Several states are passing initiatives to assist Child Protective Services in bringing more children into US foster care. Foster care agencies are BEGGING for families to take in foster children. All of this is evidence that Child Protective Services is failing in its stated mission.
You see, CPS repeatedly asserts that its primary goal is family reunification. They want these children returned to their families, or so they say. And it is entirely possible, even probable, that a good number of low level investigators and case workers are perfectly in line with that goal. But they work for a system that is most definitely NOT in line with it.
You see, if CPS' primary goal is family reunification, they have failed miserably at that goal. The sad truth is that, of the 580,000 plus children in foster care in the United States at this moment, only 44% will ever be returned to their parents. That's 324,800 children who have hugged their mommies and daddies outside of the close scrutiny of a CPS caseworker for the very last time, and who will go to sleep every night for the rest of their lives thinking those mommies and daddies don't love them anymore because that's what they've been told. This despite the fact that only 3% of those parents will ever be formally charged with abuse or neglect, let alone convicted in a criminal court of law.
That's an epidemic of serious proportions. And news agencies don't want to touch it, despite the fact that unConstitutional means and illegal searches are standard operating procedures for the perpetrators of these horrible crimes.
It is also evidence that CPS is not effective in achieving what it states to be its main objective. A 44% success rate is NOT the sort of thing you brag about. It is especially shameful when the techniques employed to remove children from the home are similar to those used by Nazis and other totalitarian regimes; namely, coerced confessions, unlawful surveillance and strongarm tactics.
CPS needs to be dismantled. Short of complete elimination, it should be thoroughly investigated and the means for funding should be placed under greater scrutiny and completely reevaluated.
300,000 plus children and their parents will thank you for caring enough to bring them home.