CPS Doing More Harm Than Good

San Antonio NORML gets a lot of emails regarding their children and the CPS system, and it frustrates me that good parents are being harassed and children are being socially scared because of marijuana prohibition. 

Let me begin by giving you some history of my personal experience with children and the CPS system. My first job out of college was a Runaway and Homeless Case Manager for an emergency shelter focused on protecting children from a variety of abuse and neglect situations in their homes, although I personally worked with the runaway children, I interacted with CPS children and social workers daily. Social workers are tired and being blamed for children in abusive homes that end up dead or hospitalized because they are spending an unreasonable amount of time on petty marijuana misdemeanors. In almost all cases, marijuana is never found to be a threat to the child unless it is a biased opinion.

I am very concerned with the damage CPS is causing children, parents, and Texas taxpayers. I support a system that protects our children, but I do not agree with Texas CPS blaming marijuana to be a form of “neglect” as a way to increase their federal funding. I was also at one time the Coordinator for SafePlace, a community outreach program for children, and I helped reform the CASA program in Forrest County, MS. I am very aware of the juvenile system, and I know how desperately it needs reorganizing so that funding can go to preventative care rather than almost half of the funding going to senseless programs and misguided social worker hours, and of course, I am aware marijuana is still seen as a controlled substance under our Federal government, but it is now accepted medically in 18 states including Washington DC and by the National Cancer Institute.

“If an investigation reveals that a child needs ongoing services to be safe, CPS first looks to see if there are any services to keep the child safe in their own home, known as family-based safety services (FBSS). In an FBSS case, the parent retains legal custody so there is no court involvement or oversight. In 2010, CPS provided FBSS to more than 96,000 children.”

I was unable to find marijuana specific allegations that become investigated and referred to FBSS, but I'm definitely interested in knowing the amount of tax dollars we are spending to force good parents with healthy children to participate in FBSS. This not only causes emotional stress within the family including the child, but it is crowding the CPS system with families that do not belong while the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services has been an object of reports of unusual numbers of poisonings, death, rapes and pregnancies of children under CPS care since 2004. More children have died in Texas CPS custody in 2011 than ever in the history from marijuana.

Almost all of the state and local funding for the 2012 state CPS budget comes from general revenue which, in Texas, is largely generated through sales and other consumption taxes, and property taxes. According to the Urban Institute’s 2005 Child Welfare Survey, Texas’ state/local child protection system ranks fifth highest nationally in its reliance on federal funds. Only Mississippi, North Dakota, Connecticut, and Oregon had a higher percentage of federal funds in their child welfare spending in 2004 than did Texas, at 67 percent; the U.S. average was 50 percent.

The following is where I see a lot of taxpayers money being spent without ever proving the child was being neglected or in any harm:

Risk in Foreseeable Future

To assess the risk of abuse and neglect in the foreseeable future, if CPS were no longer involved, the following tasks are completed by the caseworker:

1) Conduct a full risk assessment

2) Talk to collaterals, especially school officials or child care staff

3) Assess for prior CPS history, criminal history, and substance abuse history

4) Assess for prior or current participation in treatment programs

5) Review mental health, psychiatric history, or both

5) Determine when the parent last used a substance 

6) Ask the parent about the friends and family members that visit the home in relationship to their drug use and history

Cutting down on the above case work (regarding marijuana investigations) can help Texas spend money on more valuable programs like preventative care and harm reduction, especially for the children.

I am not foolish, and I know that there needs to be a program to protect our children, but if CPS is truly interested in keeping the child safe, the children do not need a stranger coming to their home, asking intruding questions, and causing more harm than good by making them feel their parents have done something wrong. There are a lot more things wrong with our society than marijuana smokers, like fathers molesting their daughters and parents physically abusing their kids. I would prefer my tax dollars be spent helping those children.

“This is a wide, sweeping problem across the country, and Texas has its share," said Chuck Ragland, a former CPS caseworker in Van Zandt County. "And we are seeing a groundswell of parents getting upset." Ragland spent eight years as a caseworker and says he saw so many problems with the system that he dedicated his last three years with CPS to "making a concerted effort to try and figure out exactly what is going on." What he saw, he says, was troubling: caseworkers falsifying documents and removing children from families for very little, if any, cause, and we are seeing a groundswell of parents getting upset." Ragland spent eight years as a caseworker and says he saw so many problems with the system that he dedicated his last three years with CPS to "making a concerted effort to try and figure out exactly what is going on." 

If you have been affected by CPS, I would like to know your story. 

Comment below or email us at 420@sanorml.org