Brooke Woodward
April 25, 2017
Professor Castillo
CRIJ1313.90L
Texas Child Protective Services
The United States is responsible for providing Child Protection, the governmental agency that each state has is called Child Protective Services (CPS). Responsibilities include investigating charges of neglect, abuse or exploitation of children. CPS in Texas has undergone many issues such as faulty investigating and lack of pay for their workers which is why I think that the current CPS in Texas is not working.
When a child has been abused or neglected and it has been reported the state gets involved. From there they will investigate the reports and essentially remove the child from their current situation where measures are taken to ensure the
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child is safe. Child protective services date way back as well as during the mid-1800 “child protection laws did not differentiate among classes of children…which removed depended children from the teeming poorhouses and placed them in large orphan asylums.” The state of New York was the first to establish in 1875 “the first society for the Prevention of Cruelty to children.” Which helped to enforce child protection laws. What is considered child abuse and neglect? “RCW26-44-020 defines abuse and neglect as injury, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, negligent treatment or maltreatment of a child by any person under circumstances which indicate the child’s health welfare, and safety is harmed.” Any form of abuse whether it be verbal or physical done to a child can be investigated by CPS if reported. There is not just one sign of child abuse, but many in combination. “The child shows sudden changes in behavior or school performance, has not received help for physical or medical problems brought to the parent’s attention, has learning problems that cannot be attributed to specific physical or psychological causes, lacks adult supervision, comes to school or other activities early and stays late and does not want to go home.” Texas as well as many other states have laws regarding child protection, their mission is “…to protect children, the elderly, and people with disabilities from abuse, neglect and exploitation by involving clients, families and the communities.” Caseworkers are the ones who decide if there are any reports against child abuse.
They are the ones who decide if there are any threats or unsafe activity towards the children in the household. When and if the caseworker decides that the child or children are not safe, that’s when they start their protective services. During the end of an investigation the caseworker makes a disposition against each and any allegation. The dispositions include “reason to believe, ruled out, unable to complete, unable to determine, administrative closure.” There are many reasons a caseworker might not assign a report for investigation some of which include “situations that do not appear to involve a reasonable likelihood that a child will be abused or neglected in the foreseeable future, allegations that are too vague or general to determine if a child has been or is likely to be abused or neglected, reports with too little information to locate the child or the child’s family or household, situations that are already under …show more content…
investigation.” Texas has undergone a few CPS issues such as the 2008 raid of the YFZ Ranch where hundreds of minors were being held and being and being prepared for underage marriage but Texas’ supreme court disagreed and released many of the children back to their families which caused an uproar and raised suspicion. Another issue that has come up regarding Texas CPS in 2004 when all the reports of deaths, rapes and pregnancies of children under their care came out. “Compared to the general population a child is four times more likely to die in the Texas foster care system.” Recently Texas legislators have been discussing a bill which could privatize Child Protective Services which does not need to happen, “…legislators are discussing bills that 1) misdiagnose what ails CPS, a lack of funding, and 2) prescribe the wrong medicine, privatization.” Matters will get worse if CPS becomes privatized, if CPS were to get properly funded most of these issues would subside. How does privatization work? “CPS still investigates child abuse. After CPS takes a case to court, however, if the court names the state as the guardian of a child, the state delegates its responsibility as guardian by contract to a nonprofit corporation.” There are so many cases which causes CPS investigators to miss their deadlines.
“Under state law, CPS must respond immediately to a report of abuse when necessary to protect a child from death or substantial bodily injury. In other cases CPS has 24 hours to respond; and in less urgent cases often those involving neglect CPS has 72 hours to respond.” CPS does not have high salaries like other government jobs do. In most cases, caseworkers quit due to the high case load and low salary pushing even more cases onto the remaining caseworkers which will eventually create a domino effect where more and more caseworkers will start to quit. Texas is also dealing with space availability. More often than not, when a case worker has to remove a child or multiple children he/she does not have a place to shelter them. “Children now regularly stay one or more nights in state office buildings or cheap hotels. Some are stuck in psychiatric hospitals because no other placement is available.” We can talk about CPS as a workplace as well. Many who work at CPS are actually not social workers like many believe. Students who graduate and plan to pursue a career in social work usually do not want to work with CPS because of its sketchy and controversial reputation. Many CPS workers currently get paid less than some of the underpaid teachers in Texas. Not only is low pay a discouraging is that they hardly get vacation time due to the case load amount. “The social work profession began within the
child welfare movement, and social workers are the most qualified for this challenging work. Make CPS a place social workers want to work, and the entire states benefits.” In conclusion I think that the current child protective services is the process of working, but is struggling financially and trying to keep workers as well as keep the children’s wellbeing number one. With the correct funding and regulations regarding their workers I can see big improvements in the future.
Not every service is capable of doing what they supposed to do. The lives of these children and families be can be taken for granted by those who don’t take their jobs seriously. If DYFS had more people who dedicated their time on their job, many situation could have been avoided. You wouldn’t want to be the reason why a child lost their life or placed in a home where the environment is worse than where they were before. DYFS can be capable of helping others, but it could also put others in danger.
and agencies designed to meet the physical, intellectual, and social-emotional needs of individuals and families.” . As a Child Protective worker, my responsibilities are to assess safety (immediate),risk (future harm), abuse and maltreatment, make a
A state that undertakes custody of a child is declaring that it can do a better job providing protection. This system is a powerful agent of support, providing positive nurturing environments that enable a child to reach his or her potential. Nonetheless, when children suffer additional abuse in the system, this government intervention should be questioned.
Social agency and the court authorizing the placement, and caregivers are responsible for the continuing monitoring to ensure that the child in placement receives adequate care and supervision (Downs, Moore and McFadden, 2009, p.275). Services for children in foster care are a teamwork effort of the different parties involved (Downs, Moore and McFadden, 2009). Unfortunately in Antowne’s situation the agency and the court system failed him because although he was removed from his mother, the abuse and neglect continued. The systems involved did not provide the safety net Antwone needed.
Each of the 50 states has an agency responsible for protecting children. In Los Angeles, California, this agency is known as DCFS (Department of Children and Families Services). The Los Angeles Department of Family Services has recently made the news after a class action law suites ranging in the millions has left locals wondering whether or not DCFS is actually protecting the children they take into their custody. With the increasing number of cases each day, concerns are being raised as to whether the rights of parents are being violated. It is common knowledge that there have been serious accuracy flaws resulting in the wrongful termination of many parents’ rights. However, little is being done to fix these errors and give parents their children back. Child Protective Services is the most needed yet unwanted Agencies in each state. While a system is necessary to intervene and protect children who are abused, there are speculation on the procedures and policy the state uses. While interventi...
Children’s Social Care work with parents and other agencies to assess the stages of child protection procedures, record information and make decisions on taking further action. The police work closely with this agency to act on decisions made such as removing a child or the person responsible for the abuse while gathering evidence and carrying out investigations regarding the matter. Health professionals have a duty to report suspected non-accidental injuries to Children’s Social Care and examine children to give evidence of abuse. The Children Act 2004 requires every local area to have a Local Safeguarding Children Board to oversee the work of agencies involved in child protection, place policies and procedures for people who work with children and conduct serious case reviews when children die as a result of abuse. The NSPCC is the only charitable organisation that has the statutory power to take action when children are at risk of abuse. They provide services to support families and children and two helplines for children in danger and adults who are concerned for a child’s safety. They also raise awareness of abuse, share their expertise with other professionals and work to influence the law and social policy protect children more efficiently. There are also acts in place to protect children such as the Children Act 1989, the United Nations Convention On The Rights Of The Child 1989, the Education Act 2002 and the Children Act 2004. Legal framework from such acts are provided for Every Child Matters which requires early years practitioners to demonstrate that they provide activities that help children protect themselves. This may be through books and group talks known as “Stranger
All the benefits provided by CAPTA are important, but one highly important benefit CAPTA provides for infants and children is that all allegations of child abuse and neglect must be investigated to ensure the well-being and safety of every infant and child. After allegations of child abuse and neglect are reported an investigation is the next step in protecting every child. Another benefit of CAPTA for infants and children is that if the heart wrenching experience of child abuse or neglect occur the state CPS systems and private organizations are trained and prepared to provide treatment for the child. In a like manner, CAPTA provides benefits for women and families by providing support and services that address domestic violence. CAPTA also promotes family involvement in all aspects of a CPS case involving child abuse and neglect. The states benefit by the foundation that CAPTA sets regarding the functioning of CPS systems and in a financial aspect. CAPTA provides funding to “Support child abuse and prevention activities by funding discretionary grants to states and/or public or private agencies or organizations” (California Department of Child Services, 2011). Everyone benefits when CPS systems according to CAPTA policies, “The act’s sponsors meant to feature three important themes of CPS reform in these amendments, including encouraging the involvement of family members in a child welfare agency’s decisions process; promoting and enhancing COS collaboration with domestic violence services and substance abuse treatment programs, and increasing the use of differential response by states through the use of noninvestigative/nonaccusatory approach to responding to reports of child maltreatment” (American Bar Association,
Instead of pursuing their goals, they tear families apart and destroy them completely. CPS organizations do little or nothing to assist in maintaining the unity of families. By law, CPS workers are allowed to come into your home without warning and terrorize your family without...
Some parents in the world do not discipline their children and do not care what the children. All they care about are them selves. At that point the social workers take the child and put them in foster homes with complete and total strangers. Some companies just put kids with people who do not care about the children just what they get paid. They just let the children go off and do what they want and do not supervise the children’s activities. The social workers should do more thoroughly background checks. There should also be more supervision in foster homes instead of little supervision, and the workers should visit the home and the children more often than they actually do.
Throughout history, the government has been in charge of creating and regulating different types of laws. Many of the laws have been created to protect those who reside in that country and therefore are expected to be followed. However, not everyone believes that they should follow the law and in return decide to either ignore them or rebel against them. When members of society violate the simple law that has been set in place to protect those who do not possess the capability to protect themselves, it becomes a dangerous and horrendous tragedy. One of the most horrific laws that people violate is that of child abuse and neglect.
When children are hurt physically, emotionally, or sexually it is known to be child abuse. Children are known to be neglected when they are not getting the proper attention needed for children. When children are neglected or abused in any way it is the responsibility of others to report such acts to the authorities as to what they have witnessed first-hand or signs of abuse or neglect seen after the fact, these people who reports such acts are known as third parties. The proper authorities to report child abuse or neglect is called Child Protected Services also known as Child Welfare. After the abuse or neglect is reported the proper authorities will then investigate to see if the abuse or neglect is legit or fraudulent (Sedlak, 2001).
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) helps our communities guard our children, disabled and our elderly from abuse and neglect. This agency also helps protect the children in foster homes or any 24-hour child facility. The consultants provide intense investigations and prevention programs before placing a child in a new home. Texas Child Protective Services, also known as CPS, has five main goals which include: investigating reports of abuse and neglect of children, providing services to children and families in their home, placing children in foster care, providing services to help youth in foster care make a transition to adulthood, and placing our childr...
Child Advocates works with court appointed volunteers to break the cycle of child abuse. Child Advocates works with people of all races and social classes. Since abuse and neglect is not specific to a particular race, gender, age, or social class. Each court appointed advocated is assigned one case at a time. A child advocate is guided by their advocacy coordinator which enables them to perform a thorough investigation of the case.
Child abuse in the United States is a growing epidemic. Every year the number of reported cases, and missing children go up. This is caused mostly by lack of education about the different types of child abuse, and the signs that go along with it. Communities need to provide more resources to better educate the public about the types of abuse, and the signs that go along with it. Child abuse and neglect can be lessened by more resources, more education and to reach out to others.
Child abuse is a very serious problem that continues to happen all over the world. The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, defines child abuse as a failure to act as a parent or caregiver which results in physical/emotional harm, sexual abuse, and in some cases death. There are many different types of child abuse such as emotional, physical, neglect, and sexual. With each type of abuse there are warning signs you can spot before it is too late. When a child is abused there is a huge possibility that it can cause them to have many long term effects.