Jasmine Mason

3/30/20

ENGL 1001 English Composition

Professor Jonathan Maxey

Child Protective Services Needs to Change

      Children are a joy to have in the world. While there are people who think differently about it, there is no doubt that children are precious being that should be protected. Children need to be protected at all costs even if it means taking the out of the home. Last year, 437,283 children were taken from their homes due to claims of child abuse and neglect. However, while it’s important to take children out from the home when abuse is suspected, what if even though you know you’ve done nothing wrong or you know you can change yourself to get your kids back takes too long? What if the children that are taken away are living in hospitals for unnecessary periods of time? What if the abuse is obvious and nothing was done to stop it? What should be done? CPS should change how they function, their process of taking children out of the home, relocating, and overall treatment of the children. The purpose is to shed light on the flaws of Child Protective Services (CPS). It’s important to shed light on these issues so then we can identify more problems like these and learn how to fix them in the future. Things that need to change within CPS are how long children are away from their parents, the treatment of the kids and where to relocate them. Hopefully through this essay the problems mentioned will stick with readers and will open the minds of others who believe what CPS is doing right now is okay to consider hearing this side of the argument.

      One of the few reasons why Child Protective Services needs to change is because of the length of time that children stay in hospitals after they have been removed from the home. If the children live in hospitals, and if the children are staying in the hospitals for a long period of time, then these children can be subjected to living in unusual living conditions and can face trauma. According to the Baltimore Sun News outlet and Maryland Department of Human Services, which was charged with ensuring the well-being of the children, it was reported that a child was living in a hospital for 636 days. It has also been reported that in the first 11 months of 2019, an average of 36 children were overstaying in hospitals. It’s already traumatic enough for these kids to be taken away from their homes, but it’s more traumatic for children to stay in hospitals for long periods of time. While these children have been overstaying in the hospital, it has also brought up another issue. What are suitable places for children who have special needs? Not just learning disabilities, but also those who have suffered traumatic sexual abuse. Every child has a different set of needs, some are placed with other family members or in foster homes and hospitals. However, this may not be enough for the children who need help. CPS and the Maryland Department of Human Services need to shorten the time that children are in hospitals or in foster care homes, so the children have a safe environment to call home. It is also important that they should start finding ways to fund for more housing with safe environments so then children can live there.

      If the amount of time the children are away from their parents is too long, and if the amount of time is not consistent, then the system needs to be fixed to allow children to get back to their families quickly. Even if there is a court case that must be attended to whether the accused is guilty of child neglect or not, they should be able to see their kids. According to the Washington Law Help, CPS can keep a child for 90 days. There are even cases where CPS can take your child permanently. There are also even moments when you don’t get to visit your children. It’s important that the children still have their parents in their lives. If they don’t have their parents in their lives, they start to lose connection with them. Some parents could possibly lose the motivation to get their children back if it’s something serious. It’s already difficult enough to punish the parents for taking their children away from them, but it’s even more heartbreaking when their children are their world, who they wake up to everyday, who they talk to, who they need to protect, and who they love. It is important that CPS should have consistent time periods for children to be away from their parents, and for the parents to see the children on a regularly monitored basis. This so that the parents can have the motivation to get their children back and for the children to still have their parents in their lives.

      The final thing that needs to be changed with CPS is how they determine if children should be taken out of homes. If the CPS can’t determine when it is appropriate to take children out of their homes, and if the children are being abused or neglected, then this can cause further harm or death to a child. In 2013, Antelope Valley, California the case of Gabriel Fernandez, a child who died at the age of 8, suffered extreme abuse from his mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre. These parents would beat this child repeatedly, force him to eat cat litter, shoot him in the face with a BB gun, make him wear dresses, call him gay, pepper spray him, and lock him in a cupboard for hours. This later resulted in Gabriel being beaten to death. What’s worse is that the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) were called to the residence multiple times before Gabriel’s death and no action was taken. Even social workers were ordering Gabriel to “stop lying” which is despicable. What’s also shocking is that the DCFS had similar cases that have had similar endings too. Another boy by the name of Anthony Avalos, a 10-year-old who died 5 years after Gabriel, was denied access to services. There was even a court order to remove the child from the home and DCFS didn’t follow through with it, because of that the boy later died. Cases like these are some of the main reasons why any department of CPS needs to change.

Works Cited

Varghese, Rani, Rani Varghese, and Hye K. Kang. “Essential Knowledge for Clinical Social Work Practice: Social Work Faculty Perspectives.” Smith College Studies in Social Work, vol. 89, no. 3-4, 2019, pp. 200-219.

“Methodist Children’s Home Society acquires Community Social Services; Deal creates one of region’s largest foster care providers.” Crain’s Detroit Business, vol. 35, no. 30, 29 July 2019, p. 0001. Gale In Context: Biography, https://link-gale-com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/apps/doc/A595175640/BIC?u=ucinc_main&sid=BIC&xid=9915d991. Accessed 23 Feb. 2020.

Stuck, Taylor and Amelia F. Knisely. “CPS Bill Does Little to Address Retention, Advocates Say.” Coal Valley News © Copyright 2020 The Coal Valley News, 85 Town Square / PO Box 500 Danville, WV https://www.coalvalleynews.com/news/cps-bill-does-little-to-address-retention-advocates-say/article_d9d5b318-e3f3-53be-8323-7989f0244a9c.html