I've been through an investigation which was ruled unfounded (ex-husband of a good friend). I was very upset because I'm a private person and had to answer questions about my family. That being said, I was a teacher. I have seen abused kids more times than you can imagine. There has to be a child protection agency. Too many kids are injured/die at the hands of their parents. It happens. The CPS worker who interviewed me acted very professionally. She had a job to do; an allegation was made. Georgia law required the subsequent investigation. Why make her job more difficult by assuming the worst? CPS workers are not monsters. There should be a way to weed out bad CPS workers-as in a profession.
"There should be a way to weed out bad CPS workers-as in a profession."
Yeah, my friend was a good one but there are bad ones out there, too. As I mentioned, she was fearless about going into some bad areas of town and would only remove kids when the situation implied an immediate danger. After all, if you go into a home that is filthy, with a single welfare Mom who is high all the time, never feeds the kids or bathes them, just lets them fend for themselves, that's a pretty obvious situation for removing those children. She knew she couldn't save them all but she was able to save some of them.
On the other hand there was a very high-profile situation where a woman spanked her child in a grocery store and someone reported her. Even though the child was in a good family situation, with both parents at home, stable environment, well cared for, etc., and none of the children was being abused, the DFCS case worker considered removing the child from the home. To me that is excessive.