Interactions between parents and children protective services programs (called different names in different states, Division of Children, Youth and Families “DCYF” in this instance) is challenging enough for parents, impacting the parents and children in irrevocable ways. However, it seems that parents’ problems with CPS go beyond the dynamic between parents and the program itself. The DCYF is facing internal problems, further exacerbating issues concerning parents and their children. The main obstacle that the DCYF seems to face in properly handling child safety cases is in accurately identifying situations that do in fact pose a threat to children’s safety and, therefore, warrant intervention from DCYF vs. ones that do not. The various children safety cases that were not effectively handled that reveal DCYF’s internal disconnects and problems include high-profile cases in which children were not removed from unsafe homes as well as situations in which children were removed too quickly.
In order for the DCYF to effectively interact with and handle cases with families, it must solve its internal problems. Children’s protection services programs need to be designed and developed with appropriate support and operations that help facilitate accurate identification of child safety cases that require further involvement from DCYF. In revealing the internal issues within DCYF, it also becomes apparent that various systems from health care to law enforcement – especially, in their regard to their interactions with parents and children – need to be reconsidered and, possibly, reworked to optimize their efficacy in maintaining children’s welfare.
The inner turmoil the DCYF faces point to an even larger issue concerning parental rights issues. If the very program that is designed to support and maintain children’s safety is in fact so flawed, the fate of parents and their children is that much more precarious. And it seems the journey ahead in protecting parental rights is beset by even further turbulence and complications.
Learn more about the problems inside and outside DCYF, which is representative of such problems nationwide, here >
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