are well aware of the significant number of very young, poverty-level, drug-addicted individuals having unprotected sex and popping out babies they can ill afford (and don't know how to parent).
Some facts I gathered while in training as a DCFS caseworker (before I was wrongfully terminated...):
*Arkansas is number one with regards to the percentage of children taken into foster care who are returned to their parents within the thirty days the state has to prove abuse or neglect. Hence, children end up traumatized and DCFS' bad reputation is reinforced.
*Arkansas (like many other states) makes allowances for spanking (usually because of the 'religious' doctrines supporting physical punishment of children). Caseworkers must ascertain whether the spanking is abusive or excessive.
*Caseworkers are underpaid and overworked -- juggling 2-3 times the cases they are supposed to be assigned (per the constraints imposed by a federal lawsuit).
*Turnover is extremely high, with a tenacious few moving up 'through the ranks,' regardless of their proven incompetence.
*Arkansas has only recently acknowledged the trauma inflicted on children who are taken into custody, and has little to no social services for these children (psychiatric help, especially).
*Many caseworkers treat their client families with disdain, virtually guaranteeing non-compliance and likely dooming the client children to an endless parade of foster homes.
Arkansas is NOT the only state wherein our children are growing up in poverty, with parents who are ill-equipped to raise them. Like most other states, Arkansas only 'finds true' roughly 30% of reported child abuse/neglect. In virtually ALL cases I investigated, the children were living in squalid conditions, and I wished fervently that I could establish legal grounds to offer supportive services.
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