``If the nation had deliberately designed a system that would frustrate the professionals who staff it, anger the public who finance it and abandon the children who depend it, it could not have done a better job than the present child welfare system.''  - National Commission on Children 

          I am deeply troubled by the coming billboard campaign in the Antelope Valley for the recruitment of foster and adoptive parents. A father who recently had a battle with Children Protective Services wrote to victims of the Department of Family Services, ``I am upset with CPS because they work hand-in-glove with the adoption agencies, and they don't really care about children or an individual's constitutional rights. Money is bottom line, keeping the federal dollars rolling in.''

          This father has reason to be upset and concerned. Until the children's protection system and the Department of Children and Family Services correct deficiencies in their programs, the speeding up of placement and adoption of children should not take place. To save space, I will bullet some facts, figures and quotations to support my argument.

          By claiming emergency circumstances, Child Protective Service workers do not need to abide by Fourth Amendment search-and-seizure safeguards. 

          Miranda warnings are not read to parents; nor are parents allowed access to information compiled on them. (``The War Against Parents,'' Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Cornel West.)

          What happens to the children whom our sometimes overzealous child welfare workers take away from parents? The great majority are placed in the protective custody of foster care - an enormously costly system that often manages to produce miserable results for both parents and children. (``The War Against Parents,'' Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Cornel West.)

          Child maltreatment reports from the states to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data Systems statistics show that in 1995, 57 percent of all cases investigated by Child Protective Services were unsubstantiated. The estimate for 1997 is 75 percent. (``Victims of Department of Family and Children Services,'' March 11, 1998.) 

          Douglas J. Besharov, J.D., LL.M., the first director of the U.S. National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect stated before the Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families: ``Unreasonably high unfounded rates (of child abuse and neglect) are a public relations disaster. Up to now, most child welfare officials - in the federal, state, and local agencies - have lacked the courage to (state statistics concerning child abuse and neglect are inflated) because they fear that such honesty will discredit their efforts and lead to budget cuts.''

          He continues, ``Overworked and inadequately trained workers may not uncover the evidence that exists. As a result, children in real danger are getting lost in the press of inappropriate cases.''

          Do the above statements sound like a system that should be given more power to destroy families at a faster rate? I pray - literally - that the coming campaign is reconsidered.

Marilyn Dalrymple
Lancaster 


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