Child Protective Services (CPS) and its various counterparts—such as the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), the Department of Family Services (DFS), the Department of Children and Families (DCF), and other similarly named agencies—operate under the guise of protecting children. In reality, these agencies have become an industry unto themselves, profiting off the removal of children and the destruction of families. Every child taken from their home represents a payday for the state, foster care agencies, court-mandated service providers, and an entire network of professionals whose financial survival depends on keeping the system running.
Most people don’t realize that removing children from their homes is not just an act of state intervention—it’s a multi-billion-dollar industry. Under the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, states receive federal Title IV-E funding for every child placed in foster care. The more children removed, the more money the state gets. States even receive bonus payments for finalized adoptions, creating an incentive to permanently sever parental rights rather than reunite families.
CPS doesn’t operate alone in this racket. The moment a child is taken, a network of court-mandated services kicks into gear, forcing parents to pay exorbitant fees for programs they are required to complete before they can even hope to regain custody of their child.
These include parenting classes, which families are forced to attend and which are expensive, often ineffective courses, regardless of whether parenting skills were ever an issue. Also included are anger management programs. Even if there’s no history of violence or abuse, parents are often ordered into these classes, which they must pay for out of pocket. Supervised visitation centers where parents who want to see their own children are frequently required to do so under supervision at a private facility that charges by the hour. And court-ordered therapy, where parents are forced into therapy, often with state-approved providers who have financial incentives to keep cases open. All of which gets very expensive very quickly.
Judges, attorneys, social workers, therapists, and foster care agencies all make money off keeping children in the system. The longer a case drags on, the more everyone profits—except the families being destroyed in the process. […]
— Read More: amgreatness.com
