Child Protective Services are in Desperate Need of an Overhaul
Child neglect and abuse are some of the worst concepts that humanity brings to the table, so of course the United States needs a specialized set of agencies who aim to act to oppose and prevent these horrid, life altering events. Surprisingly, however , the United States' Child Protective services often prove to be ineffective. In execution, Child Protective Services fail to properly prevent child neglect due to their lack of employees and unclear guidelines.
The inefficiency of the United States’ efforts to protect children is well known, especially by those left behind by it. Inaction seems to be their common reaction in most situations. This ignored abuse can range from psyche altering, to deadly. Disturbingly enough, an article by Douglas Besharov cites this statistic: “About 35 to 55 percent of all child fatalities attributed to abuse or neglect involve children already reported to a child protection agency.” However, while it’s somewhat easy to experience or see these agencies’ shortcomings, it’s much harder to identify the root of these inadequacies. Without truly understanding why a system fails, it can never be reformed or remade. These shortcomings can be broken down into two categories: an improper set of staff and a failure to properly address situations.
The first issue with Child Protective Services is their improper staffing. Many will only blame the protocols that the staff follow, but there’s also issue with the way CPS constructs its agencies. A major issue with the formatting of personnel constructed by CPS agencies is the number of people they have employed under their various branches. According to statistics recorded in 2023, the workforce of CPS clocks in at a measly 32,685 employees. While some may see this number of workers as impressive, when it’s compared to other businesses, 32,685 is but drops in the ever-expanding pond of the United States population.
Some may believe 32,685 workers actively searching abusers’ homes to keep our children safe and sound would be enough, but to think that to be the case would be inaccurate. According to the previously mentioned statistical data, only 21,739 of the 32,685 of those workers that go into abusive households to record what kinds of harm is afflicted upon American children. The rest simply process paperwork and emails within the halls of office buildings. 21,739 workers on the ground may sound plentiful, but when this number is stretched across all of America, each state is left with only seven ground workers. While some may believe that our bountifully funded police can help subsidize this issue, they can never replace the duties that would fall onto CPS. America would never let itself use it's plentiful police force to excuse it's lack of firefighters, so it should do the same in concern for those who fight child neglect. Overall, while CPS’s workforce should have a strong number of employees working to help fight for our children, it is being miniscule and unable protect an entire nation’s upcoming generation.
However, quantity will never triumph over quality. Giving a statistic showing how incredibly understaffed CPS wouldn’t be enough to prove that they’re failing the next generation of Americans. While these sentiments are true, CPS's poor staffing isn't their only issue. If CPS were simply understaffed, then fixing them would be a much less egregious prospect; but that simply isn’t the case. CPS’s other major issue is their failure to properly identify and confront situations of abuse and neglect. Some might think this couldn’t be the case, as CPS has protocols to arrest abusers and move children who are improperly cared for to new homes. However, while CPS is sure to help children if a problem is identified, them identifying a problem is incredibly rare.
This failure to properly identify and address childhood neglect and abuse can be seen within the checklist guide used by CPS employees. While this protocol is clear on what actions are harmful, the guidelines’ exceptions are what leads to childhood abuse being left unresolved. This can be seen in the guidelines’ section titled "Standards of Culpability.” For harmful guardians to be persecuted by CPS, they must be doing their harm intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly. Some may see these guidelines as fair, thinking that some parents may fail children despite doing all that they could reasonably do. While this may be the case in some situations, this sentiment fails to account for one major aspect of these guidelines: objectivity.
Of course, guidelines can never be entirely objective. Human interpretation is bound to create a layer of subjectivity to every text. However, these three categories are so loose that workers can either fail to report abuse due to a misunderstanding or a lack of care. Not reporting is a lot less work than reporting, and if there’s room to make their job easier, most workers will choose to take it. This margin for error and laziness can be compounded by the egregious lack of staffing. If an overworked employee has a certain number of cases they need to investigate in a day, most will attempt to rush through to get to every house. This can lead to potentially harmful, or even deadly forms of abuse being inflicted upon our children.
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