CPS drops case under pressure

WND reports:

Abruptly, and shortly after an audit was announced for California’s Child Protective Services, the agency has completed its controversial investigation into one family’s actions, and confirmed there will be no more monitoring.

WND had reported earlier this month that California lawmakers voted unanimously to order an audit of the state’s powerful Department of Child Protective Services after parents stunned their representatives with testimony of atrocities.

The audit is now in the hands of California Auditor Elaine Howle.

One of those stories – that made national headlines – involved the Nikolayev family.

They unwittingly became the face of the controversy over the CPS, which eventually drew a vote from California lawmakers for the audit.

But Tuesday, the battle for the Nikolayevs came to an end. In a hearing, all monitoring of baby Sammy, as well as mandatorily attended medical visits, were ordered ended.

I guess political pressure can have some effect on CPS. I reported on this case previously. The article gives some useful history:

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) is the federal law that prompts most state and local legislation and funding for child protective services.

CAPTA was a federal mandate enacted in 1988. It directed that Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families provide grants to communities for child abuse prevention programs. It mandated that states implement child abuse laws on their own, in order to qualify for massive funding and federal grants that will match and reward those on the state level.

This experimental federal mandate, backed by significant funding, was intended to keep more families together. However, the National Coalition for Child Protection (NCCPR) reports that the results of CAPTA are quite different than the original intention. NCCPR says that CAPTA, in fact, disrupted more families, and has made life for children in this experimental government program much, much worse.

NCCPR says that the failings of today’s child welfare system “can be summed up by the very rationalization often used to justify the way it works today, an approach that can be boiled down to ‘take the child and run.’”

The parental rights group says that foster care is a bad answer to the suspicion of a problem.

Their studies indicate that abuse in foster care is “far higher than generally realized and far higher than in the general population.”

They say orphanage abuse rates are even higher, so that is not the answer, either. NCCPR maintains that its research indicates that in most, but not 100 percent of cases, the best scenario is that the family remains intact until “due process” takes place.