What Ever Happened To Reasonable Efforts?

Have you ever heard of reasonable effort’s? What is reasonable effort’s? When I started to study the CPS child welfare system here in my country, I found out that the federal laws in congress allotted a certain amount of monies to be given to the Department of Social Services CPS department for social worker’s to continue their line of work and to give parent’s reasonable efforts which meant parenting classes, counseling, etc., whatever support services were needed to help those parent’s be reunited with their children and families. Today, they more than likely place the child or children in long term foster care and or adoption (where parent’s now lose their parental right’s and in some cases where they are legally terminated til their children turn eighteen years old), without giving these young parent’s reunification services even if the charges are unsubstantiated and some of these young women never get their child or children back at all.

These laws that were passed by the US Congress that allotted these monies to be divided up for all 52 States in order to oversee this process and to help CPS child welfare system give parent’s what "they" were calling "Reasonable Efforts" which was intended for rehabilitation; parenting classes, counseling classes, etc., in order for these families to be REUNITED with their children, were suppose to be for the benefit of the families that were facing the removal of their children. But not anymore because, today the juvenile court does not have the resources nor the time and money to handle an already burdened and overloaded court system. They shuffle you right through the juvenile court system like your some kind of animal with a number attached to it’s head and they take the children away from anyone that they suspect of child abuse whether your guilty or not. You have to prove your not an abusive parent, if you want your child or children back.

Today, these CPS social worker’s place most children in long term foster care or adoption placement. They now get millions if not billions of dollars to do this. And, just to think, they are getting these monies from our taxpayer system to destroy families. That’s what we believe to be the truth. There are no more reunification services that go through the second and third stages. What I mean by this is that families 20 years ago had a chance to be reunited with their children and it went well into the first 12-18 months of that particular year but, today they don’t do that anymore. Today these CPS social workers would rather terminate your parental right’s so that this severs all ties to the mother and child bond and father bond as well and they do this to supposedly make it easier for the child to get comfortable and used to the foster family or adoptive parent’s. This is why we call this system "the child abuse industry" because, it helps to destroy families lives, period.

Congress and the State Legislatures in all 52 States in the USA, now have what we call "child abuse" laws. When I became a mother, I didn’t know these laws existed in our country, leave alone in a law library! Let me stop here and mention one thing. When I became a mother and got married and started having children, I wasn’t given a manual that came out of my belly with my son or daughter. We are not given instructions on how to parent our children. We rather learn how to BECOME a good mother and a good father. We aren’t given instruction manuals when we have a baby. We learn from our parent’s, from relative’s, from friend’s, and from reading, etc. In other words, we learn from our own experiences. But, to have a person or authority figure just come out of nowhere and into your private life and start calling you an unfit parent, well, that can be damaging and can be traumatic for the parent to say the least! It can be demoralizing to a person and their character after that person has tried so hard to be a good parent then someone comes along and tells them they are an unfit parent. Well, wouldn’t you get angry and upset too?

Our government or congress and the states make and pass all these child welfare laws to take our children away and to put them in the foster care system and or adopt them out and then they take your parental right’s away from you and you cannot see, touch, feel, love, kiss, hug, or smell, your child again until that child turns 18 and wants to see you again. And, believe me by the time that child that is in foster care or adopted out turns 18, he or she is so destroyed and brainwashed by the system and by that time they have forgotten their real natural parent’s and they don’t want anything to do with their natural parent’s because they feel abandoned and then they might even turn on their natural parent’s and this is the whole shame and sickness behind this system here in America. It’s one big shame for our children and the parent’s! Like I said before, nobody wins. And, where did all the services go and the funds for those services? Who’s pocketing that money that is suppose to be for the parental services in order for parent’s to be reunited with their children and to get the help they so desperately need?

This is happening all across America and it is getting worse. You just don’t hear about everybody’s story. The main stream media keeps it hushed up. They say juvenile dependency court is highly confidential so therefore they can’t release any information! What a bunch of crap if I’ve ever heard of it! Most legislators think the same way I do. They know firsthand that this system does NOT work! It happens to so many thousands of people out here and it continues to happen every day 365 days a year. When I was politically active back in the 80's and 90's, I witnessed group members having their children taken away and some of these people lost their homes, their life savings, their jobs, their cars, etc. It goes on and on. It is a nightmare. It is demoralizing to the parent’s as well as the children involved. And, the poor children who are innocent. I just feel for them. My heart goes out to them. I can’t imagine having my own children adopted out. I thank God that none of my children were adopted out. Now, today, they more than likely will adopt your child out once he or she is taken away from your control and custody. It is a system that makes the parent’s sick as well as the children.

When the children are taken away they are put in a shelter building somewhere where the parent’s don’t know. Sometimes they will tell you where your children are at and sometimes they won’t depending on your case. This is what happened to me. And, I went straight to my court files to dig through them to find out information. Those were the days we had access to our files. Today, if they adopt your child out you cannot gain access to your juvenile dependency court files in the county you live in. Some counties might have different laws but you can always ask the juvenile dependency court clerk for your records. You don’t have to answer any of their questions just tell them who you are and you need to look in your case file because you have a right to. If they deny you that right then you probably have had your parental right’s taken away from you. It is not a happy day when that happens to a parent. In fact I had this one beautiful Latina girl who was in her early 20's and she lost her baby boy to the CPS system and they adopted him out and she just couldn’t believe that these people could do that and get away with it, but, she had no money to hire a good lawyer to help her get her son back and into her custody. I took her down to the court house to see if we could get her files and she could not get them or even look into them. They cut her parental right’s off and that barred her from getting into her juvenile dependency court files in San Jose, California.

The other thing I want to talk about is the "back foster care" child support monies that the State comes after the parent’s for, after having their children placed into this foster care system. A friend of mine calls this "double dipping", can you imagine! The State and Federal govt’s already get millions in funding then they turn around and get it back from the parent’s pocket’s through the district attorney’s child support department. This is what we mean by the word double dipping. The poor and poverty ridden family that has their children taken away can’t even afford to hire an attorney and the district attorney is gonna come after them for "back foster care" child support payments? This is outrageous and it happened to me! You better believe it! After you have your children taken away, then "they" come after you for child support to pay back the State and Federal government or maybe just to pay back the State because once that foster care parent gets your child that foster care parent gets allotted so much money per month for taking care of your child. Didn’t you know this? Yes. The Department of Child Support Services which is run by your local County District Attorney’s Office is open 365 days a year too! Today, they can come after the parent’s to pay back the monies that other foster care families received on behalf of your child or children and, make the parent or parent’s pay these monies back to the county or State where they live in. And, this is exactly what "they" do to parent’s and that is why these parent’s lose their homes, jobs, and life’s savings to try to get their children back. This system ruins your credit and your ability to get a credit card and to pay your bills. It can also ruin your reputation as a decent citizen of this country because when you lose all these things mentioned above, then one starts to lose his or her sanity! It’s a nightmarish system and one that will drive you to hell and back again, if you allow it to. Don’t allow it to. To save face and sanity these poor men, wome n, and children can seek out their nearest social security administration office in order to apply for the following benefits:

a) supplemental security income (SSI)

b) social security disability (SSD)

c) retirement benefits (RB)

d) widow’s benefits (WB)

Anyone can apply for these benefits as long as they qualify for them. Some of these benefits come with certain guidelines. Some of these benefits you can get right away but, some of these benefits take anywhere from one to three years to receive. Everyone’s case is different so I suggest to the parent that is thinking about applying for these benefits to apply as soon as possible or right after your child or children are taken away. In order to apply for SSI, you have to have a mental, emotional, or physical condition that prevents you from working and, NOT having your children, post traumatic stress disorder, and going through a nervous breakdown might just qualify you. This is what the CPS system does to parents and children. You have to apply and keep fighting and appealing your case even if it takes one, two, or three years.