State Departments of Children and Families, called other names in different states (DCF, DCYS, CPS, DSS, etc.), allegedly protect children from abuse and neglect. However, anyone at all can call an "abuse hotline" and accuse someone of abuse on flimsy or no evidence, such as a teacher, a cranky neighbor, a divorcing partner, or an enemy. Once a family gets pushed into the system, bad things happen.
These agencies do inept investigations, and over-react and take children from families who are not abusive or neglectful. Many children who are suffering from abuse are not helped at all, while the agency goes after little family issues instead. Over 500,000 children are in state custody at any one time in the U.S. - a staggering number. The average-sized state has around ten thousand children in captivity at all times.
The standards for proof are very low, less than any other known and established legal standard for evidence. Once they acuse a parent, the DCF puts that person on a statewide "registry of abusers", which stays active for 75 years. Anyone whose name is in the registry has trouble if they apply for a job as a teacher, day care worker, bus driver, foster parent, and much else. Usually, their career is ruined, whether the allegation is true or not.
There is lots of money to be made by the government and its cronies in this child abuse racket. Much of it from massive federal reimbursements to the states. The Massachusetts DCF has 5000 employees, and many more times that who supply other services, like therapists, lawyers, court personnel, investigators, psychiatrists, guardians, visitation centers, child kidnapping teams, etc. It adds up to billions of bucks in the average state.
The programs provided to parents don't work well. If they really are abusive, they don't help. If they aren't - which is usually the case - well, they don't work well either. DCF will only schedule visits with kids and services for parents during normal work hours, so that employed parents either cannot go, or will lose their jobs if they do. Then, the parent is faced with the choice of losing a job or a child. The programs themselves are mostly ridiculous.
What Are Your Odds of Success?
What are your odds of success in a DCF case? That depends on a lot of factors. Some of them are how much the DCF lawyer wants to nail the parents, how good the lawyer is, the political views of judge, and the attitude of the social worker. In other words, it is completely unpredictable and arbitrary. In a word - unfair. Law should be consistent and just, and this kind of law is not.
For example, if a judge loves DCF and thinks that social workers walk on water, the judge will give way too much weight to the conclusions of DCF. If the child's lawyer opposes you, you have trouble. If the DCF lawyer hates you, ditto.
These cases are not handled well by some lawyers. They will often tell parents to waive a temporary custody hearing, even though they have a chance to get their children back. They sometimes don't prepare properly for hearings.
But the worst complaint about lawyers is that they don't and won't communicate with the parent. Some lawyers purposely withhold giving the case paperwork and DCF paperwork to the parents, which makes a bad situation worse, because then the parents have no idea what is happening. Often, these lawyers won't even explain to the parents how they are going to win their case and get the DCF out of their lives. (Hint: Ask your lawyer all of these questions. If you don't get answers, ask the court for a different lawyer.)
How Can This Be Happening In America?
Almost everyone who gets caught in the system asks, "How can this be happening in America?" That is the right question, but the answer is complicated. First, no one oversees the agency or holds it accountable. They can make false claims, oppress families, ruin and traumatize children, and no one pays. The state legislature doesn't care and won't change the law to require competence, oversight, and accountability. The governor doesn't care, and won't appoint people to clean up the squalid mess that is the agency. The courts don't care and won't rein in the out-of-control social workers and lawyers for the agency.
