CPS: a Catch-22

An interesting development in D.C..  Of course as a social worker, I have a particular interest in cases such as this. I have a hard time defending the actions of the child protection workers, but I also understand the barriers they faced as investigators. Social workers are mandated to make reports if any abuse is suspected.  I have made my share of reports. There are times when the report is taken, investigated, substantiated and corrective action is take. There are times when a report is taken and minimally investigated. I haven’t work in child protective services (CPS) so I am not sure why action is taken on some and not on others. Then there is the other side, when social workers and CPS investigators are looked at unfavorably because they attempt to protect children by making reports and investigating potential abuse.  People get upset that social workers are involved in their business or think people over-react when making a report. It’s a typical Catch-22.

Child protection is a tricky business. It is often the mistakes that get noticed rather than the many positive outcomes. However, I think it is important to understand that CPS is a reactive service, so there is a lot of room for hindsight. Should the D.C. child protection workers have investigated more thoroughly, sure, but was there evidence to warrant an investigation? The article details a July 2006 report that indicates that the family is homeless and the parents are struggling with substance abuse issues. There was no address given so the investigators didn’t follow up. The report made last April by the school social worker, prompted CPS to investigate, but they were never able to make contact with the family. The reporter states the social workers “wrongly assumed the family moved to Maryland” and closed the case.  In hindsight, the workers did assume incorrectly, but I wonder what other assumption they could have made?  What other recourse did the investigators have? Of course, we (the national media audience) will likely never get the details of the full investigation, so we may never know what barriers existed (overloaded case loads, legal restraints, etc.) or if the CPS workers were truly incompetent in their work. Instead, we’ll be left with another example of how the system has failed the children without any look into how to fix it.