CPS is there to protect the child in cases where the parent or parents do not. That is their function, like it or not.

They protect the children. Income has nothing to do with it.

As a former CPS / Foster kid, I think I have a better take on this then the guys who are just towing the CPS line. My dad was accused back in the late 60's of hurting me by a girlfriend. Back then I was not questioned by a doctor or a child psychologist - I was just taken from my dad and spent the next 8 yrs in foster care - I tried to clear my dad's name from the time I was 15 till I was in my 30's, when he got cancer and he needed care. First - to all CPS employees, you have one hell of a job, and I don't envy you. But it is true, if a person can afford a good atty, and has a good income, the chances of CPS even investigating you or your family is small- it is easier to go after single parents, parents who rely on cheap legal aid or have no idea how to get help, then it is to tackle a good atty. It took my dad almost 8 years before I was old enough to tell the social worker that everything had been a big, bad lie and that my dad did not do anything wrong, I had to prove that I was not a victim, and that the system had done more harm then good to me. If you are really interested in information about foster kids and what being in Foster care does to them for the rest of their lives, go to MSN groups and look under former foster kids - the statistics will scare you. It is a wake call for the system to change drastically. What you need to do is to find legal aid in your area - then you need to make an appointment and see if you can get a low cost atty to help get your daughter out of the foster care system - you also need to sign up for parenting and child development classes, look into the local community colleges or adult education programs. You might be saying to yourself , I don't have money for all that - find it, if it is important, you will find a way to get the money. If you say where do I get the time, find it - make the time. Being in foster care is no piece of cake, it is not a happy feel good movie, it is real, it is scary, it messes with your sense of stability and trust. If affects the rest of your childs life in more ways then you can even imagine. You will need the tools that a good parenting class and child develope class will give you - for the both of you. There was a reason that you got the attention of the CPS, and it wasn't just the DUI. If they took kids away from every parent that got a DUI- there would be a whole lot more kids in the system. So you need to look in the mirror and ask yourself some hard questions, and give some honest, possibly painful answers. Good luck - my prayers and thoughts are with you and your child.

Very few parents in a position of power, wealth, or authority are seen as potentially bad parents (or targets...) by CPS. Even if the rich are targeted... CPS is not by any means, the angelic institution some would like to be led to believe it is. CPS gets PAID by the government for every warm body in their possession. They are not watched or restricted; they have entirely too much power, and even the legal system is more often than not afraid to rise against them for fear of attracting their envenomed gaze upon their own families. I am about to battle CPS to regain my own children, and will speak with a lawyer soon. CPS needs to have a system of checks and balances to ensure that they are following moral and legal rules. Not every mother or father that has their precious babies ripped away from them deserved to lose their children. Sometimes CPS takes action far too extreme, and they care nothing for the suffering of the family... the parents... that they are removing kids from. They have tried to set my husband-to-be, up to fall already, and it is blatantly obvious beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are manipulative, power hungry, and let it be known that THEY ARE NOT GOD! AND HAVE NO RIGHT TO TRY TO FILL HIS SHOES! Their arrogance has earned them much hatred throughout the nation, and to watch them fail will be my greatest pleasure. I am not the perfect parent, but I didn't pre-meditate or act out of malice towards my children. And I say to those that judge, be careful, lest you yourselves be judged one day... Karma has an evil way of repaying cruelty. You do not know all the details of we, the grieving, heart broken parents' cases, and how dare you call us monsters when you have only your egotistical, holier-than-thou, presumptuous, assumptions to base any kind of decision on. My heart goes out to you, who lost your daughter. It is obvious you loved her, and I can only hope that one day through perserverence and love, that you regain your RIGHT as a parent to raise your child with love and responsibility. I'm sure it was never your intention to get into that car drunk with your daughter. You speak of your mother's funeral, it would seem that you were grief stricken, and looking for any way you could find to kill the pain that was tearing you apart. You made a mistake, as did I... You are not a bad person, and don't you listen to anybody that tells you otherwise. Be strong, and seek love in others. Peace be with you.

I also lost 3 children because of a DUI. Other than that I really cannot come up with one other true allegation that was presented in court. As a matter of fact there records show they, to put it bluntly lied! A Lot! My advice is because the crushing pain will never go away! Do something to stop this from happening to other kids and families. Make your way into the Governors office. To DC and wherever , never give up. Two of my children gave them the one finger salute and came home. We are primarily responsible for a new law allowing reinstating parental rights in Washington state, Thanks to a good Senator and a State Represenative that listened. Of coarse I kept on bugging everyone until they probably felt they better do something, these are my kids and I will never give up. then there is my daughter. Adopted to strangers, Mind you she has aunt, uncles cousins ect. All teachers and professionals that were not suitable enough to be concidered. Of coarse they were told she was in a different program so they were not options. " The foster to Adopt Program" big bonus for that one. Anyway a few years later I know that my daughter will also give them the one finger salute and come home. She lived the truth. she will soon be 13 I have already recieved 2 calls from her and just like my sons She has my genes. Faith will carry you when you feel you cannot go another inch! My love and more than anyone I know how you feel.

I have had several dealings with CPS. The last one the CPS worker found me guilty of child neglect because my son had not seen a MD in the 2 weeks that I had him (I had just regained custody). She came to the house, saw that I lived in a low income area and was on welfare, she immediately found me guilty. She never looked into my background or she would have seen that my son had NEVER in 6 years missed a MD appt/therapy appt/speech therapy session, etc. She didn't care. I turned the tables. I hired an attorney, provided him with all the proof he needed to prove her wrong. The day we were to go to court, I was notified that they closed their case due to insufficient evidence. Do you know that is still on my record as being found guilty but later changed to case dropped. That limits the jobs I can get or even volunteer work I can do. They don't care about the kids.. they think they are GOd and can do anything they choose to. SW think if you are poor and on welfare you are automatically a bad mother. I know parents who really do abuse their kids but child welfare doesn't get involved because they are not on welfare so they must be good parents. Our CPS dept is EVERY state needs a complete overhaul. I would NEVER abuse my child nor neglect him. does look funny though how when I hired an attorney, they dropped the case..sounds fishy?

I am sorry to hear you have gone through so much pain, and no doubt your daughter has, too. As Bob said, CPS has a job to do - they are called "Child Protective Services" because that is their mandate. I would never want to have to make the decisions these folks have to make; I don't believe for one instant that the supposed money "the government" gives CPS has anything to do with how they decide the fate of a family. I have personally known a social worker who had to leave her job at CPS on her doctor's orders; the job was so intensely stressful that her blood pressure was uncontrollable. Every day, this woman had to see children who were not being well-cared for (at the very least) or being overtly harmed (in ways that would make all decent people sick and enraged). She also saw families where allegations of mistreatment or inadequate parenting were quite obviously false. Those were the easy decisions. She also saw many situations which were not so clear-cut; where a parent might be doing okay sometimes but had serious lapses, or where there were poor judgements made by a parent in terms of who else was involved in the child's life, or any of a thousand other factors. Those were the decisions that kept her awake at night, and eventually forced her to change her career direction. No matter how many heartbreaking stories we hear of families torn apart by CPS, there are always the stories of children NOT removed from a home who are later killed by an abusive adult caregiver. And who do we blame? CPS, of course. So apparently it's "damned if you do, damned if you don't" for the people like my acquaintance. No wonder she had to quit her job. It is also true that CPS is typically understaffed and underfunded to the point of absurdity - a problem which will likely only worsen, as our economy has. If we want better services for our children, or for other vulnerable populations (disabled, elderly, etc) we as citizens and taxpayers must stand up for these principles and demand funding - and judicious use of that funding - for the agencies entrusted with providing those services. I wish only the best for you and your daughter, as well as for all the other loving parents & kids who are struggling with such a painful load.

Income has nothing to do with it. It is the actions of the parents. I'm sorry you lost your child. What actions are you taking to get her back? Alot of parents have had DUIs and still kept their children. Is there more to it? I'm sure after 5 years, there is something you can do, to prove you are fit now. If it was in fact only a DUI, and she was not in the car.

As a former CPS worker I can tell you a little bit of what goes on behind the scenes. I worked with people that I felt were unqualified for the job but it didn't matter. The system is overloaded. Still, a decision to remove a child/children is not based solely on one worker. There is a supervisor & others that discuss and oversees each case before a decision is made. It is true that there are simply way too many reports to investigate and not enough workers. It's hard to filter and screen through those reports. There are certain criteria for removing children, and they are outlined in the State laws. The first is if the child is in immediate danger. Those cases are given priority. In a case where there was endangerment to a child (DUI) it can be a serious thing. Certain conditions would have been given. If the parent did not comply with these conditions the case is referred to the courts. The worker only makes a report to the supervisor of what he/she notices during the visitation or "fact-finding". Based on the supervisor's recommendation, the child may be TEMPORARILY removed for a certain amount of time. After that it is the judge's decision. I agree that sometimes a wrong decision is made. Supposedly the "goal" is to keep the children with the family, but if the children are removed it's because they think the children would be in some kind of danger if they stayed in the home. My biggest complaint is the Foster Care System. They don't do proper screening in my opinion and sometimes a child can end up in a worse situation.The need for Foster Homes is desperate. Some "Foster Parents" are unqualified (my opinion) and are in it for the money. The children are switched from home to home to actually prevent any kind of bond from forming. It was a hard job. Hard to see some of the cases I saw. Hard to see some of the children cry at being separated from their parents even though they werre being abused by them. I transferred into another area after about 2 years but I'll not forget that job. By the way, it didn't matter what income level they were.

Being low income has nothing to do with it. They're powerful and they think that they can get away with things, so they do things like this because it puts money in their pockets.

You might want to check out this extremely useful web site. It will be a shocking eyeopener to everybody. It isn't only single mom's and low paid who are targeted to lose their children. It is a racket going on in this country social services are in affect stealing your children to meet government adoption targets for money. Yes for extra money in their greedy thieving pockets. I lost my granddaughter this way in 2005. Ian Josephs on this web page isn English law graduate and will give you free legal advice. Read the web page HE WILL BE ABLE TO HELP YOU - TRUST ME. Sammy http://www.forced-adoption.com/introduction.asp

Because they can. They love to attack Christian homes. It makes sense for them to go after homes where drugs are involved, but CPS does far more than that. They actually violate the US Constitution every time they attack a Christian family for obeying Scripture.