CPS and ACS investigators are often looked at as a selfless agency helping to protect innocent children who find themselves in dangerous inappropriate situations. CPS workers are often credited with rescuing children, saving children’s lives and being the protectors of the innocent. While this is true there are many horrendous nightmare stories involving CPS and ACS investigations that destroy families they are supposed to protect. There are many situations where innocent injuries which are the normal part of children growing up develop into cases of child abuse or child neglect. Children skin their knees. They sometimes break their bones. They can be are injured while playing, participating in athletics or horsing around. However, even in these innocent situations, CPS workers and ACS workers have been known to threaten or remove children from nonviolent, loving parents based on false allegations of lack of guardianship or failure to properly parent the children.

Sexual Abuse and Parents

Sexual abuse of children exists in our society. Who are the sexual abusers?
Physical abuse or sexual abuse often involves another family member. Sometimes a male member of a household. It can be another child in the household or another child that who plays with the family’s child. When this physical or sexual abuse is reported the parents usually expect CPS and ACS will help them and try to punish those individuals who perpetrated the physical or sexual abuse of their child. Often these parents are shocked when CPS or ACS goes after them and charges them with failure to act as appropriate guardians that led to the sexual abuse the parents had no idea was taking place. In these situations, the parents are subject to investigations. Sometimes while the parents are investigated the alleged perpetrators of the physical or sexual abuse are ignored. CPS and ACS workers can threaten the parents that they’re going to take their child or children away from them. Instead of helping families subject to abuse the investigators have been known to prosecute the parents.

Domestic Violence Situations

Other situations where improper actions are known to be taken by CPS and ACS investigators is when there is domestic violence in the family household. Often the victims of the domestic violence contact CPS or ACS and report the incident. The children in these cases are aware of or are in the room when the incident takes place. In these situations, CPS and ACS have a tendency to go after both the perpetrator of the domestic violence as well as the victim of the domestic violence. They are often charging the victim of domestic violence with child abuse or child neglect for allowing the children to be present or to be around a domestic violence situation. The victim of this domestic violence may be a woman who has actually done everything in their power to protect her children. In spite of this in many cases the victims of domestic violence have been indicated for child abuse and child neglect.

Many mothers would rather be threatened with prison than losing their children from being in a relationship involved domestic violence. The level of proof CPS and ACS workers are required to set forth against a mother who is a victim of domestic violence is minimal. In these cases, it makes it very difficult for the mother to defend herself. This is often the situation when the mother is charged with “failure to protect the children” or “the mother should have known to remove the children from a household that may be subject to domestic violence.” In these cases, the mother may have no place where she can go. In many of these cases CPS and ACS seek to remove the children from the mother’s custody for her failure to protect the children. Failure to protect the children not from the abuse but from being present while she was abused. These stories of abused women being prosecuted by CPS and ACS have been documented on many occasions.

Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq. is a divorce lawyer representing men and women throughout the Metropolitan New York area. He can be reached at Elliot@sdnylaw.com or 800-344-6431.