Category: Child Welfare System

  • Woman Arrested in Florida After Kidnapping Her Two Daughters

    It seems strange to think that a person could be charged with kidnapping when the children they are accused of taking were their own. After all, how could it be kidnapping when you took your own kids? Aren’t they your kids, that you can go anywhere with? The answer is no, because when the court…

  • Foster Parent Charged For Sexually Assaulting a Minor

    61-year-old Jackie Lee Pittman, a licensed foster parent and Macomb County Adoption Board member, is accused of raping a teenaged girl. Although there are no foster children currently living with Pittman since his wife passed away from cancer four months ago, the allegations are said to stem from an incident that took place in July…

  • Victory for the Family Defense Center in Three Civil Rights Cases

    The Family Defense Center is a non-profit organization that focuses on advocating for justice for families whose children have been removed by overzealous child welfare systems. According to their website, a great many parents around the U.S. “lose custody of their children to state foster care systems primarily because they are poor or because they…

  • Predictive Analytics in Child Welfare – Helping Hand, or Racial Bias? 2

    Having looked at the concern that several people have expressed regarding the way in which predictive analytics may be violating civil rights when used improperly in the criminal justice system, we’re now moving on to talk about how predictive analytics would affect the fairness of child welfare. In July of 2015, the County of Los…

  • Predictive Analytics in Child Welfare – Helping Hand, or Racial Bias? 1

    In 2014, then-Attorney General to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Eric Holder, expressed open concern about the use of predictive analytics in the criminal justice system. For those of you who haven’t encountered this term before, predictive analytics refers to an advanced form of analytics, which is used to make predictions about unknown future events. Predictive…

  • Pilot Program To Keep Michigan Families Together Is Working

    If there is one thing we are adamant about, it is the fact that parents should be entitled to raise their children as they see fit, not as the government decides they should. This sentiment has been echoed by parents all over the nation, especially those who have battled CPS to maintain their parental rights.…

  • The Story of Ryker James-LaRoy McEvers

    On a Facebook page entitled fight.cps.false.allegations, Jennafer McEvers shares her and her daughter’s heartbreaking story of their battle with CPS, and their fight to keep Jennafer’s tiny preemie grandson, Ryker James-LaRoy McEvers.   Ryker was born 14 weeks early via cesarean section to Danielle McEvers. At birth, he weighed a single pound. But before being…

  • Mom Arrested, Daughter in CPS Custody

    Michelle Marie Andrews, the 47-year-old mother who chose not to surrender her daughter to Child Protective Services and instead fled the area, has been arrested. Her daughter, a 3-year-old named Arianna Rene’e Andrews, was found safe at a relative’s house, and has since been taken into the custody of the state.   According to police…

  • CPS – The System Is Broken. Can It Be Fixed?

    CPS: Three of the most polarizing letters around, right up there with FBI, CIA and IRS. People either see them as heroes and love what they do, or think of them as villains and have nothing good to say about them. But whether you are a CPS supporter or not, there are a few indisputable…

  • Child Welfare in Michigan – Why It’s Not Working

    Michigan has a long history of poor reviews of our child welfare system. Every year, the rising numbers of children unnecessarily removed from their homes, and suffering in poverty is record-breaking. But the one fact that gets brought up again and again is the issue of child removal.   Children in Michigan are regularly removed…