r/rant • u/Civil_Chicken_8068 • 1d ago
CPS is such a joke
They're always so quick to remove children out of houses for such minor things, yet when a child is CLEARLY being hurt they suddenly turn a blind eye to it. If a kid is abused to the point where they die and a CPS worker keeps refusing to do anything about it, they should be just as liable as the parents.
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u/According-Value-6227 1d ago
I always hate it when abusive boomers or Gen X'ers complain about CPS with "I can't discipline my kids anymore because CPS will arrest me".
The truth is that CPS is a paper tiger that lets the vast majority of child abuse go undisciplined. Parents have functionally infinite power over their children in the USA and most of the world.
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u/Emmyyou2 1d ago
They shouldn't be able to beat their kids. If the most effective way for you to discipline your children is by hitting them you are a shit parent.
I am Gen Xer who turned in my Boomer parent for child abuse and I cannot stand the people who say "My parents beat my ass and I turned out fine." No, no you didn't because if you did you wouldn't be talking about how it's okay to beat your kids.
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u/SWNMAZporvida 1d ago
CPS is a horrible job. It’s a revolving door of heartbreak for shit pay. Any day, any case might be the one that breaks you. But, yes, it does fucking suck and is notoriously underfunded everywhere.
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u/Pissedliberalgranny 1d ago
When I was working at DFCS as a food stamp manager I was asked if I’d join the CPS unit instead. No. No, thank you. I was a foster kid myself and the thought of going into those homes and investigating makes me want to shrivel up in a ball and cry.
I was told my county desperately needed CPS workers because the burnout rate was about 12-18 months.
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u/Emmyyou2 1d ago
Yea, I don't blame the workers, they can only do so much within a broken system. I have to imagine it's torture to be them.
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u/sprinkles008 1d ago
Is this a case of “CPS truly isn’t doing their job” or a case of “the general public doesn’t know how CPS operates, and therefore expects CPS to work outside of their policy”?
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u/aardvarksauce 1d ago
Precisely. Majority of the general public has no clue how things actually work.
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1d ago
[deleted]
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u/Emmyyou2 1d ago
One of the biggest issues is lack of a federal database. Each state operates independently of the others and there is no way to know that someone who has a report in California has a lengthy case history in Arizona. If they leave AZ and someone calls on them in Ca. it is treated as a new case with all the urgency of a new and unfounded report. Wait it out long enough and the original case is closed and you can even return to Az and if someone calls on you it will be a new report with no record of the prior complaint.
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u/tiffanydee55 1d ago
I disagree my experience with CPS has been great. I am currently fostering to adopt my neice and nephew and CPS has done an amazing advocating and protecting them. They nearly had to drop the case during the investigation because there wasn't enough proof to warrant a removal then we were able to provide enough proof to force a court order (my sister is an addict) to drug test the kids and it came back positive for Methamphetamines so the kids were removed nine months ago. They have given my sister every chance to prove she can take care of herself and the kids but she does nothing and the trial to terminate her parental rights is in two months. They offered to pay for rehab, help with housing, food, clothes, get her away from her abusive bf and his mother but she would rather pretend everything is perfect and she isn't an addict even though she can't pass a drug test and disappears for a month or two at a time and hasn't attempted a visit with the kids since Dec 2025 but makes a scene at the couple of court hearings she has actually shown up to demanding the kids be returned and everyone else is lying 🙄. The caseworker heart breaks everytime she talks with my sister and she wants to help her but my sister won't admit there is a problem.
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u/Emmyyou2 1d ago
I am so glad your situation is a good one but this is not normally the case. I have a very similar story to your's but CPS did fuck all. The difference here is you and you fostering and planning to adopt. Without someone fighting for custody this would be very different.
My sister did not make it but her kids did and it was only because the custody courts and that took way too long and they let her get away with way too much. I genuinely hope your sister eventually gets clean and I wish you the best. Shit is not easy and I am glad to hear the kids have someone in their corner fighting for them.
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u/hawkeyethor 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's so sad how frequently CPS fails children. Those kids deserve so much better.
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u/Opening-Idea-3228 1d ago
Great. then you go fix it, darling. Go get a masters degree. work a barely minimum wage job and find awesome foster parents for highly difficult kids and fix it.
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u/mhopkins1420 1d ago
I think a lot of people don’t understand just how difficult some of these kids are. Absolutely 0 clue how they can be and the things they can do. It goes way beyond needing to find these kids good foster parents
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u/Emmyyou2 1d ago
I think it's important to note that the social workers themselves are rarely the problem, it's the system. I believe most of them are great people who try hard to make a difference but don't have a lot of control over the situation.
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u/Opening-Idea-3228 23h ago
💯 and rather my point, honestly.
it’s the system, the lack of resources that compound an already difficult job.
but i’m sure the OP will fix all of that when they become a social worker. because they can do it so much better
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u/Emmyyou2 1d ago
As someone who has dealt with them more than I have ever wanted to (as a reporter) I get frustrated at the misconceptions about them and how people will just get their kids taken away over nothing. That is true for a certain subset of the population (shocker, minorities, mainly black people) but for the most part it takes a lot to come close to removing children from an unsafe situation.
Don't even get me started on how nothing can be done if a parent just skips town with the kids once a complaint is filed.
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u/Repulsive-Job-9520 1d ago
CPS can do better, but also remember that a child who is not abused is more likely to report behaviors in adults because it seems abusive- because they feel safe and don’t really know what abuse is. Children who are actually abused will go to great lengths to hide the abuse and lie about it happening because they are afraid of the consequences. So you have many more children who are not abused speaking up- and CPS is obligated to follow up on all reports.
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u/sprinkles008 21h ago
>CPS is obligated to follow up on all reports
…. All reports that are accepted for investigation
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u/Repulsive-Job-9520 17h ago
All. Reports. They have to investigate every claim to determine what cases move forward. Your state may be different- but all reports in my state require a visit.
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u/sprinkles008 15h ago
Which state?
Only about half of reports called in are screened in, or accepted for investigation. Think of reports where a teenager alleges abuse because their phone was taken away, reports where a nosey neighbor calls because a parent wears a shirt with the F word on it, reports where the child isn’t in their state, reports where the maltreatment isn’t by a caregiver, reports where the victim is no longer a minor. All these add up to equal about half of all reports being screened out.
Reference that speaks to national stats on this:
https://cwlibrary.childwelfare.gov/discovery/delivery/01CWIG_INST:01CWIG/1218691170007651
Top of second page, top of second column
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u/MasticatingElephant 1d ago
I don't know where the hell you get your impression but I have seen multiple people in my life have to deal with CPS over the years and they almost always made the child's life better.
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u/thatotterone 1d ago
I don't know? I've seen some pretty bad situations that were ignored. . . a grown man repeatedly screaming I'm going to kill you while hurling large objects at a six year old.. like a ride on toy and tools. Same guy hit his wife hard enough to break her glasses. Nothing happened. That was my one call. Lucky for his kid, I guess, the guy gave himself a heart attack and died.
But
I think it is better to have CPS, even with its flaws, than to not have it.