[mbynack]

I imagine that being a social worker is pretty thankless. If you take a child away from a parent because someone alleged abuse you get dragged over the coals. If you leave the child with the parents and the child IS being abused you're raked over the coals. No matter what you do you're going to make someone angry. Most of these folks are doing the best they can for the kids.

As for the $1000 per child, I bet it doesn't come close to covering the actual cost of the investigations and administration of each case.

[ladysusan]

Plenty of jobs are thankless, including being a nurse/teacher/staff member of any sort/ retail worker/ police or fire man. So what? No one is holding gun to their head. They do this voluntarily.

Here is an excerpt from the article on Missouri that I cited:

"Researchers for the report concluded that DFS is likely removing non-victim children to collect federal money. According to the report, DFS receives $1,091.62 per month per child in foster care from federal Title IV-E funds.

"As soon as I take a kid out of a home, I begin to earn federal money for the cost of caring for that child," said Gary Stangler, who resigned as Director of Missouri's Department of Social Services. "All of the federal incentives are in the institutional side."


Does that sound like state social workers are thanklessly trying to help chidren in need, or thanklessly helping themselves to federal funding?

Honestly, we ned to open our eyes and examine our own assumptions about our child welfare system in this country. From CPS to foster care to adoption, the system stinks. It's not about child welfare, it's about MONEY. Lots and lots of MONEY.