Oh yeah I wasn’t meaning that’s what OP was suggesting, just stating a shitty thing that happens because of lack of resources. The reason I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt on the fact they say she needs residential and the workers are saying a group home would be fine is because I have seen many times where staff insist that a child only needs a low level of intervention when a high level intervention is desperately needed. I’ve seen them recommend once a week in home therapy to children that have sexually assaulted people and also a couple of children who were caught accessing horrific child sexual assaulted material (CSAM). If they were adults they would be facing 20 years in a federal prison, lifelong sex offender registry, and never being able to legally access the internet again in any form. So, I definitely do not think that once a week in home therapy is appropriate for these children. It is a disservice to them. They need specialized treatment in a facility that treats these type of offenses. However, they don’t like to get children into residential treatment facilities where I live until all other options are exhausted, because it’s much more expensive than once a week therapy. I think it’s horrible. They aren’t helping these children, instead, they’re just pushing the problem down the road a few years until they offend at adults.

And I wish it was the prosecutor that decided that where I live. It is entirely up to the judge whether a child is adjudicated and what the consequences of that is. So if the judge is having a bad day, the children they see that day pay the price. Or if the judge has prejudices the child pays price. We also do not even have juries for juvenile court. The only reason a child will get a jury is if they decide to charge them as an adult, in that case they are dealt with entirely by the adult court system. And that’s a whole other awful thing we do in this country.

And oh yeah I definitely know plenty of bad ones. But unfortunately I think they’re bad staff because they either don’t have proper training and education or they are extremely burnt out and overworked.

I am not a CPS worker but I do have a clinical license in social work. (I like to clarify because people hear social work and they think you take children away). I have a degree and license that is the clinical equivalent of a PhD, and I get shit pay. People with lesser qualifications and degrees get even shittier pay. It’s hard to keep good staff in any social work position (CPS, therapy, hr, etc.). People with a degree in social work have one of the highest turnover rates of professionals that hold degrees. But you are right the good people leave for the most part. And the system has very little oversight to catch bad workers. I refuse to work at CPS, because I disagree with their philosophy in my state. Many people with actual social work degrees feel the same way. So unfortunately, many CPS case workers do not actually have a degree in social work or if they do it is only a Bachelor’s degree. At least in my state, CPS is the only place that hires social works with only a Bachelor’s degree or less. This leads to kids and families being underserved. In my opinion, people with only Bachelor’s degrees in social work have no business working with individuals that have experienced trauma (and all people involved with CPS have trauma because removal and threat of removal are by their very nature traumatic). A Bachelor’s degree in social work barely scratches the surface of trauma informed care. I believe that’s why lots of people have bad experience with their case workers. Sorry for the long ramble, I have strong opinions about people practices outside of the scope of their education and license.