And Now For Something Completely Different...

I'm sure you've come to expect certain things from these Soapboxes -- from darlin' little anecdotes about gigs or news stories or my pets, to my windbag diatribes on the music business, sports, or politics. One common thread in all these things -- they are rarely about anything of any real importance. Well, I gotta take a little tangent this time, and talk about something that actually matters.

That's kids. First, let me say that I don't have any. Now, for some of you, that automatically disqualifies me from any relevant opinion on anything regarding them. I understand that, and agree to some extent -- I do realize that until you have them, you "just don't understand". We all heard it from our parents growing up, and from friends who are parents when we're adults. I realize that there is something primal and indescribable that takes over your mind and emotions the moment you have them, and that this causes parents to do crazy things, and creates an automatic change in the whole mindset and demeanor of a person.

Now, this Soapbox isn't really a commentary on kids themselves, but more about parents. Specifically, when they screw up and have problems. And more specifically, how they and the government deal with those problems once they occur.

As a matter of fact, April is nationwide Child Abuse Prevention Month. In Texas, the agency that deals with issues like child abuse and neglect is called Child Protective Services (CPS). It's called something different in every state -- CFS, DFS, CWS, FCS, and on and on, depending on whatever message the bean counters want to send that year. Which, by the way, is a good example of half their problem -- they actually spend time and money deciding what to call the thing, as if there aren't a thousand more pressing issues going on. Let me also say that I'm getting information from the front lines -- I have friends who have worked there, and I have friends that have had to deal with them. Now, everybody from psycho parents to politicians has an opinion on CPS and the job they do. I'd like to examine some truths and non-truths about what goes on, look at the problems they face, and how they deal with them.

First, I'd like to dispel some myths. 1) CPS can just walk into a home and "take" kids, with no explanation or recourse for parents, and 2) CPS case workers get some benefit from taking kids into custody. I actually saw this on TV -- there's a group of 4 or 5 redneck morons that do a show on public access here in Austin, and they talk about all the evils of CPS all the time. I actually heard them say that CPS workers get monetary incentive, like bonuses, for each child they take into custody! I couldn't believe these idiots. Where the hell do they get that stuff? I can tell you, unequivocally, for a fact, that CPS workers get absolutely no incentive, monetary or otherwise, for removing a child from a home. In fact, with all the manpower and paperwork involved, it makes a caseworker's daily job much more difficult to remove a child from a home. And the state itself has no incentive either, because taking a child into custody costs lots of money and man hours.

As far as being able to just walk into somebody's house and snatch a kid up and take them into custody with no explanation -- that's not allowed either. I say "not allowed" instead of "not done", because there are some really bad caseworkers out there, and there have been workers who get all fired up and just take a kid without giving the parents a real reason. There are bad workers in any profession, and unfortunately, this is dealing with children and families instead of selling used cars or shirts. But, there is a lot of supervisor approval and red tape that goes into removing a child from a home (this is the government we're talking about, after all!), and any removal that's done outside those parameters is usually reversed, and the worker reprimanded. Unfortunately, since they are government employees, it is virtually impossible to fire them, so some bad caseworkers stay around a lot longer than they should. These are usually the "save the world" workers, who go into virtually every case expecting to remove the child, before hearing any facts or talking to anyone, or finding any other options. Understandably, like cops, many of the people that these workers deal with every day are... well, child beaters, sex abusers, rapists, and junkies. Often rotten, worthless people. And when you deal with people like that all day, you come to think of it as the norm, and go into all cases with the predisposition that the parents are guilty until proven innocent -- just like cops. This is a trap that is difficult not to fall into, and far too many workers succumb to it.

A huge problem with CPS workers is disillusionment. Many workers come straight out of college, where they may have a degree in social work or a related field, and have a "save the world", or "save all the kids", or "get the bad guys" attitude. And then there's the other side of the coin -- workers who become social workers with the idea that it's "working with kids", and is a glorified babysitting job. Both types of workers quickly realize that they work for a state government agency, you work more with crazy parents than with kids, and "saving the world" is not possible. The bean counters in the board rooms, who decide budget and policy, are only concerned with keeping the increasing caseloads down to smaller numbers, because if the numbers are up it looks bad to their bosses. And it's true that, if caseloads are high, then cases get neglected, and tragedies, like the Florida case where a child was kidnapped and nobody noticed, inevitably occur. Then the state gets hammered by the public and the media -- and rightfully so. Once new workers realize what they are up against, they either quit, or get so involved in keeping their caseloads down that they end up neglecting cases anyway, just so they can close them and get their boss off their back. Between the huge caseload, the gravity of the situations, and the low pay, I'd say at least 50% of all new CPS employees quit within 6 months. Since employee turnover is so huge, the lives of these children and families are constantly being handled by young, inexperienced workers, who will probably be gone in a few months. And again -- who suffers? Kids, who are physically, emotionally, even legally, unable to fend for themselves.

Like any government institution, CPS faces two main problems: 1) Under-funding, and 2) under-paid, under-trained, and outnumbered staff. On top of this, the number of cases they receive rises exponentially every year -- CPS receives dozens of new cases, every single day -- in Austin alone. A single Austin CPS caseworker often gets around 30 new cases a month -- about 75% higher than the number dictated by federal government standards. And, as with any large institution, government or corporate, decisions are made by bean counters in board rooms that affect real people with real problems, bean counters whose one and only concern is the Texas state budget, not children.

Here's a current example: Child welfare can only be properly handled by a "team" -- that includes CPS, the police department (APD), child advocates, ad litum guardians, child care facilities (group homes), mental health facilities, individual foster homes, and charity or volunteer groups like CASA and Any Baby Can. In Texas, these agencies have worked for years now to form as functional a team as possible, and have a decent "machine" when everything works properly. Now the state has decided to move CPS to another, more "budget friendly" facility, about 15 miles away. Currently (they haven't moved yet), CPS and APD are in the same building, which makes vital things like information sharing and employee protection work very smoothly. If someone needs information, they just walk over and get it. When an angry parent gets threatening or violent in the CPS office, the police are right there. If CPS moves to this new facility, then much of their difficult and effective team-building is for naught, information will be much more difficult to share, the "wheels" will turn even slower, and even the safety of CPS employees will be threatened. Does this make helping children better? No, it makes it worse. Does it keep it at the same level? No, it makes it WORSE. Not only is the state not doing anything to help, it's actually making things worse. And again, we're not talking about road construction here -- these are the lives of kids. If this move happens to CPS, where days or hours or even minutes can make the difference in life or death, it will directly result in the injury or death of a child. Anything you Texans out there can do -- writing or emailing your local State Representative, your congressman, your senator, your governor -- would help immeasurably.

They would tell you it's a complicated issue, with many factors and implications that we lowly citizens can't understand. But it's really very simple: what the TX government wants to do WILL directly hurt kids, and what CPS wants (to stay where they are) WILL NOT hurt kids. And, as usual, it's become a political thing. The two boards discussing the problem have had some heated arguments about it, and now they're all mad at each other, and nobody's talking to anybody. The state has dug in it's heels, held its breath, and said "Nuh-uh. We're doing what we want. We don't like you. Nyah." The pro-CPS board is saying, "Oh yeah? Well, wait till a child dies, then you'll be sorry!" And now they're at a standstill. Our tax dollars at work, folks.

Speaking of tax dollars at work, before I end this I have to point out another quick little example of our state government's priorities and efficiency. The main CPS office is in a 5-building complex with the APD and some other agencies. At the main entrance to the CPS building, where almost all families involved with CPS investigations have to go for consultations, where children are sometimes looked after, and where some people drop off unwanted babies or teenagers, they have a small main lobby with a waiting room on the ground floor. Keep in mind, this lobby is usually full of very angry and often unstable or violent parents. The lobby is watched over by two unarmed security guards -- sorta like mall cops. Usually one very old guy and one very young guy. These are the same security guards that often refuse to call the police (just in the next building) if a parent gets unruly, because they think it will make them look foolish to the real cops. Recently, when a parent became unruly and violent, and there just happened to already be cops in the building for another reason, these security guards literally ran away, and left the building, nowhere to be found.

In contrast, there is also a CPS administrative building, where CPS workers go to deal with payroll and personnel decisions. Bear in mind, here, that the only people that come to this building are CPS workers, no parents or children or anything like that. This building, however, is filled with armed security guards, checkpoints, and metal detectors. Any worker going there has to have badges, and go through all sorts of security checks before they can enter. Makes a lot of sense, huh? OK, they may get the occasional disgruntled ex-employee with a bad attitude, but that about it. The other building, whose lobby is filled with child abusers, sexual perpetrators, and plain old pissed-off parents, has Earl the mall cop and his sidekick Scooter to take care of business. These are the people watching out for about 100 employees with people who hate them and want to do them harm just one floor below.

See? Has the state lost it's mind? Actually, yes. Politics is an infinitely ugly and stupid beast. It's insane that the health and lives of children are decided by politicians and board members, who vote for this and that based on their own personal agendas or who paid for their campaigns, or so that so-and-so politician will vote for their proposition next month. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with what's best for children. I think that's what gets me -- they give the very lives of children the same priority that they give to highway construction or appropriations bills. It's not even in the same league, and they could care less.

As usual, people in board rooms are into their own political agendas and personal battles, and the main issue gets lost. I hate to sound like every tree-hugger or soccer Mom with an axe to grind, hollering "But what about the children?!?!?!" But really, this isn't deciding between which part of Lamar to reconstruct first, or deciding voting zones. It's the difference of whether a little kid gets mercilessly beaten again or not, or sexually abused again or not, or has to continue to live in a disgusting and unsanitary home or not. Instead, the Texas government is interested in what building the CPS offices are in, as long as it will save a buck in the books. The state will take a child from a home that financially can't afford to care for the child, and then give a foster family hundreds dollars a month to care for them, when they could just give the same money directly to a family. The state has armed security guards and metal detectors at their payroll office (where only CPS workers go), but has two unarmed and cowardly mall-cops at the main CPS building, where child abusers and sexual criminals go to deal with their case workers.

I'm sure I could go on and on with a list of government ineptitudes, none of which would be surprising or news to anyone. Yeah, yeah, the government's inept and full of crap -- so? Everybody knows that. The difference here is when we say that, we're usually talking about taxes or voting zones or noise ordinances. Here we're talking about the lives and well-being of children, and apparently nobody in our state government deems it important enough to attempt to fix, or at least not make it worse. Hey, I know what will solve the whole problem! Let's form a committee -- that always works like a charm.