Child Protective Services

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Is it true that child protective service might try to take your kids away or atleast become intrusive if they find out about your diagnosis? If thats true I think thats wrong.



Justin

I have never heard of this but the thought is appalling!

I have not heard that, but it would be horrible if it was true!! ! Especially considering that CPS often does not intervene enough(my Mom is a foster parent, and oh, the poor children that get shoved back into abusive homes!!) To be wasting their time on perfectly capable parents!!

Last edited by Mockingbird on 17 Mar 2005, 10:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sad, but unfortunatly, I think that's right.

I don't think that's acceptable in New Zealand.

No They cant take your kids just because of a diagnosis ( at least not in Uk) It would have to be proven the kids were at risk of significant harm.

When I read this thread earlier today, I looked up everything I could find about Child Protective Services. I found out, on a site for adults with AS, that by law your children cannot be taken away from you just because you have AS. So, no, they can't do anything (unless, of course, you neglect or abuse your children).

While this may be true, the problem can occur if you get a social worker with an agenda. CPS (at least in the US) does not have to follow the rules of "Innocent Until Proven Guilty" and as such, can act even if there is suspision. All it would take for a social worker to take a child away is for them to say that they suspect abuse/neglect is going on in the house and then it is up to the defendent to prove that the social workers suspisions are wrong. Really anti-american if you ask me.

There is also the inverse where the social worker knows and is an aquantince with a person involved with the abuse and wants to protect them. All they do is stamp the case "Allegations not proven" and move on.

I have seen the 2nd case first hand. My brother had a fling while in HS and the result was a son. My brother, his current wife, and the local childrens hospital all reported evidence of abuse and the case never went beyond the investigation phase. In fact, my brother was admonished by the judge in the custody case for reporting abuse. It turns out that his former GFs mother works as a supervisor in the exact department that investigates abuse and is dilligently protecting her daughter.

Just remember, although the law says one thing, CPS has alot of powers that even the police do not have and a person with an agenda is very dangerous with this kind of power.

I myself was nearly thrown into a foster home because of my autistic tendancies, mainly my propensity to bash my head on the floor when I had a meltdown. In July 1987 someone called the department of health and human services to report me and what followed was a nearly two month long investigation where my parents were harrased on a daily basis on the phone, followed and harrased by police dectectives, threatened with arrest for child abuse and neglect, threatened to have their custody and visitation rights permantely revoked, and sprung with suprise visits from social workers checking up on my wellfare.

I myself was talked down to like I was a two year old and asked all kinds of questions including "Does mommy or daddy ever touch you in places you don't like?" and "Do you ever see mommy or daddy with plastic baggies full of stuff that looks like flour or sugar?"

They never were able to get what they were looking for, and they just simply stopped the investigation. When the dust finally settled, I didn't leave the house for nearly two years except to go to school and the doctor.

Those kinds of questions are WAY out of line, "a baggie full of flour or sugar" WAY Too suggestive

As I said before, all that is needed for CPS to interviene is a caseworker with an agenda. If a caseworker who did not believe that anyone with an ASD should raise children, then problems would develop whenever that caseworker investigates the case.

In Uk (sorry dont know any other system) a social worker cannot make decisions on her/his own, it must go to conference where a whole host of people of different agencies are involved and all must agree on course of actiion