false reports of child abuse made against him. Even CPS admits that he is innocent, but they claim they cannot do anything about it. Someone has it in for this guy and is using CPS to retaliate against him. If it was a felony to file false reports of child abuse, the number of false reports would diminish and CPS would have the time and resources to investigate real abuse.
There are several other areas where Child Protective Services needs reform. If CPS investigates you, they have sixty days to issue a report. CPS can find that the allegations are unfounded or they can indicate them, which means that they believe there is some credible evidence to substantiate the report.
If a report in indicated, your name automatically goes on the State Central Register for Child Abuse and Neglect, even before you have a trial or hearing. (Sex offenders, on the other hand, aren't placed on the sex offender registry until after their trial.) People who have been accused of child abuse or neglect are punished even before they can prove their innocence because employers use the register to check on prospective employees.
In Missouri, several laws concerning Child Protective Services have been successfully challenged. The standard of proof for indicating a report has been raised from some credible evidence to a preponderance of the evidence, and your name cannot be placed on the registry unless you have been given due process through a trial or fair hearing.
Unfortunately, lawmakers will not bring about Child Protective reforms. Any attempt to reform either Child Protective or Family Court laws are seen as being soft on child abuse, rather than an attempt to protect innocent people, give people their due process rights and allow CPS the time to investigate real abuse claims rather than bogus ones.
CPS reform will take place in the courts, not the legislatures, just as it has already to some degree in Missouri. Parents who are falsely accused must challenge the laws and, if necessary, bring law suits against those who trespass on their constitutional rights.
While I dislike the idea of litigation, our politicians have cut off all other options. Litigation is our only hope for real child protective reform.
Published by Dan Weaver
I am an antiquarian bookseller and free-lance writer. I have a bachelor's and master's degree in Literature. View profile
- Eight Services Schools Offer to Handicapped Children
- Encountering the Child Snatchers, AKA, Child Protective Services
- Helping Your Child Eat Healthy Foods
- Money, Child Protective Services, and Greed
- My Child Had Bells Palsy
- How to Prepare Your Child for a Visit with Santa
- Will You Have to Pay Child Support If Your Child is Emancipated?
- Falsely reporting child abuse and neglect should be a felony not a misdemeanor.
- CPS investigators waste valuable time and resources investigating false reports.
- Mandated reporting laws need to change.
29 Comments
Post a CommentHello, I am hoping that perhaps you can refer me to some agency or person who may be able to help my family. We have issues with the Divison of Family Services, who have taken my grandchildren into protective custody. It is fairly complicated and not easy to give voice to our complaints in just a few minutes, but from the most objective and rational standpoint I am capable of, I believe there have been NUMEROUS injustices and violations of human and civil rights that have taken place since our involvement with this agency began.
We are not a perfect family. I, myself, have an extensive criminal history, though nothing for the last twelve years, since my release from all supervision in 2000. There has been some history of drug use and abuse with various members of our family. We are very low income and possess very limited resources with which to hire an attorney. I believe these are the primary reasons I have been unable to find anyone willing to help or get involved. I am just trying to find someone who would be willing to at least take the time to hear all the details of this without making a quick judgment based on the negative details I put out front. For I honestly believe not only would we have grounds for perhaps several legitimate lawsuits involving medical malpractice and violations of rights, but even more importantly my family would be reunited and the injustice that has been done to the children corrected.
I realize you do not give legal advice, but I am hoping you can at least refer me to some regulatory agency or SOMEONE who would be willing to help without demanding thousands of dollars up front for their services.
I will try to give you a brief, but incomplete description of some of the basics of what has transpired thus far. If nothing else, perhaps you can tell me what I am doing wrong, that I have not been able to generate any interest from anyone in a position to help us.
On May 24th, 2010, one of my grandchildren was taken into protective custody. I asked to be considered for kinship care of the child. A home study was done over several months time, during which time the person doing the study changed. The initial worker had stated that in spite of my criminal history, she believed she would be able to get my husband and myself approved with no problem. Then, we heard nothing for a period of several weeks, in spite of numerous phone calls and inquiries into what was happening. Finally, we received a message from a new worker, stating that the previous worker had taken a new position within the agency and would no longer be working with us. When the new worker, a very young girl, arrived at our house for the first time, as I was walking with her up the driveway to enter our house, she said she would tell me up front that I would not be approved by the agency because of my criminal history. I told her they were already aware of my history and that I had been told it would not deter me because of how old it was and that I had had no trouble for such a great number of years. However, I could tell before we even began that she was dead set against me before she even gave me a chance. I was correct. Throughout the remainder of the study, she repeatedly made it clear we would not be approved, stating on one occasion that we might as well not go thru the trouble of completing the study because we would not be approved.
At that time, we had another two of our grandchildren in our care full time. In the end, the reason the worker gave us for our rejection was that we had such a good thing going in the care of the two children currently in our home that she was unwilling to mess with the family dynamics already in place. That we were doing a great job with the children already in our home and she was concerned that adding the third would only create problems. I was very upset and in the end had words with the worker, during which she called me a liar, when in fact, it was she who was being dishonest, not me. Initially, I was set to take action against her decision and file a grievance against the conduct of the worker herself. However, my primary concern was in getting my grandchild out of foster care and did not want to hold up any proceedings that would accomplish that, so I did not file an appeal as the child's maternal great grandmother decided to battle for custody (which she eventually won), and I did not want to slow that down with my appeal. However, this is not the case in point, although there were numerous incidents involved in that case that I felt a moral obligation to take issue with to prevent future occurances for other families, but I let it go. I mention this case because it is relevant to the current issue, which involves the other two grandchildren that were in our care at the time.
The mother of those two children is my younger daughter, Jennifer. Jennifer had been having a very difficult time of it emotional and financially for quite some time. A few years back, she basically had a child stolen and sold. That is another case in which HUMAN rights were definitely violated and is a whole and complete other story, though unfortunately I believe the time to act on it has past-- in spite of the great and serious injustices that occurred which will forever alter the lives of everyone involved. Since that time, my daughter has understandably had some rather serious emotional issues which affected her ability as a parent, which is why her remaining two children were living in our home, rather than with their mother. She had such trust issues with the Department of Family Services, she was absolutely incapable of asking for their help, or the help of any official agency. I can tell you that I witnessed first hand the things that had transpired, creating her intense distrust and I cannot fault her one bit for it.
Jennifer had become addicted to pain pills when she discovered she was pregnant once again. She went to her obstitrician and asked that he detox her from the opiates as soon as she discovered she was pregnant. He refused, advising that instead of detoxing, she needed to get on the methadone program because it was too dangerous to detox from opiates while pregnant. She followed his advice, overcoming extreme financial difficulties and transportation issues to remain on the program thru the birth of her child. She was in absolute terror that her child would be taken from her because of her opiate addiction, but the doctor advised her that being on the methadone program was the best way to prevent any problem of this nature. When the child was born addicted to methadone, it naturally put a hit on her with Family Services, Child Protection Division.
As soon as the child was born, she could no longer participate in the methadone program because she owed a huge bill for the time during her pregnancy, as they cannot refuse her while pregnant. However, after birth has occurred, all bets are off. At that time, its pay up or else. So, both she and the child were immediately forced to withdraw cold turkey. In all of my life, I have never witnessed the degree of patience she demonstrated with that child throughout that horrible time. Although incredibly sick herself, she thought only of the infant and paced the floor with her constantly, soothing her by any means she could think of, never once losing patience or getting angry or frustrated with the constant agonized screaming. Even though Family Services had opened a case on her and stepped in to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the child, they did NOTHING to help or intervene in any way. They ordered that the child be evaluated by First Steps (which she did not qualify for) and for weekly home visits from a nurse, who did nothing but go thru the motions of weighing and monitoring the physical condition of the baby. In my opinion, DFS absolutely dropped the ball on this one. Jennifer should have been provided with some type of assistance with the withdrawals of both her and the child, even if it was only a sitter to spell her at times from caring for the child while she was so very ill herself. Nothing of the sort happened. The nurse warned her that she would have a difficult time of it and would probably feel like "throwing the baby against the wall" at times, but offered no solutions or assistance.
Okay, I'm not being very brief, so I will try to skip to the most relevant factors here. Jennifer's oldest child, Karma, had lived with me since birth (about 10 years), though for most of that time, so did her mother. However, she had been the primary care giver for her son, Treu (3 yrs) for his entire life, with the exception of the few months he had stayed with us when our home study involving the aforementioned grandchild had been done. She and her son were extremely close. For about three years, she had been involved in a bad relationship with a guy who was just released from prison when her latest child was born. Although he claimed the child as his own, he did not accept her and tormented Jennifer over the fact that the child had been conceived while he was in prison, being both verbally and physically abusive at times. He did not work and did very little, if anything, to support the family. They were having trouble finding a place to live, which is how her son, Treu, initally came to stay with us and his sister, Karma. When the latest child, Alyric, was born, they were staying with Jennifer's father, who has severe psychological problems. Once they got settled in there, Treu went home to live with his mother and step father.
Last November, Karma, the oldest child, that had always lived with me, developed a fever. My husband immediately took her to the walk in clinic, where they diagnosed her with the flu and sent her home. A day or so later, we had her mother take her back to the walk in clinic, as she still had a fever and was unable to hold anything down in her stomach. Again, she was sent home to drink fluids and rest. The following day, still with a high fever and now experiencing pain in her arm, we had her mother take her back to the Emergency Room. Again, they diagnosed her with the flu and sent her home with a prescription for antibiotics, saying they found nothing wrong with the arm. Her mother, accidently forgot to leave her prescription when she brought her home and later called to say she would bring it the following day. The following day, I, myself took her back to the Emergency Room for the third time that week, knowing in my heart it was something more than the flu wrong with her and determined to find out what it was. At the ER they performed an ultrasound on her arm and ran several other tests, but even though the child had a temperature of 103 degrees for the sixth day now, they again sent her home without a conclusive diagnosis.
By morning, she started developing red blotches on her extremities that were hot to the touch. I had seen something similar before that involved a life threatening bacterial blood infection and I was very concerned that we obtain a diagnosis . My husband took her to a doctor she had seen previously and his Physician's Assistant immediately diagnosed her with some sort of blood infection and sent her by ambulance to St. John's Hospital in Springfield. My husband met her at the ER and told them he had the authority to consent for her treatment as she was in our custody. Later it was determined that she had a MRSA infection that had mograted into her blood stream causing pulmonary edima and a whole host of other problems. As their testing became more invasive, the hospital required documentation that we could legally consent to her treatment, which we did not possess. They said the notorized statement we had typed up and her mother had signed was useless and required that her mother be present to give consent. Deeply involved with the brand new baby and the problematic relationship issues she was currently having, she was not immediately available and it took several hours to locate her and get her to the hospital. At that time, she stated her desire to give my husband and myself custodial control over Karma, enabling us to consent to any treatment she would need. The hospital apparently contacted DFS (Division of Family Services), stating that Jennifer expressed a desire to grant us legal custody, and was informed that that was something that would have to be done in court and that presently, she would have to be present herself to consent to Karma's treatment. The hospital staff then informed Jennifer that she needed to stay at the hospital, not leaving for more than fifteen or twenty minutes at a time, in case she was urgently needed. In spite of the difficulties that presented her, Jennifer complied to the best of her ability, demonstrating a great degree of care and concern for her child.
After Karma had been hospitalized about a week, our home caught fire due to faulty wiring rendering it uninhabitable. Heavily involved in animal rescue, I had been fostering approximately forty cats and kittens for a local rescue. With 25 acres and a large barn and stable, we had plenty of room to house the cats in specially designed indoor/outdoor pens. However, the fire brought on disaster, leaving us virtually homeless overnight with this great number of animals in my care. With no place to go, it was decided that upon her release from the hospital Karma would go stay with her "dad" in Carthage, which was something she had been wanting to do very much for quite some time, as she had a cousin who also lived there that she was very close with. We did not immediately inform Karma of the decision. Jennifer had been staying in Springfield with her boyfriend's mom, where they were planning to live for the time being.
Around this time, Jennifer was having a lot of problems in her relationship. Her boyfriend was running around with other girls and sending her pornographic pictures to prove it, taunting her because of her infidelity while he was in prison. Extremely hurt by the things going on and naturally, at times even distracted from Karma, Jennifer was truly almost at her breaking point. In Bolivar, DFS was hounding her to present them with a home plan, which she just did not have at the monent, and kept insisting she meet with them in Bolivar, a town about 30 miles outside of Springfield, even though she was now living in Springfield. Without transportation, she had had a difficult time even making doctor's appointments for the baby, let alone travel out of town. (It was only when DFS threatened her with taking her children if she missed one more appointment that she was informed of transportation that was provided to medicaid recipients who were without a ride. She did not miss another appointment after that, but she was still having a great deal of difficulty with transportation.) She kept putting off the worker in Bolivar, in part just not wanting to deal with it and in part because she had no answers regarding a home plan, especially one in Bolivar, and in part due to lack of transportation. She was emotionally and physically exhausted. A family friend, posing as Jennifer's mother (me) called the hospital and spoke to a nurse, informing her that Jennifer NEEDED some rest herself and that she was coming to pick her up and take her home to see to it that she got some. One nurse in particular had been especially difficult for Jennifer to deal with, complaining that Jennifer stayed gone too long to shower, went out to smoke too often, etc., and it happened to be this nurse that the friend spoke with. The nurse asked if there was someone who could come stay at the hospital in Jennifer's place and the friend said there wasn't, but that she was sure Karma would be perfectly okay in their capable hands and that she did not expect to find that Jennifer had suffered any repercussions for going home to get some rest because of it.
Upon her return the following morning to the hospital, Jennifer found that a sitter had been assigned to sit with her daughter in the room, as though she was incapable of providing the familial care that Karma needed. While it had been difficult for Jennifer to be at the hospital (and I was overwhelmingly tied up dealing with my animal situation), I still saw it as a very positive thing, for I was witnessing mother and daughter bond again--up until that time. The sitter was quite cool in her attitude toward Jennifer, making her feel uncomfortable with her daughter and she was very upset that their alone time had been intruded upon, as well as put out that the nurse had requested a constant sitter for Karma, leaving Jennifer feeling inadequate. The interaction between her and the nurse was anything but positive. Enjoying the attention as she began to feel much better, Karma picked up on this and started playing it, making remarks like, "I don't get many presents at Christmas because we're poor" etc., although that was strictly not true. To be honest, I cannot definitively say what prompted her behavior, although I would guess it was her old resentment of her mother for not being there as she wanted her and because she wanted to go stay with her cousin in Carthage, that she really began playing on the nurse and sitter's sympathies. When I went to visit, I was shocked to find Karma behaving quite cold toward me and I could not for the life of me figure out what was going on. We had always been very close and I was utterly baffled by her behavior. It was only later, as I read the reports that I realized she had thrown herself into a role and was playing it to the hilt. At the time, I just thought she was mad because I was so busy with the animal situation and that she felt I was putting them before her.
About a week before Karma was released from the hospital, I talked Jennifer into contacting Isabella's House, an agency in Springfield that helped families out in times of need such as Jennifer was having. Keeping a newborn infant and a three year old in a hospital room would be difficult for anyone and it was especially so for Jennifer during this time, with her boyfriend running around on her and fighting with her constantly. At Isabella's House, they take children into their care for a period of several days at a time, providing them with care and nurturing during times of difficulty. It is a DFS approved agancy. Although she had serous reservations about being separated from her children, she agreed to do it as her DFS worker was demanding that she find employment and a stable home environment, and this would free her up to consentrate on finding a job. She regularly visited the children and used her time wisely as she could.
On the day that Karma was to be released from the hospital, my husband went to see Karma off, as she would be going to Carthage. When he arrived, he was informed that the children were being taken into protective custody by Polk County DFS and that he needed to inform their mother of this. A Polk County social service worker went to Greene County and took the two children at Isabella's House, informing them not to give Jennifer any information. They allowed Karma to go ahead and stay with the Carthage "cousin" even though they were not related in any manner, without a home study or anything of the kind that we are aware of. Of course we did not take issue with this, relieved that at least she would be spared foster care with complete strangers. When we met with the Bolivar DFS workers the following day, my husband, myself, and Jennifer and we asked about kinship care for the other two and why that had not been considered, especially in light of the previous home study that had been done with them in our home, they would only say it was something that could be looked into at a later time. When pressed for a reason that the children had been taken into custody, the worker stated that the children's lives were in danger due to serious, life threatening health considerations due to Karma's illness and the fact that Treu had not been to see a dentist and had a number of cavities and that the baby had been born addicted to methadone. It was Jennifer, herself, who had directed attention to Treu's dental problems when she asked the worker at Isabella's House if they knew of anyone who could help her with getting him into a dentist.
I was positively livid, for I knew first hand what had prompted them to take the children into custody. I had been staying in Springfield with the friend who had called the hospital posing as me, and Jennifer had been staying there with me while not at the hospital as they were allowing her to use one of their vehicles to job search. An appointment had been scheduled for Jennifer to meet with the Bolivar DFS worker regarding her home plan, but on the day it was to happen my van broke down almost as soon as we left town and she was unable to get there in time. Utterly panicked by missing the appointment, I called the worker myself once we got back to where we were staying and told her what had happened. She said she believed Jennifer was just avoiding her and that she had been for quite some time. I told her that while Jennifer may indeed have been avoiding her and for what I believed was fairly good reason, that was not why she had missed the appointment, as I was the one attempting to drive her there. I then explained to the worker about the child that had been stolen and sold, the false allegations made against Jennifer then that she was unaware that there was a time frame in which she was able to refute them, and how due to her financial limitations and the child's father's family's ability to pay and pay, that the child had been taken from her for no good reason by deceptive DFS workers and a crooked child advocate who told her straight up that if she didn't get paid, Jennifer would not get her daughter, and about the police officer who refused to even take a written statement from us when the child was kidnapped from her mother because of allegations of drug use that were not true. I tearfully bared all to the worker, explaining Jennifer's intense fear of DFS's involvement with her children because of all the dishonest things that had happened to us in the past regarding a similar situation and the worker listened sympathetically as I told the whole story and commented appropriately right up to the end. Then her voice changed from sympathetic to cold and she snapped, "That was then and this is now!" She said I was to have Jennifer come in the following day at the same time and that "if it was her child being threatened, nothing would stop her from getting there" and that she expected nothing less from Jennifer. That evening, Jennifer secured not one, but two rides to Bolivar for the appointment the following day. Both my husband and the friend whose house we were staying agreed to take her, my husband being the standby. However, when it came time to leave for the appointment, the keys had mysteriously vanished to the friend's vehicle and no amount of searching produced them. When my husband was called upon, we found he was at that very moment at a mechanic shop having the front end worked on due to a serious safety issue that had been revealed only upon inspection that morning. Near hysterical with fear for her children, Jennifer began to hitch hike the 30 miles to Bolivar, only to get there about ten minutes too late. I had even arranged with the local cab company to meet her on the edge of town and take her to the appointment on credit! Jennifer cried herself to sleep that night. The next morning, when she called the worker to try to reschedule one more time, the worker was pleasant and told her just to come in when she could get there. That was the day they took the kids.
When we had our meeting with the workers the next day, after learning they had taken the children, I will honestly tell you it took every ounce of fortitude and good sense I have ever possessed to not get violent. They had blatently lied to the judge for the protection order, as they knew we were no longer residents of Polk County in the first place.
I know I wasn't brief and I apologize. I also know I have left a lot out. My daughter has since pretty well gone to pieces. She is afraid to even try to get her kids back and she is more fragile than ever. To top it all off, when I advised her to request an attorney in court after someone else had talked her into proceeding pro se, the judge said he was going to deny her an attorney when the juvenile officer brought his attention to the pro se statement. When I tried to explain to the judge that a nut had talked her into such a thing, he shut me up before I could get a sentence out. The the guardian ad litem asked the judge to recess for a minute while he took the parent's in for a powwow, at which time he told my daughter if she fought this he would recommend against her and she would never get her kids back, so she agreed to just follow along with whatever they said.
Finally, last summer my daughter and the kids and my husband and myself and my daughter's father all went to the lake swimming. All of us grandparents are prescribed narcotics for pain for various reasons, such as degenerative disk disease, having a leg smashed off, etc. On that day, we each only brought what medications were needed for the day, keeping them in the ice cooler. We ended up leaving early, not thinking about the meds we had taken and leaving my daughter's cooler with her when we left. That night, as she was attempting to return them, the vehicle she was in was pulled over in Bolivar and searched and she was searched and when they found our medications, even though still in the proper containers, they took her to jail and charged her with felony drug possession. Unable to hire a proper attorney, the public defenders that have been assigned to her have all instructed her to plead guilty to two counts of possession. I told her not to accept, infuriated by the whole ordeal as she had done nothing wrong! They have postponed and postponed. She had a hearing on the 17th for late morning. However, we discovered the night before that she had a warrant here in Springfield over a municipal fine she had not paid, so on the morning of the 17th, she contacted her attorney's assistant and said she was going to appear here and then fly down to Bolivar to appear there and she would try to be on time, but felt she needed to get the warrant here cleared up. She was 10 minutes late for her hearing in Bolivar. The judge revoked her ten thousand dollar bond she has been out on for a year, setting her bail now at forty thousand dollars! (Of course it is designed for force a guilty plea out of her, which she is caving in to). And get this: the judge is the same judge who presides over her children's case!
For months, Jennifer has lost hope. I have feared for her very life. She cries daily over her children. She hasn't even seen them because of the pain and due to the fact that even though it was not court ordered, the DFS worker has required that she take a hair follicle drug test before she can see them. After months of talking to her, trying to give her courage and hope, the very day before she went to jail, on her own she took the initiative to set up another meeting with DFS and take care of her municipal warrant and make it to court in Bolivar on her own. And the first positive steps she has taken in months were rewarded with her incarceration. It's almost more than I can take as a mother to watch this. She doesn't know how to ask for help or even who to turn to. I am right in the middle of my own issues, having recently lost everything that mattered anything to me, so I am little help, I have no income and my husband has left me, in part due to some of the allegations that have been made against us, though he continues to visit the two younger grandchildren regularly. I have been so incredibly angry I have been afraid to try to see them until I finally had to admit it was not fair to the kids. Yet I have yet been unable to get a visit arranged. DFS has destroyed my family. I have tried to just go on but it is unbelievably difficult to watch my daughter suffer, even though we don't seem able to get along any more. She tends to blame me and my past, even though she doesn't want to.
Please, if there is any help in the world for this child and her children, please send it their way. I wish you could witness the love they have for each other and know of the destruction this bullsh-- "protective custody has wreaked in all our lives. Someone needs to protect the children from the state of Missouri because those people are abusing their authority and allowing petty little small town attitudes to rule their judgments and it is just wrong. Yet we are utterly powerless to stop them or defend ourselves against them. If someone would just look into what they are doing here, I believe they would find case after case after case where the children were taken for no good or valid reason, but where the parent's lacked the resources or knowledge to defend themselves and their children. The workers receive bonuses for every child that is adopted out. Please, God, help us.
Sincerely,
Jeanette Clinton
CPS are desperate money-hungry little spoiled princesses that enjoy destroying families and repeating a generation of misery for the young and innocent. My baby was born one month premature due to there harrassment, stress, and BULL... Two oldest kids were taken away since they have the power to do what they want and say what they want... but do they look at income? employment? education? NOOO!! They look at the parents age and basically if your well off living without the food-stamps and HUD that's provided mostly to the illegal lazy immigrants, your a bad parent. LOL I'm not giving up just now they have worked on my last nerve.
I've been cooperative enough to follow there stupid plan, and now my oldest is confused of why she can't come back home. CPS loves to play with fire and since they have there own attorneys they think they will be safe and covered up in court, NOT me NOT this parent I WILL FIGHT this time I'M NOT GETTING WALKED ON NO MORE AND I WILL MAKE SU
I too had my two children taken by cps. I have a son with a violent temper and behavior problems. He did not like the rules in our home so he lied to the counslor at school so he would not have to live at home. He figured he would get to choose where he would live. It has been 4 months now of jumping through hoops trying to get my children home and still nothing. My son has admitted to lying and begs to come home and still no one will listen. This has cost me and my family so much. The system is so broken and is doing more damage than good.
yes there needs to be reform asap but what do you do when there is abuse and mother has been covicted of dealing using and giving drugs to babies cps is right down set on giving the kids back no matter what what is it going to take kids deaths?
I live in canton ohio I have 2 kids my kids are in foster care Im looking for me a god fighting attorney we have to stop cps & family court I have a public defender on my case he is no help to me or my 2 kids the case worker she way too much my kids are suffering in foster we have all have to come together I would like for anyone in ohio to contact me my e-mail is kindnessohio33@yahoo.com
http://cfsreform.blogspot.com/
I'd have to say we definately need reform
im sure cps is the same everywhere and that is injustice no matter how yow you look at it .. my daughter is fighting to get her kids back, her now ex filed assault charges on her, she went to jail, he got the kids through cps in collin county, texas. he got 3rd dwi, 2 months later beat her pretty good, police took pictures .never and they never arrested him. he has even sexually abused her. during the divorce and the court procedings she never got to see the judge, the judge gave her ex guns in the divorce settlement and he is a felon but then he has a lot of money, he owes her spousal support and does not pay, as for a cps goes this tells methat the whole justice system needs to be over hauled and some of the crooked lawyers and judges do a little pen duty... I THOUGHT CHILd TRAFFICING WAS ILLEGAL. we the people gat do it. part of the problem is if you lye your good,if you tell the truth your a drunk, a druggy, or just unfit. where does cps get off giving a child to a man that has se
we have 3 kids we live in ohio and the caseworker took our kids just here say so we move .and were still rying to get them back all you can do is just pray for now an maybe god can anserw to us . please email at wilsontasha99@yahoo.com thank you so much for rthis.
Lucy, check with www.fightcps.com.
Please help us email me here if you can help.
imshirley3747@yahoo.com