Category: Child Neglect
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Factors That Could Influence CPS When it Comes to Removing Your Kids (Pt 3)
Thanks for joining us again for another look at some of the reasons CPS workers decide that kids are at risk of being neglected. As we pointed out in the previous two articles, it’s rarely just one thing (unless that one thing is really extreme). Usually it’s a combo deal, where several signs seem to…
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Factors That Could Influence CPS When it Comes to Removing Your Kids (Pt 1)
There are a lot of factors that come into play when CPS shows up at a family’s front door and decides those kids are at risk and need to be removed. Some of them are probably pretty obvious – a child who is severely malnourished to the point that their bones are clearly visible, or…
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When Are my Kids Old Enough to Stay Home Alone In Michigan?
There isn’t a week that goes by without some tragic story making the headlines, about a neglectful or abusive parent who makes terrible parenting decisions and CPS has to step in. But not everything is the way it appears in the media. Not every parent painted with that brush is actually a ‘bad parent’ or…
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Leaving Your Children Alone at Home Can Spell Disaster!
We’ve shared with you before about the fact that CPS and the state take a very grim view of parents who leave their children unattended, even for short periods of time. Despite that, there are no clear laws specifying at what age a child can be left unattended, and parent are expected to decide based…
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Would CPS Label You “Neglectful” if They Showed up at Your House Today? (Pt. 2)
Welcome back, and thanks for joining us again for this difficult discussion on predictive risk assessment as it’s used by CPS to determine if parents are likely to harm their children. In the previous article we looked at an article written by Virginia Eubanks that explained the problems with predictive risk assessment, and how it…
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Would CPS Label You “Neglectful” if They Showed up at Your House Today? (Pt. 1)
A couple of weeks ago, a story by writer Virginia Eubanks hit the media. Published by Wired magazine, the story shared some interesting, and truly heartbreaking details about how the use of child abuse prediction models have unfairly labelled poor people. Eubanks shares her experience helping man the Allegheny County Office of Children, Youth and…
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Giving Birth to an Unwanted Baby? There Are Ways to Avoid CPS! (Part 1)
Whether or not you agree with abortion, it is a legal option for pregnant women in Michigan. But only up to a certain point. After 24.5 weeks, the only way a woman can terminate a pregnancy is if her life is at risk, or the pregnancy is the result of incest or rape. But what…
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Michigan Appeals Court Overturns Child Abuse Conviction
When 11-month-old Trinity Murphy found a 60 mg morphine pill that was intended for her now-deceased grandmother, she did what every other normal baby would – she put it in her mouth and ate it. Tragically, her little body could not process opioids in that quantity, and she died of an overdose. Heartbroken as her…
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CPS Petitions to Remove Baby From Dad High on Meth
In a strange and rather heartbreaking case, CPS has petitioned to remove a baby from the care of her father, who the agency says is unfit and unable to care for her. The case has made national headlines, and has resulted in criminal charges for both the baby’s parents. The story starts on September 25th…
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Emotional / Psychological Neglect in Michigan: Your Questions Answered
The word ‘neglect’ tends to conjure up images of malnourished children with uncombed hair and ill-fitting clothes, running around unsupervised in the street. It’s an image that certainly tugs at the heartstrings of any loving parent. However, while this type of neglect, which is categorized as physical neglect, is very prevalent, it isn’t the only…