I became interested in the child issue when a manager where I worked tried to get custody of his daughter’s toddler. She lost it because the former convict boyfriend refused to take a drug test after a bar fight, which in Florida is an automatic seizure of children living in the household. The grandfather hired a private detective who found the state had put the boy with a known pedophile who also had several other children. Gramps got a lawyer and visited the DCF office and the lawyer told them he would schedule a press conference if they didn’t return the child right-this-minute. DCF sent a deputy sheriff to bring the boy to them. Then, they told him that the state payments wouldn’t start for a month. Turns out the state pays $2500 a month for child support. There is a huge amount of money involved and DCF, in my opinion, is a racket.
Incidentally, they changed the name after they lost track of a couple of children and the children were murdered. The case worker had been falsifying records about her visits and the children had been dead for months.
I spoke informally at the gym with a case worker and she said that up to five percent of the children in state care were unaccounted for at any given moment. I shouldn’t be concerned, she said, “because generally it’s just a paperwork issue.”
I have heard so many bad stories over the years from neighbors and friends I’d be terrified if the state took my children.
Ha! My husband’s ex shrew IS A CPS worker/supervisor!! Kids have zero supervision at home or expectations. Fail every.single.year academically. They are now in their teens and have been brainwashed/alienated by mommykins for the past 7 years. Haven’t seen hide nor hair of them for that amount of time.
Hubs has seven more years of indentured servitude (CS goes to 21 here). Ironically I was a divorced mom that never received CS but both of my children are productive adults now.