I wanted to make a difference.
I wanted to advocate for children who hadn’t ever known unconditional love.
I wanted to help prevent and stop child abuse and neglect in our society.
I wanted to be a CPS (also known as Children’s Protective Services) caseworker. And I did become one.
Shortly after my college graduation, with my bachelor’s degree in social work, I was offered a job as a caseworker with CPS. I knew that the system wasn’t perfect, I had seen foster kids go through several caseworkers in one year. I vowed to not be “that” caseworker that quit after just a few months.
But I did. Just about 6 months after my hire date, I accepted a job with significantly less pay and odd hours, just so I could get out that environment.
Even though I wasn’t there too long, I learned a lot about the system, humanity, and life in general. Here are some things I learned as a CPS caseworker.
1. Thousands of foster children are waiting to be adopted.
Actually, I knew this one before I became a caseworker, as most people are aware of this. However, my eyes were truly opened at how many children desperately want (and some don’t “desperately want” but do need) a home to call their own.
Sadly, many children will eventually “age out” of the system. Statistically, it is very rare for a child over the age of 3 (or even younger) to be adopted, especially if they have any type of special needs. Minority children especially have a very difficult time being adopted. Sibling groups have a harder time finding homes as well.
This is only my opinion, but I feel that CPS needs to do more to help find loving homes for these children. They do try, of course, but there is some much more they could do. They could do presentations at churches (not putting the kids on display, but simply educating potential parents), advertise more through various media, and simply create more awareness of this issue. As a taxpayer, I would definitely support spending thousands of tax dollars to hire workers whose sole responsibility was to create adoption awareness and help recruit adoptive parents.. Even if just a few children find loving supportive families, the money would be well spent. (I do realize that it has been several years since I’ve been a worker, and it might have changed, however, I have not seen much adoption awareness. So if they are working harder, I haven’t seen it.)
If you have ever thought about adoption, I highly encourage you to call your local office (it might not be called CPS, it has different names in different states) and ask about the adoption process. If you are from Texas visit the website here. If you are from Oklahoma or Another site to check out is www.adoptuskids.org. Here is a quote from an adoptive parent off the website:
Anyone who is considering adopting a child… Follow your heart. Don’t be afraid of the unknown. LIFE is unknown. Happily Ever After’ is the result of our actions, and there is nothing that will make you happier than knowing that while your dreams of being a parent are being fulfilled, you are at the same time saving a child from a life of not belonging to anyone.
2. There are many inconsistencies in the system.
I was only there 6 months, but from the observations I did through my training, I noticed several inconsistencies. Granted, I did not expect it to be perfect, but I was surprised at the flaws of the system. There were some cases that seemed to be clear-cut cases of physical child abuse, but the allegations were determined to be unfounded. Then, there were other cases were children were removed when I personally felt it was unnecessary. There are numerous cases where parents have been falsely accused of abuse/neglect. False-abuse reports can be very traumatic to the family.
I also found it a little unusual that foster parents had to go through a home study, and intensive training (which I agree with for the most part), yet if they were placed in family they did not investigate as long as they had no serious prior CPS case. (Although I don’t think they need an intensive home study, the least caseworkers could do is run a criminal background check and make sure their home is livable.)
I also learned that the outcome of the case sometimes depended on who the caseworker was. There were some caseworkers that worked extra hard to help the parents reunite with their children (after a CPS removal) and had several reunifications a year. Then there were other caseworkers who had never reunited a family in the several years they worked there.
(On a side note, if you are reading this and facing false allegations of abuse, the best advice I can give you is to hire the best lawyer possible. Even if it means using all of your life savings, or taking out a loan, legal assistance is necssary to fight false allegations of abuse.)
3. Caseworkers are overworked.
There simply wasn’t enough time in the day to accomplish everything I needed to do. I ended up working late (off the clock), working through my lunch hour and was still very behind on cases and simply felt I was doing a disservice to the children and parents. I didn’t even have time to return phone calls. It would probably have taken me at least 12 hours per day to finish all of my paperwork (correctly), supervise all of the parent/child visits I had, and return all my phone calls. And, that’s not figuring in the time spent driving to visits, court, etc.
It is possible that this might have changed since working there, however, I learned quickly that the caseloads assigned to workers are too big to be efficient. That is probably the main reason why I quit. They do gradually build your caseload, and I never even had a full caseload, as I wasn’t even there six months.
4. Caseworkers aren’t perfect.
While all caseworkers must have a bachelor’s degree, not all have a degree in social work, psychology or a similar major. There were many caseworkers with degrees in business, elementary education, and Spanish. This is not to say that they cannot be a good caseworker, but there is lots of room for improvement. There is six weeks of classroom training where they learn about child development, child abuse, etc.
Also many caseworkers have never been a parent themselves. I was one of them. If I had become a caseworker after I had chlidren (which I would never do, who would want to put their family through on-call hours, etc?), I probably would have been more empathetic and better able to help my clients. I discussed this actually with a coworker, who told me to lie if a client ever asked if I had children.
5. Substitute (foster and residential) care needs significant improvement.
In the brief time that I worked there, I think I only met one foster parent that I would trust with my own children. While there are some good foster parents, I learned that many, sadly, do it for extra income, I also met children who had bounced around foster and group homes, some several times a year. How can that be healthy in any way?
Imagine you were a child ripped from the only home you knew. Your mother loved you. She taught you your ABC’s, potty trained you, read your stories, and made sure you ate your vegetables. But, she made a terrible decision and chose to abuse drugs, therefore neglecting you while in her care. You are sent to a foster home with several kids. You miss your mom terribly One day another foster child steals your cherished teddy bear that your mom gave you.
As a result, you start throwing violent temper tantrums and are disrespectful to your foster parents. CPS then determines you have severe behavioral problems (which is understandable considering the circumstances), and sends you off to a group home for therapeutic children. Now, in addition to dealing with your own mental health issues, you’re having to deal with the behavior of 7 other children with similar or worse issues. How can a situation be “therapeutic” if you are havng to defend yourself from other children all day?
I learned that these “therapeutic” group homes had staff that worked for minimum wages, and only needed a high school diploma or GED. From what I saw, I believe the success rates of Residential Treatment Centers seemed to be very low.
Tragically, there are cases where children are abused in foster care / group homes. Google “foster care abuse stories” to learn more of this intolerable behavior.
6. There is little to no help for children once they age of the system.
Now Imagine if you came from a loving home and left for college (or work) at age 18. If you needed advice on anything from car maintenance to how to wash your clothes or advice on dating, your parents might be able to help you. Children in foster care don’t have that luxury. Some foster parents want them out of the home once they stop getting the financial assistance for foster care. Naturally, most former foster children will want to search for their biological family.
While in some states foster children can attend college for free, there isn’t much support available for former foster children.
These are just a few of the things I learned about as a CPS caseworker. If you are considering employment with CPS, I don’t discourage it, as we need more loving, caring CPS caseworkers. However, do not accept it if you aren’t up for the stress and inconsistencies. CPS caseworkers have a tough job. They need all the support and encouragement they can get!
