Comment by spwa4

> Given the realistic chances of significant reform in the US around child welfare, I think maybe the NCCPR has a point, I'll explore that further

I'm over 45 now. "realistic chances of significant reform", in 35 or so years it got worse and worse, and worse, aside from very temporary upticks with a new building or something like a particularly bad worker leaving, and HUGE sudden negative effects (policies from above, suicide, "incidents"). What the study says is: it has long passed the point that if the system didn't exist at all, that would have been better for abused children, not worse. That point was already passed 35 years ago.

(which does imply that CPS workers are snatching children, btw, since they are not improving those children's lives. And CPS workers know that better than anyone)

> but its not that CPS workers are snatching well adjusted children from good homes. I see no evidence of that

They always have some excuse (usually divorce + fights between ex-partners, or school issues that are 100% the school's fault. Not something a child can do anything about, which is incredibly bad for their psyche, see attachment theory), so I guess you could say not perfectly well adjusted.

And these are "unintended consequences". Maladjusted children "fight themselves home". Either literally, through self harm or even through medical costs (that can mean actual cost, or something like epilepsy that necessitates 24/7/365 presence of an adult or the child WILL die. It's just a matter of time. People forget the frustration of that. An epilepsy patient takes one step forward, slowly, with INCREDIBLE effort, then falls 10 steps back. There is nothing whatsoever that can be done about that. Nothing you do will ever make any difference for more than a few days. Oh, and when the "mal" happens, odds are pretty good at least once that kid will hit you SO hard THEIR OWN bones break, in addition to yours. Best of luck holding on to those "good intentions")

(I put "good intentions" in scare quotes because if you can't keep doing it for at least a year or so, you're not helping)

Even when parents fight, physically, CPS. CPS workers hide their name (even judges now), but of course it's easy to find who they are. If a parent fights ... literally, their children are returned. If you press one of those therapists they'll say something like "it's not worth it", and send the child home.

Why? The state's failure in the child welfare system is not just failing to provide for the children. The state fails everyone and everything. Including protecting CPS workers or the workers in CPS group homes. Including also failing to protect those children against each other or outsiders (theft), but that, absolutely nobody cares about that, ever.

Who remains? Well adjusted children that regularly get extreme damage done to them by being in CPS. Most of all by never being allowed to stay in one place, even to finish a school semester.