Should Child Protective Services program be rebuilt?

For the past 2 decades there have been many failed cases within the department of Child Protective Services where many children have lost their lives due to the lack of non caring social workers.

I have researched a handful of failed cases with the wrongs that have been made and done by Child Protective Service workers.

Describe the main issues you are going to cover.

  1. Should people with a long history of mental illness become parents?

  2. Should the Department of Child Protective Services start fresh with new rules and brand new staff?

  3. Should service workers with failed cases where children have died should have to face consequences with the law?

  4. What do you think about new policies that can be made to help the CPS department to prevent future failed cases?

  5. Examples of real cases that have taken place in the Chicagoland area where children have lost their lives due to physical abuse.

Everyone that was interviewed agreed that CPS should be rebuilt or made better.

100% of students at Curie High School agreed that CPS should be rebuilt for the safety of children during times of physical abuse.

Interview Summary

The purpose of the interview was to get a little insight of what people know or have opinions about Child Protective Services. My interviewer was Evelyn Reyes, she is 17 years old. The attitude of my candidate toward the topic I chose was very true and sincere for the children. The most important question that was a little difficult to answer was question number 5 because some of the procedures that CPS goes by are great, but they don’t give much help to the child. I learned that many people are interested in this topic and want to learn more about some of the failed cases of CPS or just in general what to learn more about the system.

Personal Opinion

I agree that Child Protective Services should be rebuilt because of the failed cases that have happened. Many of the cases have gone viral such as the Gabriel Fernandez case which shows the many mistakes that were made from CPS workers for ignoring the multiple signs of abuse. Reading the cases during my research made me realize how even more broken the system is, especially the service workers not taking their job seriously which can end a child's life and it would be on their hands.

Should Child Protective Services be made better? There have been many failed cases within the department of Child Protective Services where many children have lost their lives due to living in terrible environments. The many cases that I have read and researched, the children who were involved in the cases were merely babies. From the age of being a newborn, to the age of only two years old, these children have lost their lives and have not experienced the better things the world could have given to them. In this essay I will talk, and go into detail, about some of the failed cases that Child Protective Services has been a part of.

One article that I had found while doing my research was about a recently put out audit on DCFS in the district of Cook County, Chicago regarding all of the failed cases that had been going on. During the investigation, many people found out that the social workers aren't doing their jobs according to protocol. This led to many cases failing and many children losing their lives due to the social workers not caring about their job( Cherney,Elyssa.DCFS Failures in Cook County.Chicago Tribune.7 May.2019). While reading this article it also talks about the jump of abuse/neglect cases since the early 2010s. With the jump in cases, many workers have quit their job due to the amount of cases which was too much for the social workers to handle. Many workers were forced to speed up their closing time with their cases which lead to nothing being done, especially with cases of severe abuse and neglect(Cherney,Elyssa.DCFS Failures in Cook County.Chicago Tribune.7 May.2019).

During my research I was able to read some failed cases within the department of Child Services which sickened me. One case that really stood out was the case of Carpediem Coffey, who was at the time, 7 months old when he had passed due to a terrible social worker. It wasn’t until after the child had died is when the attorney general started an investigation on this case as well as the social worker assigned to the case, is when the truth came out. The social worker assigned to the case lied about everything. Lied about interviews with the parents, made false documents and tests about the mother, lied to her supervisor, as well as lying about home visitations that were never done. This particular case was very strong with the amount of evidence that was found to classify it was a strong case of abuse as well as the mother having a very long history of mental illness(Gutowski,Christy.How DCFS Failed These Kids.Chicago Tribune.22 Sept.2012).

Another article I came across was about the amount of hotline calls,as well as the jump in cases, during the time of 2012 up until now. A lot of the hotline calls that were made came from police officers, hospital staff, neighbors, and even other privacy agent workers that were trying to report a case of abuse. What was found out was that the majority of the calls were declined and not taken seriously by the department as well as the social workers(Gutwoski,Christy.Lapses in Protection by Child Welfare Workers. Chicago Tribune.21 Oct.2019).

Should Child Protective Services be made better? Yes it should be made better for the well being of every child going through an abusive situation. No child should have to lose their lives due to empathetic parents and the uncaringness of social workers.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-dcfs-child-deaths-20120922-story.html

Date Published Sept.22, 2012

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-dcfs-child-deaths-20120922-story.html

Date Published Sept.22, 2012

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-met-dcfs-audit-abuse-investigations-illinois-child-welfare-20190506-story.html

Date Published May.7,2019

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/ct-dcfs-kids-met-20170511-story.html

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-dcfs-contest-met-20170526-story.html