A VIEW FROM THE FRONTLINES

Akka Gordon,* a former child abuse investigator for ACS wrote about her experiences for the monthly magazine City Limits .   The full story is available online at http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/articleView.cfm?articlenumber=665 These are some excerpts from her account:

“To the manager … who makes the fateful decision to remove a child and the judge who approves it, a child exists only on a piece of paper, alongside a list of disturbing circumstances.   They don't see a child having a panic attack at 3 a.m. because he is suddenly alone in the world.   Or slamming his head against the wall out of protest or desperation.   The good intentions that go into the decision to remove a child often have little to do with the sometimes brutal outcomes of that choice. … Unlike fatalities, the trauma a child endures from being wrongly removed, followed by years of difficulty growing up in foster care, are not measurable.”

“A manager or supervisor has no one to answer to if a child who shouldn't be in foster care is removed from home anyway.   There is no penalty for the wrongful taking of a child. ”

“At moments of uncertainty, the mantra was “Cover your ass” – a phrase heard often around the office. … The obsessive concern with liability at the field offices quickly overshadows the reasonable criteria [workers] have been taught for identifying abuse and neglect. Most quickly learn to abandon their training and to do what it takes to survive.”

“One week after the investigation begins, caseworkers have to file an electronic report.   The computer offers two options: “safe” and “unsafe.”   But my manager accepted only one.   Any time I determined a child to be “safe” my manager rejected it and returned it to me.   The first step to protect yourself, I quickly discovered, is to determine that a child is “unsafe” from the outset of an investigation.”

“Any caseworker can tell you that they have done removals that they did not personally agree with. But they rarely complain to management, since they will never get in trouble for removing a child under supervisors' orders. Caseworkers are also quiet about unnecessary removals because doing a removal and then transferring a case to foster care takes them a lot less time than keeping it and trying to work with a family. Keeping a case obligates a worker to do regular home visits and follow-ups to make sure a family is getting preventive services. It also means dealing with anything that may go wrong and continuing to be responsible for the children's safety.”

“By the time I resigned, I felt strongly that the system was working against children instead of for them.”

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