Child Protective Services (CPS) is the name of a governmental agency in many states of the United States that responds to reports of child abuse or neglect. Some states use other names, often attempting to reflect more family-centered (as opposed to child-centered) practices, such as "Department of Children & Family Services" (DCFS). CPS is also known by the name of "Department of Social Services" (DSS) or simply "Social Services."Nationwide, there are State run agencies who are supposed to be protecting abused children in dangerous situations. Furthermore, it has become undeniable that despite many saintly foster parents, the government makes a poor parent.
Unfortunately, Child Welfare is not held accountable for the unattributable damage to children caused by removal from their families to foster care.
Foster care has fell on death ears when it comes to elected officials in New York City. They have turn a blind eye to this corruption and the damage of children and families. The public advocates office is suppose to take action against government abuse but this is not the case. Since January 2014 the new administration received 3200 complaints from people in the 5 boroughs about The Administration for Children services. My question would be why has the public advocate not held ACS and the contracted foster care agencies accountable for their actions. When you have foster care agencies committing fraud, lying and violating the parents and putting children at risk. Nothing is being done by our elected officials who took a oath and is supposed to protect the american citizens. Shame on our government for allowing this abuse to continue off the backs of poor people. Parents need support and resources not terminating their rights.
In NYC foster care system the largest targeted type of families are folks with low incomes, children on SSI and are minorities. If you even have one of those three issues, you are a target for CPS to illegally investigate you. While these things are a surefire magnet, they have been known to do illegal investigations against families if they were reported falsely with malicious intent. I am not calling for an abolishment of CPS. What I am asking for is an overhaul and restructure to bring them in line with lawful investigation practices, to maintain Constitutional RIGHTS and proper training for Agents who never had children, and psychological evaluations to find and replace the Agents who were themselves abused as Children and see abuse in every home regardless of the situation
Currently, none of this is done, and innocent families who are not guilty of anything are losing their Children based on the word of others where there is no burden of proof for Prosecution, for the sake of getting Federal Funds for tens of thousands of dollars. The few truly abused children are ending up in a system where they are worse off than where they came from, even to the extent of being killed. Also, the innocent children who are never abused are also killed. Injustice against one American is injustice against all Americans. Help us put the Justice back into Child Protective Services and get them focused on finding and saving abused children. It's time we removed them from the profitable business of tearing loving non-offending families apart. We need accountability from ACS and the contracted agencies because too many children & families are being torn apart.