SYSTEMIC NON-COMPLIANCE
Child welfare agencies are legally required to follow their own regulations and procedures. When they do not, their actions exceed the authority granted to them by law. Despite this, agencies routinely violate governing statutes, federal mandates, and internal policies.
An agency with the power to seize our children
must adhere to the laws defining that power.
With great power must come great accountability.
RESPONSIBLE
PARTY
ACCOUNTABILITY
The non-offending parent is often held responsible while the perpetrator avoids accountability.
Intervention must focus on the person who creates the danger.
is named the
NON-OFFENDING PARENT
RESPONSIBLE
PARTY
The
cases involving
children exposed to
DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE
2/3
in over
of mothers in DV-related child welfare cases are accused of
failure to protect,
even when they sought help or restraining orders.
86%
Abusers are required to
leave the home in under
22%
OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
CASES
POLICY
PRACTICE
Abusive partners are rarely mandated into services or removed from the home, in part because that path requires legal action, complexity, and confrontation. Rather than removing the threat to the child, the child is removed from their primary source of safety.
​
DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE
CASES
include
2/3
NO
mandated services for the abuser
When abuse charges intervention,
intervention must charge the abuser.
FAMILY
PRESERVATION
PRIORITY
Reporting abuse often triggers child removal instead of support, undermining a parent's efforts to preserve the family integrity.
Agencies must make reasonable efforts to preserve families and keep children safe in their own homes whenever possible.
POLICY
PRACTICE
72%
of caseworkers said
caseloads and timelines
“often prevent”
offering adequate
FAMILY
PRESERVATION
SERVICES
before removal.
Agencies failed to
provide services
BEFORE
REMOVING
THE CHILD
​
in over
of cases
60%
of children entering
foster care
could have remained
SAFELY WITH
FAMILY
With proper
support services,
39%
Families receiving housing or advocacy support were
46%
less likely to experience child removal within
one year.
CPS often bypasses preventative support because their timelines and performance measures prioritize immediate risk reduction over long-term family stability. This leads to child removals in situations where basic services such as housing assistance, advocacy, or legal protection could have maintained safety in the home.
A system built to keep families intact
should not be the force that tears them apart.
VICTIM
SUPPORT
PROTOCOLS
Victims are often harshly interrogated, surveilled, and punished for not preventing the violence inflicted against them.
Victims must be protected, supported, and empowered as part of a safety plan.
POLICY
PRACTICE
of advocates said survivors report not disclosing abuse due to fear of CPS
64%
of CPS agencies consistently provide appropriate safety services to victims in DV cases.
14%
Only
Of victims are listed as
alleged PERPETRATORS
in DV-related petitions.
40%
State-sanctioned child removal
due to a mother's victimization
INCREASES her risk of
​
of child welfare agencies have specialized DV units or
DV-informed protocols.
Survivor support guidelines emphasize the importance of providing support resources and treating each domestic violence case with unique consideration and trauma-informed care. Child welfare agencies frequently fail to meet this standard, applying a one-size-fits-all approach across complex cases that overlooks a victim's experience, disregards their barriers to independence, and accentuates punishment and reform over compassion and assistance.
HOMICIDE
15%
We must stand up for victims who stand up against abuse.
LEAST
RESTRICTIVE
INTERVENTION
Removal of children must be the last resort after exhausting less disruptive options.
Child removal can be considered a first emergency response to a report of domestic violence in the household.
POLICY
PRACTICE
Emergency removals of children from their homes are often implemented to prevent potential risk before a family's situation is fully understood and supportive services are thoroughly considered. This contributes to higher rates of removal in domestic violence cases, even where statutory guidance emphasizes using removal only as a last resort.
In about
of CPS cases, courts found that “reasonable efforts” to prevent removal were not made or reuired
1/2
Only
29%
of cases included documentation of specific efforts to avoid separating the child from the non-offending parent.
Agencies failed to make reasonable efforts in over
1/3
child removals, most commonly for insufficient in-home safety planning.
About
63%
of children entering foster care in 2023 were removed for “neglect,” often linked to poverty or conditions addressable through in-home services.
We must banish the abuser, not the child.
KINSHIP
PLACEMENT
STANDARDS
When child removal is necessary, kinship placement with a safe parent or relative must be prioritized.
Children are frequently placed with strangers while the protective parent is excluded as a valid placement option.
POLICY
PRACTICE
fewer placement disruptions than those placed with non-relatives.
32%
Children placed with relatives experience
Caseworkers frequently deny placement with the non-offending parent, citing minor compliance issues or speculation and defaulting to foster care even when the safe parent is suitable, available, and willing, and often against the child's best interests.
~1 in 3 kinship caregivers are denied placement for reasons unrelated to safety, such as income or housing space
Only about one in four kinship caregivers are approved for placement
~37%
of children in foster care live with relatives, despite federal policy prioritizing kinship care.
Only
Family is a child's foundation.
TRAUMA-
INFORMED
PRACTICE
POLICY
PRACTICE
Child welfare agencies must commit to trauma-informed principles, recognizing how violence, fear, and instability affect a parent's and a child's ability to act, cope, and respond.
Trauma responses are often disregarded and labeled as neglect; intervention and unwarranted child removal can exacerbate trauma for children and survivors.
Trauma-informed care is promoted in policy but not implemented in practice when case decisions are driven by immediate risk optics rather than long-term outcomes. This disconnect is seen when separation is used reflexively, ignoring overwhelming evidence about attachment and child trauma.
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Trauma-informed training increases accurate identification of child trauma by
45%
2.5X
Children who experience
multiple caregiver separations are
36%
Each additional foster-care placement change increases a child’s risk of behavioral problems by roughly
2X
Children are
more likely to develop a
psychiatric disorder.
as likely to develop PTSD if removed from their home
1 in 3 mothers involved with child welfare agencies experience PTSD symptoms.
6 in 10 mothers who had a child removed reported persistent, daily grief symptoms 1 year later.
Mothers who lose custody of a child are nearly
2X
as likely to be diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder.
Mothers who's children were removed were
more likely to die by suicide than their biological sisters.
4.5X
The severance of a child and a caring parent's bond
is trauma-inducing, not trauma-informed.