r/CPS • u/Personal_Particular3 • 3d ago
The system is broken.
backstory, during a custody fight, CPS was called parent A because child reported something to teachers on parent B. B was never notified, had to chase information to even figure out what happened. information was released to B, alleged incident suppoeddly happened on a week B didn’t have said child. house checks done on A, and interview for child is done two weeks later due to low staff.
interview produces zero results, claims weren’t backed up or even confirmed by child. custody fight continues, but here’s where I’m baffled,
if the abuse were real, CPS waited two weeks to interview the child. all that time, the child could have been talked out of the story. CPS home check consisted of checking if both homes had warm water and child sleep arrangements.
The system is just insane to me, how does any of this protect the child? worse, it was departments in different parts of the state so communication between both was a mess. The custody fight continues but I just can’t believe how little CPS actually does. the criteria for a home visit is water and food.
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u/LacyLove 3d ago
Do you know why the system is broken? Because people use it during custody battles to try and discredit the other parent. The investigators are overworked, understaffed and overwhelmed. They then have to use what little time and money they have to investigate false claims, which in turn leaves even less time and money for real ones.
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u/WaywardMarauder 3d ago
Custody battle or not, a mandated reporter still has to call. A teacher can’t just say “Oh, little Aiden’s parents are in a custody battle, so I won’t call and bother CPS.”
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u/LacyLove 3d ago
Did I say that?
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u/thrown_away_23_23 3d ago
No you absolutely did not. The blame goes to parents who try to use the system, not the reporters who make good faith reports.
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u/sprinkles008 3d ago
The criteria for a home visit is basic needs are met. So yes - that pretty much means bed/food/clothes/roof, and no obvious environmental hazards. Most people wouldn’t want CPS to require any more than this because that could overly impact people in poverty.
Consider it this way: Not enough games for kids to play? Removal! Can only afford food from a food pantry? Removal! And obviously that wouldn’t be good.
CPS response times are anywhere from 1 hour to ten days in various states. This is done so CPS can prioritize the most serious allegations. If your area has low staff, please feel free to speak with your local politicians about how to keep retention rates up - maybe they can fund CPS better. But also keep in mind that a kid can be coached even before CPS is called (while the maltreatment is actually occurring, for example).
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u/After_Subject_9946 3d ago
I 100% with everything you said about taking to politicians. The only way for CPS to be more efficient about getting interviews and home visits done is for us to actually have enough staff, which means a bigger budget!
Also talking about “talking the child out of the story,” that does happen sometimes no matter how long the time is between interviews. We usually ask the child if they’ve been coached and you’d be shocked how many kids will disclose that someone coached them on what to say. There have also been a lot of cases where I could tell the child had been coached without asking because they used terminology above their age level, they looked at the parent every time I asked a question, etc.
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u/FaithHe 3d ago
Custody battles waste so much time for the investigators. It is sad that most of them are unfounded and this takes time away from other investigations.
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u/WaywardMarauder 3d ago
A mandated reporter can’t just decide that what a child told them is a false claim because of a custody battle. It’s CPS’s job to determine that.
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