Tragedy In Child Protective Services (CPS)

Although child abuse has had a long-standing presence throughout United States history, laws to protect children only began in the early 20th century. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), approximately 3.4 million cases of child maltreatment was reported to Child Protective Services (CPS) in 2011 involving about 6.2 million children. Of those, approximately 681,000 children, were determined to be victims. Child maltreatment has become a widespread public health issue that requires careful attention from professionals and lawmakers in order to protect the safety and health of children across the country.

The overarching goal of Child Protective Services (CPS) is to protect children from instances of future abuse or neglect. In general, CPS is responsible for investigations of allegations of abuse and neglect, to initiate child protective proceedings and place children into foster homes when needed, with each state taking a different approach in how their agency is structured and operated. In the state of New York, CPS “first obligation is to help the family with services to prevent its break-up or to reunite it if the child has already left home” (FindLaw, 2016). The protection of the child focuses “on the child in the context of the family, and recognizes the value of the family to the child” (NY Committee on Children and Families, 2001).

Each day, the safety and well-being of children across the Nation are threatened by child abuse and neglect. Intervening effectively in the lives of these children and their families are not the sole responsibility of any agency, but rather the safety and the care of the children in need. Child Protective Services (CPS) was created by law to make sure children are safe and to help families create a safe environment for their children. When investigating a report of abuse or neglect, CPS seeks active involvement from the children’s parents and other family members to help solve issues that lead to abuse or neglect. The objective of CPS is to reunify parents and children whenever possible, and if reunification is not possible, CPS will seek to

The goal of the Child Abuse and Prevention Treatment Act (CAPTA) was to improve safety, permanency, and well being of children. The drive of the act is to provide funding for prevention, identification, and treatment of child abuse and neglect. This act allows the government to research possible strategies to reduce child abuse and neglect and improve treatments for the victims (nlihc,

Human Service Role Human services professionals play a major part in helping from every angle of child abuse. Everyone from the victim, to the perpetrator, and other members of the family need help. There are many local agencies that is in place to help the struggles of child abuse. “The wide range of activities in which a human service professional might engage within a child and family services agency, there is also a wide range of practice settings where the human service professional might work, the largest being a state’s child protective services (CPS) agency” (Martin, 2014, p.82).

I completed the mandated reporter training for the state of Virginia. Being a mandated reporter means knowing what needs to be reported and how to identify signs or key phrases to look out for. The online training goes over different types of child abuse and neglect and provides information to become aware of signs pertaining to abuse or neglect. A mandated reporter would be required to report to Child Protective Services (CPS) and potentially the police, any suspicions that child abuse may have occurred or may be occurring. “All 50 states have statutes making it mandatory for professionals to report suspected or known child abuse” (Hepworth, 2013).

Nor is there any single description that captures all families in which children are victims of abuse and neglect” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children, Youth and Families Children 's Bureau, 2003). Research has recognized that there are numerous risk factors or characteristics parents or caregivers may show or have experienced that could increase the likelihood of child maltreatment, e.g., financial instability, participation in social service programs, family factors such as: age, personality, substance abuse, history of maltreatment stress, domestic violence; environmental factors and disabilities (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children, Youth and Families Children 's Bureau, 2003 & 2015). Because of the data, these commonalities are able to be precursors leading up to child abuse or maltreatment but many times it is hard to measure the severity of them and therefore they may end up undetected (U.S DHHSA

Policies are put in place for people to follow not only in the government setting but also in much smaller settings. According to Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman (2016) defines policy as a clearly stated or implicit procedure, plan, rule, or stance concerning some issue that serves to guide decision making and behavior (p. 87). In the social work field policies are put into place so that there is guarantee that all clients are treated with the same respect and are offered the resources that are available to them in their community. In this paper I will discuss policies that are in place for children that are being abused and what is in place to help them. Not only are we concerned with if these policies are working but also how are they being paid

Within this article, there are guidelines for caseworkers that work with child protective services (CPS). There are seven stages in the CPS process. The stages consist of intake, initial assessment or investigation, comprehensive family assessment, planning, service provision, evaluation of family progress, and case closure. There are several core values that CPS workers follow. One of the stages that I focused on while reading is that CPS workers work hard to guarantee the safety of children within their family and home. CPS workers have responsibilities while serving children and families. They are responsible for receiving and assessing reports of suspect child abuse and neglect. They go through a process to determine whether or not child

Public attention and their concern about child abuse has increased the relatively work of Australian Government to make strong law and legislation to prevent the child abuse. Support and services provided to prevent child abuse and support provided to help affected child. The Australian government has develop legislations and committed to develop a National child protection frame work.

According to a Child Protective Investigation, there are approximately half a million children in the U.S. foster care system, otherwise known as congregate care (group homes and institutions). Children are placed in congregate care when they are found to be in an unsafe environment. Usually children of abuse or maltreatment are placed first (Font, 2015). Out-of-home-care causes increased problems of attachment, behavioral, and psychological disorders in the developing child. Child safety is the primary goal of out-of-home-care; however, maltreatment investigations are still reported in those institutions.

“It is an affirmative duty to report all actual or suspected cases of child abuse, abandonment, or neglect.” (Florida Dept. of Education, 2015, Section 1006.061) Reference: Florida Dept. of Education. (2015). “Child Abuse Look for the Signs.” Florida Depaartment of Education. Retrieved from: http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7725/urlt/0072440-mandatoryabusereport08.pdf Florida Dept. of Education. (2015).

Foster care is not a perfect system. Many children that are put into the foster care system are separated from their siblings and put into harmful environments. These environments are supposed to be safe and give the child a chance at a better life. However, children living in group homes are not able to develop secure attachment to the people who are supposed to take care of them. Children bounce back and forth from house to house, family to family, causing them to live in an unstable environment through most (if not all of) their child hood. According to childrensrights.org, Children will be “further abused in systems that are supposed to protect them” (Newsroom/fact sheet). Some children end up back into that abusive or unsafe environment

According to Crosson-Tower (2010), children enter foster care for causes such as but not limited to physical abuse, physical neglect, sexual abuse, emotional maltreatment, domestic violence, substance abuse, and physical or mental illness of parents. In addition, she states that the death of parents can cause a child to enter foster care if no available relatives could undertake their care. Many of these causes of child maltreatment may also come from parents who are poor, uneducated, and experienced childhood trauma (Crosson-Tower, 2010). Therefore, the cycle of child abuse and neglect will continue if not provided the necessary services to prevent and treat the

Each year in America alone, an estimate of two million children, ranging from infants to teenagers go through minor or major kinds of abuse which include neglect, physical, emotional, and sexual maltreatment. According to the National American Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, neglect represented 54% of confirmed cases of child abuse, physical abuse represented 22%, sexual abuse represented 8%, emotional maltreatment represented 4%, and other forms of maltreatment represented12%. It also indicates that child abuse is far more common in single-parent families than in families where both parents are