Fighting CPS for Grandparents

Nobody needs to agree with me. Even if I face opposition, I will protest the evils of child protective services as long as I need to. However, a lot of people do agree - most of them, because they've had children taken from their families by this over-active, family-destroying government agency.

It isn't only young parents who are feeling the pain. Many grandparents are traumatized when their grandchildren are placed in foster homes. Though the CPS rules state that extended family members should be given Kinship Care rights before a foster home is considered, that rule is often violated so that grandparents and other family members are left with the quandary of looking for legal help, paying a juvenile court lawyer, and spending many days, weeks, and months in a state of mental torture and pain.

Often it is grandparents who the children are taken away from. If a grandparent is raising grandchildren in lieu of the parents for any reason, that family group becomes an easy target for a CPS agent, because the grandparent has no legal standing in court to be given a reunification plan and an opportunity to get the child back. Many hearts have been broken.

In Riverside, California, a couple managed to get Kinship Care rights for their very young granddaughter. The parents weren't able to complete their service plan and/or weren't able to get their daughter back. Their parental rights were terminated by the county juvenile court when the child was two years old. The grandparents who had her all those months adored her completely and were ready to adopt when CPS workers showed up at their door and informed them they no longer had grandparent rights as the parent's rights were terminated. They removed that beautiful young girl from the family she loved and placed her with a lesbian couple for adoption. The grandparents never saw their beloved granddaughter again. They had no rights to protect her from this outrageous government agency. They protested for months. They went to court. And nothing they did made any difference. They eventually had to give up because their granddaughter was lost to them forever.

So, for all those who think "It could never happen to me" there are many thousands of heartbroken, traumatized Americans (and this happens in other countries too) who are grieving and will never fully recover from violation of family rights. This kind of experience eliminates our abilities to trust anyone, especially our government. This is why I fight CPS... to give those who are suffering legal information and support they need while they're going through exceedingly dark days of despair.