- Target:
- Health and Human Services (Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin and Inspector General)
- Region:
- United States of America
States are spending millions of dollars annually on unethical child removals performed by unaccountable child protection services (CPS). Children are obtained through unethical means, such as failing to present exculpatory information to the court, manufacturing mental illnesses with state funded and CPS contracted evaluators, skipping material court hearings and procedures, such as fact-findings, ignoring court orders, and failing to present witnesses, testimony, cross-examination, evidence and discovery during removal hearings.
Cases can linger in the judicial system for years and cost states hundreds of thousands of dollars for a law guardian/attorney for the children ($67K per year), attorney for CPS ($62K/yr), up to two attorneys for the parents ($70K - $140K/yr), the judge ($165K/yr), court appointed evaluators (CASA, mental health evaluators, therapists), including paid testimony time, and court ordered services for parents and children ($20 - $150/hr). CPS also costs states millions of dollars in legal damages paid to individual and class action plaintiffs who have won lawsuits against CPS.
Case law and publicity generated from the work of Youth Law Center, Children's Rights, National Center for Youth Law, attorneys and public news outlets reveal that CPS and court appointed law guardians regularly fail to protect children who starve, die and irreparably suffer, not thrive, in child protection services. State budgets could find a more effective use of the public funds currently being spent on unethical child removals.
Join the many people standing up to CPS and please tell Health and Human Services to stop spending public funding on unethical child removals and multi-million dollar lawsuits.
Dear Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin and Inspector General,
States are spending millions of dollars annually on unethical child removals performed by unaccountable child protection services (CPS). Children are obtained through unethical means, such as failing to present exculpatory information to the court, manufacturing mental illnesses with state funded and CPS contracted evaluators, skipping material court hearings and procedures, such as fact-findings, ignoring court orders, and failing to present witnesses, testimony, cross-examination, evidence and discovery during removal hearings.
Cases can linger in the judicial system for years and cost states hundreds of thousands of dollars for a law guardian/attorney for the children ($67K per year), attorney for CPS ($62K/yr), up to two attorneys for the parents ($70K - $140K/yr), the judge ($165K/yr), court appointed evaluators (CASA, mental health evaluators, therapists), including paid testimony time, and court ordered services for parents and children ($20 - $150/hr). CPS also costs states millions of dollars in legal damages paid to individual and class action plaintiffs who have won lawsuits against CPS.
Case law and publicity generated from the work of Youth Law Center, Children's Rights, National Center for Youth Law, attorneys and public news outlets reveal that CPS and court appointed law guardians regularly fail to protect children who starve, die and irreparably suffer, not thrive, in child protection services. State budgets could find a more effective use of the public funds currently being spent on unethical child removals.
I join the hundreds of other people petitioning you to hold CPS accountable for spending public funding on unethical child removals and multi-million dollar lawsuits.
The Undersigned.
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The Hold CPS Accountable! Stop Unethical Child Removals. petition to Health and Human Services (Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin and Inspector General) was written by Tiffany and is in the category Law Reform at GoPetition.