By Dorothy Roberts, Photo: iStock, The Washington Post, April 15, 2022
The U.S. Children’s Bureau describes the child welfare system as “a group of services designed to promote the well-being of children by ensuring safety, achieving permanency, and strengthening families.” But developments like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent instructions to state agencies to investigate gender-affirming medical care as possible child abuse have helped to shatter the system’s benevolent veneer. Many people hold misconceptions about this arm of the government, which spends some $30 billion annually in federal, state and local funds regulating the families of 3.5 million children. Before we can reimagine how to support families and keep children safe, we first have to dispel some common myths about this system.
Child welfare workers mainly rescue children from abuse.
The view of state child protective services (CPS) workers as saviors swooping in to rescue children from violent homes circulates widely. In one episode, “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” featured a New York City CPS supervisor offering this harrowing testimony about her job: “I’m asked to do what the courts can’t do, what the cops can’t do,” she told the jury. “We get the dregs of humanity — children raised by wolves!” In a profile on the Eastern New Mexico University website, a student majoring in social work explains, “I hope to work as a Child Protective Services worker to ensure the safety and well-being of children by intervening in reported incidents of child abuse.”
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