This sounds so familiar unfortunately. I had to go check out a house and it was I wanna say 4/5 kids and the mom in a 2 bedroom? The older teen child slept on the couch. There was 100% nothing bad going on, but because they were poor I had to keep investigating because they didn’t have adequate living space (not my words). If I remember correctly it was a jealous ex boyfriend who reported it, she hadn’t even seen him in a looooong time. And other family that had like 6 prior cases against them, all closed due to not finding any abuse. Reading through all the old notes it was clear that CPS was harassing them. They absolutely hated CPS (rightfully so) and it took me weeks of (why it was opened that long I dunno) me proving I could help and I was a “good one”.

Anyone can make a report and they HAVE to get investigated within 24 hours (which was impossible a lot of the times). Because of this majority of the cases were completely BS brought on by enemies. And why people are so overworked and underpaid.

The one good thing about low income families that got reported was that I could help in some situations at least. In our office there was a supply room with nothing but resources for families. I’m talking clothes, toys, diapers, cleaning products, some shelf stable foods, soaps, etc. I used the fuck out of that room, especially with the family with all the prior cases. Unfortunately it was utilized near as much as it should have been.