The Effects of Insufficient Funding of Child Protective Services How often is the reality of child protective services (CPS) revealed? Occasionally, a child abuse or neglect case will result in child fatality that draws attention from the press. The media then exploits said child abuse case and the case worker is usually blamed for the child’s outcome, no matter what their efforts were to help the child prior to his or her death. Despite a social worker’s best intentions, they are not always capable of properly caring for children in need. There’s no denying the rising issue of child abuse and domestic violence in the United States, for example, according to the Child Help Organization, “a report of child abuse is made every ten seconds” (“Child
…show more content…
In his article, “Better Support for Child Welfare Workers Can Reduce Child Abuse,” Jess McDonald exclaims that child welfare workers receive “an average salary of only $22,000” (“Better Support Child Welfare”). Consequently, CPS workers are eventually going to be less motivated to thoroughly investigate all cases they receive. The anonymous author of “Better Funding of Child Protection Services Will Help Protect Children from Domestic Violence” emphasizes that by properly apportioning government finances, CPS can more efficiently help children in danger of domestic abuse (“Better Funding”). In doing so, the author supports the assumption that augmenting salaries is one of many ways to create a better qualified CPS faculty. Furthermore, in a powerful article concerning the harsh realities of being a CPS case worker, the Children’s Rights Organization dissects the issue of overwhelmed caseworkers and asserts that even though Child Protective Services workers put in endless hours of energy fighting to defend vulnerable children, they earn remarkably less money per year than child, family, or social workers (“For Overwhelmed Caseworkers”). Therefore, due to the lack of funding from the federal government, CPS workers will continue to receive low wages that do not adequately reciprocate the effort that case workers contribute, …show more content…
For example, in an impressive column concerning the workloads and unemployment of CPS case workers in Texas, Terri Langford claims that “there are more than 200 investigative positions with CPS in Harris County, but 33 of those positions are vacant, and another 22 caseworkers are still in training and not actively working abuse cases.” Moreover, a number of case workers are “let go” each year due to publicity scandals. We need to look no further than Jon Cassidy’s article, “The Impossible Job of Child Protective Services” to understand the complexity of a CPS case being published in the news or on social media. As a result, Cassidy’s article provides ample evidence to conclude that the publication of a child abuse fatality usually results in CPS firing the case worker, despite their efforts to help said child, in order to satisfy the public’s demands. The Children’s Rights Organization further supports the claim that the lack of federal funding to CPS puts excessive demands on individual case workers, resulting in high turnover rates that can lead to the improper placement or neglect of a child by Child Protective Services (“For Overwhelmed
In his article, “Better Support for Child Welfare Workers Can Reduce Child Abuse,” Jess McDonald exclaims that child welfare workers receive “an average salary of only $22,000” (“Better Support Child Welfare”). Consequently, CPS workers are eventually going to be less motivated to thoroughly investigate all cases they receive. The anonymous author of “Better Funding of Child Protection Services Will Help Protect Children from Domestic Violence” emphasizes that by properly apportioning government finances, CPS can more efficiently help children in danger of domestic abuse (“Better Funding”). In doing so, the author supports the assumption that augmenting salaries is one of many ways to create a better qualified CPS faculty. Furthermore, in a powerful article concerning the harsh realities of being a CPS case worker, the Children’s Rights Organization dissects the issue of overwhelmed caseworkers and asserts that even though Child Protective Services workers put in endless hours of energy fighting to defend vulnerable children, they earn remarkably less money per year than child, family, or social workers (“For Overwhelmed Caseworkers”). Therefore, due to the lack of funding from the federal government, CPS workers will continue to receive low wages that do not adequately reciprocate the effort that case workers contribute, …show more content…
For example, in an impressive column concerning the workloads and unemployment of CPS case workers in Texas, Terri Langford claims that “there are more than 200 investigative positions with CPS in Harris County, but 33 of those positions are vacant, and another 22 caseworkers are still in training and not actively working abuse cases.” Moreover, a number of case workers are “let go” each year due to publicity scandals. We need to look no further than Jon Cassidy’s article, “The Impossible Job of Child Protective Services” to understand the complexity of a CPS case being published in the news or on social media. As a result, Cassidy’s article provides ample evidence to conclude that the publication of a child abuse fatality usually results in CPS firing the case worker, despite their efforts to help said child, in order to satisfy the public’s demands. The Children’s Rights Organization further supports the claim that the lack of federal funding to CPS puts excessive demands on individual case workers, resulting in high turnover rates that can lead to the improper placement or neglect of a child by Child Protective Services (“For Overwhelmed