Child Protective Services

For those who don't know I'm a level III investigator against child abuse for for the state of Arizona Department of Economic Security division of Child Protective Services (CPS) in Pinal County, AZ.

My duties are many and I work with numerous agencies and individuals. I'm contractually obligated til May of 2010 to stay with this mediocre bureaucracy and idle administration. CPS is a reactive system filled with limited resources and poor funding. As a social worker I am held back from truly helping needy and oppressed families due to state finances and policies. I feel at times that my hands are tied in advocating and taking action for children and families. I instead find myself passively investigating abuse reports. I would leave CPS however, CPS/State of Arizona paid for my in-state graduate fees and tuition at ASU and now I am pain stakingly paying the state back with a two year commitment to CPS.

To give you all a scope of CPS's network here is a list of advocates, providers, source reporters and workers with whom I have contact with on a pretty regular basis: Foster parents, group home case managers, residential treatment centers, assistant attorney generals, defense lawyers, guardian ad-lit ems, city of Mesa police, city of Apache Junction police, Pinal county deputies and sheriffs, detectives, victim advocates, news reporters, policy makers, the Mexican consulate, immigration control enforcement ICE, professional interpreters, CPS court liaisons, court appointed special advocates aka CASA's, a panel of foster care review board volunteers, facilitators for team decision making meetings, adoption agencies, parent aides, case aides, CPS secretaries, forensic interviewers, mental health and behavioral health professionals, medical personnel, drug testing labs, judges, bailiffs, juvenile probation officers, teachers, nurses, medical social workers, intake workers, individual in-patient and out-patient therapists, psychologists, nurse practitioners, marriage and family therapists, prisoners and inmates, social workers, substance abuse counselors, AA & NA groups, primary care physicians, pediatricians, psychiatrists, vocational rehabilitation specialists, Native Americans and tribes, anger management specialists, crisis teams, juvenile detention personnel, department of developmental disabilities case managers (DDD), respite and habilitation workers, EMT's, public defenders, family assistance administration workers FAA, welfare specialists, mediators, adult protective services APS, temp agencies, child care and day care workers, preschool workers, head start workers, healthy family specialists, out of state CPS workers, Arizona's early intervention workers, principals, school secretaries, school social workers and school counselors, domestic violence shelters, homeless shelters, housing authorities, resource specialists, community members, jaded co-workers, a callused boss, angry parents, bitter ex-spouses, dysfunctional families immediate and extended, oh yeah and abused or allegedly abused or neglected kids from birth to adolescence.

This probably gave you a headache just reading the list. Now you know why I am overwhelmed and eat a lot of comfort food just to get through the day, not including getting through my paper trails!..Below is a really good article from the press that is surprisingly optimistic not negative and blaming.



CPS workers excel despite scant support

by Todd Schwarz - Sept. 23, 2009 Special for the Republic

Recent events got me thinking of a conversation I had with a co-worker a while back. He had served on a jury that was deciding whether to take five children away from a mother who neglected them and allowed others to abuse them. It was one of those hard cases with no good option and no good news.
My friend said there was really only one witness who stood out, one person who tried to make the best of a bad situation: the caseworker from Child Protective Services.
We hear about CPS caseworkers every time we hear about abused children. They are ones who get all the blame and no praise. Have you ever thought about what their jobs must be like?
Average CPS caseworkers handle 30 cases at any given time.
They are required to visit every child in their caseload at least once each month. The typical visit calls for separate interviews with the child and the family with which they are placed.
An inspection of the living areas including bedrooms and play areas also is required.
Most cases require an interview with the child's parents in order to assess whether reunification is possible. Every visit requires caseworkers to record their notes and findings.
Then there are the intakes and investigations of new cases. Caseworkers are required by law to make an on-sight investigation within 72 hours of being assigned a Priority 2 case. Unfortunately, layoffs and office consolidations frequently result in cases not being assigned for more than 48 hours. Not enough staff, not enough time - and the added fear of breaking a law.
You would at least expect that they would have a nice office to go to work on their notes, make phone calls and plan their visits. Maybe a place to unwind, de-stress and recharge.
Not in Arizona.
As budgets have been cut, offices have been closed. The number of caseworkers in the average CPS office has almost doubled this year. With the increase in staff at each site, there is a shortage of office supplies and waiting areas for clients. Computers slow down or crash.
At one office, toilet paper runs out by midday.
Can you imagine working in an office that runs out of toilet paper by 2 p.m. every day?
You'd quit.
Well, you would if you didn't (a) have a strong sense of public service to your clients and (b) live in a state with 9.2 percent unemployment.
So, the next time you hear about the death of an innocent child and your state legislator calls for releasing confidential personnel information about the caseworker, or calls for budget cuts to punish Child Protective Services, stop and think. Ask yourself why CPS caseworkers can't stop all of the abuse. Ask yourself why we shouldn't fund an agency that gets it right 99.9 percent of the time.
Call your legislator and ask why CPS caseworkers haven't gotten a raise in three years but instead have had their stipends taken away and aren't allowed to work overtime due to budget cuts. Ask who would do this work for so little appreciation. Then ask your legislator why, if he or she truly believes "children are our future," it is more important to cut taxes yet again rather than adequately fund an agency that works so hard to give kids the future we hold so dear for them.