Report on Child Protection Services by US Senator Nancy Schaefer

TheCorruptBusinessOfChildProtectiveServices – Report by Nancy Shaefer

Excerpt

From about 2002 onwards, the late Senator Nancy Schaefer, a US parliamentarian from the State of Georgia, had energetically taken up the issue of wrongful child removals by the child protection agencies in the United States.  In this Report, written in 2007, when she was still Senator, she says:

“Throughout this case and through the process of dealing with multiple other mismanaged case of the [Georgia Child Protection Agency], I have worked with other desperate parents and children across the state because they have no rights and no one with whom to turn. I have witnessed ruthless behaviour from many caseworkers, social workers, investigators, lawyers, judges, therapists, and others such as those who “pick up” the children. I have been stunned by what I have seen and heard from victims all over the state.

In this report, I am focussing on the [Georgia Child Protection Agency]. However, I believe Child Protection Services nationwide has become corrupt and that the entire system is broken almost beyond repair. I am convinced parents and families should be warned of the dangers.

[Child Protective Services around the USA], has become a “protected empire” built on taking children and separating families……I had witnessed the “Gestapo” at work and I witnessed the deceitful conditions under which the children were taken in the middle of the night, out of hospitals, off of school buses, and out of homes….Having worked with probably 300 cases statewide, I am convinced there is no responsibility and no accountability in the system.

I have come to the conclusion:

  • that poor parents often times are targeted to lose their children because they do not have the where-with-all to hire lawyers and fight the system….
  • that all parents are capable of making mistakes and that making a mistake does not mean your children are always to be removed from the home….
  • that parenting classes, anger management classes [etc] are demanded of parents with no compassion by the system even while they are at work and while their children are separated from them….
  • that caseworkers and social workers are oftentimes guilty of fraud. They withhold evidence. They fabricate evidence….
  • that the separation of families is growing as a business because local governments have grown accustomed to having taxpayer dollars to balance their ever-expanding budgets
  • that Child Protective Service and Juvenile Court can always hide behind a confidentiality clause in order to protect their decisions and keep the funds flowing…
  • ….
  • There are state employees, lawyers, court investigators, court personnel, and judges. There are psychologists, and psychiatrists, counselors, case workers, therapists, foster parents, adoptive parents, and on and on. All are looking to children in state custody to provide job security…..
  • that some parents are even told if they want to see their children or grandchildren, they must divorce their spouse….
  • …Many Foster Parents…seek to adopt the child from the real parents, who are desperately trying to get their child home and out of the system…”

Nancy Schaefer did some excellent work, well researched and well-argued, exposing the wrongs of US child protection agencies. She was tragically shot dead in an apparent murder-suicide by her husband in March 2010. She was and remains a hero for people fighting for justice from child protection services worldwide.