Category: Child Welfare System

  • What Happens to my Kids When CPS Takes Them Away?

    There are many instances when CPS gets involved with a family that doesn’t want or need their help. Situations when a family needs resources or assistance, not government oversight and parenting classes. But there’s a big difference between CPs inserting themselves into your family’s private life, and CPS breaking up your family. When children get…

  • Is Every Foster Care Removal Really an Emergency?

    You’ve read the news. So you’ve heard all the horror stories about children being beaten and burned and sexually assaulted by their caregivers, or worse – their own parents. But just like in every aspect of life, the worst case scenarios always make the news. Because tragedy, and emergency situations, makes great headlines. And misery…

  • Michigan’s New Adoption & Foster Care Task Force

    Michigan’s broken child welfare system has long been a topic of hot debate. What’s wrong with it, who is to blame, and how to fix it are regular subjects of media scrutiny. But it seems the state itself has decided to take on this mammoth issue, and see if they can figure out some of…

  • Can I Spend Christmas With My Kids if CPS Took Them Away?

    If your children were removed from your home by CPS, and placed into foster care, you’re probably wondering how you can spend Christmas with them this year. It must be a terribly stressful time for you, and the prospect of being alone on Christmas can be very disheartening. But while this holiday season may not…

  • What Gives CPS Workers The Right to Take Kids Away From Their Parents?

    Have you ever asked yourself, or someone else, this question? Have you ever wondered how, or why, CPS has the right to just step in and literally tear families apart with no regard for the long term consequences, or the possible effects on those people’s lives? How can they take those kids away from the…

  • Is Mandatory Reporting Destroying Michigan’s Families?

    Reporting something to CPS essentially means that if you “see something, say something”. It’s the idea that if you witness, or even suspect that a child is being abused or neglected, you should report that to CPS so that they can investigate it. Mandatory reporting, on the other hand, is a little different. This is…

  • The CPS Cycle: Do Kids in The System Become Parents in The System?

    Foster care, while serving a very important need in communities across the country, also puts children in a very difficult position. Removing them from the caregivers they’ve always known, undermining stability and breaking up families, kids in foster care have been shown to struggle with vastly increased mental health and behavioral issues. And that shouldn’t…

  • Are Michigan’s in-Home Foster Care Prevention Efforts Failing Vulnerable Kids?

    A recent study done here in Michigan reveals some very interesting results when it comes to foster kids in the Great Lakes state. But what do these results mean, and how do we interpret them in a way that best benefits children. According to the Youth Policy Lab and the Child and Adolescent Data Lab…

  • CPS is Changing The Way They Handle Abuse & Neglect Cases Because of Covid19 (Pt 2)

    Welcome back and thanks for joining us for this discussion on how the current Covid19 pandemic is reshaping the way CPS responds to child abuse and neglect situations. As we mentioned in the previous article, the agency has a history of being reactive, in that they have traditionally waited to hear a report about potential…

  • CPS is Changing The Way They Handle Abuse & Neglect Cases Because of Covid19 (Pt 1)

    CPS has always been a reactive agency. As in: a teacher or pastor or neighbor sees something they think may be child abuse and they call CPS to report it. CPS arrives to check it out, and the determination they make is based solely on their investigation, which is prompted by that report from outside…