Should CPS be held accountable for failing to protect children?

[Anonymous]

Say CPS gets reports of child abuse but refuse to investigate, or don't properly investigate, or fail to remove children from the home when there is clear evidence it is unsafe for the child to remain in the home, and the parents end up killing the children. Should CPS be held accountable? Who? The social workers, the supervisor, etc. How should they be held accountable? Firing, jail time, overhaul of the system, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Say CPS gets reports of child abuse but refuse to investigate, or don't properly investigate, or fail to remove children from the home when there is clear evidence it is unsafe for the child to remain in the home, and the parents end up killing the children. Should CPS be held accountable? Who? The social workers, the supervisor, etc. How should they be held accountable? Firing, jail time, overhaul of the system, etc.

I think so, but I also think that they should be criminally liable if something happens to a child that they remove from a family to place in foster care

[Anonymous]

Generally no. They don't have crystal balls, and there is a rightful emphasis on reunification in most cases. However cases involving clear physical abuse might rise to the level of criminal negligence if social workers and/or supervisors were aware of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Generally no. They don't have crystal balls, and there is a rightful emphasis on reunification in most cases. However cases involving clear physical abuse might rise to the level of criminal negligence if social workers and/or supervisors were aware of it.

OP here. I know reunification is the goal in most cases, but what about cases where it would obviously be a bad idea to return the child to their parent.

[Anonymous]

They are way too underfunded to expect them to be perfect at their jobs.

[Anonymous]

I think we’d have to properly fund and staff CPS first.

[Anonymous]

I know someone who works for CPS abs she says the guidelines leave much to be desired, resulting in investigating families for nothing and at the same time ignoring serious cases

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Say CPS gets reports of child abuse but refuse to investigate, or don't properly investigate, or fail to remove children from the home when there is clear evidence it is unsafe for the child to remain in the home, and the parents end up killing the children. Should CPS be held accountable? Who? The social workers, the supervisor, etc. How should they be held accountable? Firing, jail time, overhaul of the system, etc.

There is already a critical shortage of social workers and admins who are willing to do a brutal job, often for less than an early career teacher’s pay (all while paying off loans for a MSW). But by all means, start “holding them (personally) accountable” and watch how few you have then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Say CPS gets reports of child abuse but refuse to investigate, or don't properly investigate, or fail to remove children from the home when there is clear evidence it is unsafe for the child to remain in the home, and the parents end up killing the children. Should CPS be held accountable? Who? The social workers, the supervisor, etc. How should they be held accountable? Firing, jail time, overhaul of the system, etc.

This is a HUGE gray area and why no, they won't and can't be held accountable.

[Anonymous]

I just don't see how a social worker deserves to get jail time for the murder someone else committed. Buy without knowing the ins and outs of the system I'm going to guess that perhaps the system needs a lot of improvement and tons more in funding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Say CPS gets reports of child abuse but refuse to investigate, or don't properly investigate, or fail to remove children from the home when there is clear evidence it is unsafe for the child to remain in the home, and the parents end up killing the children. Should CPS be held accountable? Who? The social workers, the supervisor, etc. How should they be held accountable? Firing, jail time, overhaul of the system, etc.

There is already a critical shortage of social workers and admins who are willing to do a brutal job, often for less than an early career teacher’s pay (all while paying off loans for a MSW). But by all means, start “holding them (personally) accountable” and watch how few you have then.

This is a brutal career. A close family member operating as in the foster care system has had to testify multiple times in cases gone wrong. Keep in mind here- there is basically no insurance and these people are working low paying jobs out of a sense of justice and charity with highly underserved populations. It is stressful. It pays shit. You see the worst of humanity day in and day out for years, a career. Now you want to punish them too because some kid or parents who were covered and approved for 3 therapy sessions (recommended? 3x a week basically for life) had a tragedy 5 years down the line? No, you can't do that. The system itself is broken, you can't fault individual actors trying to do their best within the confines they are allowed.

[Anonymous]

They should definitely be able to better tell normal families with an occasional slap from the horrendous abuse cases. Mandatory reporters should not be told to report every single slightly suspicious thing. They need to zoom in on serious cases instead of harassing middle class parents who slapped Johnny because he was being a brat

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who works for CPS abs she says the guidelines leave much to be desired, resulting in investigating families for nothing and at the same time ignoring serious cases

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should definitely be able to better tell normal families with an occasional slap from the horrendous abuse cases. Mandatory reporters should not be told to report every single slightly suspicious thing. They need to zoom in on serious cases instead of harassing middle class parents who slapped Johnny because he was being a brat

As someone who was abused in my UMC family, I can tell you that people like you are a huge part of the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think we’d have to properly fund and staff CPS first.

As someone who was in the system and aged out, I think the first step is overhauling adoption rules.