Why Are Children Removed From Their Homes?
No one wants to have to tear a family apart. However, sometimes circumstances make it unsafe for a child to be at home, and the state has a legal obligation to ensure the child's safety.
Several factors go into a court decision to remove a child. The top three sources who may report abuse or neglect are medical personnel, someone from the child's school, or law enforcement. When a case is opened by CPS, they must determine if the following criteria are met:
“There is a danger to the child.”
“The caseworker has made reasonable efforts, consistent with the circumstances of each case, to secure the child’s safety.”
“There is no other reasonable way to ensure safety except for removal.”
The top reasons for removing a child from their home are abuse and neglect. Abuse may include emotional abuse, forced marriage, labor trafficking, physical abuse, sex trafficking, and sexual abuse. Neglect may include abandonment, neglectful supervision, medical negligence, physical negligence, and refusal to assume parental responsibility.
When children cannot safely live at home, the court can give temporary legal possession to Child Protective Services (CPS). CPS is not the bad guy. CPS works with the parents to try not to remove the children. CPS assigns a case worker to the children, and the immediate goal is to find a safe home for the children to live while the biological parents work to get their rights back. These temporary places could be foster family homes, residential group care facilities, or other facilities overseen by another state agency.
It is important to remember several things: Just because a child is removed, that does not make the parent a bad person. Sometimes circumstances have made it difficult for the parent to do what they need to do. When a child is removed, the legal goal of the state is always to pursue reunification with his or her own family first. For this to happen, the parent must work on various mandates as ordered by the state to correct whatever issues caused the removal. Sometimes a parent does the work and is happily reunified with the child. Other times, parental rights are terminated by the court, and the child becomes available for adoption.
At 1HOPE, we not only care about our foster children, but we also care about their biological parents. We want them to succeed, and often our foster families will be a source of support and encouragement for the biological parents as they work through their mandates. We rejoice at both positive reunifications and adoptions. What was once broken is now made whole again, in part by the work of the parent, but ultimately through the reconciling and sanctifying work of Jesus.
Join us in praying for our foster families who have opened their homes to children in need, for the biological parents of our foster children, and for our state officials and magistrates to make wise laws and wise decisions in the cases of our children.
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