noodle

The problem is that they're doing this without enforcing that the case plans are followed through with and that parents are actually continuing to follow through after return.
When the official goal is Reunification, then there is a lot more slack given to parents in what they have to do to get their children back. When the goal is appropriate placement, there is more that parents must do in order to prove that tehy can provide an appropriate environment.

What would I do to change the system? First, they need more money, I understand. and DCF here lost a lot of funding. But it's bullshit to not follow up better with families and to actually leave a desk instead of calling a family to "see how they're doing." Parenting classes are being cut, drug tests are not being administered as they should. Things that a parent with good skills would easily be able to complete and get their children back. Unfortunately, they're not being given manageable caseloads so things are getting dropped. And drunk DCF workers aren't caught until they endanger a child. I think that the welfare of the children needs to be a court focus, not reunification across the board.

For example... and then I'll get off my soapbox... one parent who has seven children, had three men DNA tested and not one of them was the father, lost her chronically ill child, had another kid with the same disease a year later, they let her keep him and get the other one back because she told them she'd gotten an apartment and was set up on public assistance. They went out a few weeks later, to find that the apartment they never checked out had holes in the floor, drugs on the table and kids playing with poop. One was detained, the younger was not.

There are problems on both sides. It won't get fixed, unfortunately.

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