Let's Learn More About DFCS Before We Condemn Them.....

This is a sad rant with a happy ending.

Before you shake your head and decry the inadequacies of the Georgia DFCS (Department of Family and Children’s Services) I think we need to walk a mile in their shoes.  Recent headlines are just tragic.  Especially the ten year old starved by her own parents and then her body discarded and burned in an attempt to hide the crime.  Please continue, I promise that’s the most awful sentence you will read in this post.  People who love children have made loud statements about DFCS again not doing their job and missing the telltale signs that may have saved this child.  It is very possible that DFCS indeed dropped the ball in this case.  I’ve met some childcare professionals who are idiots.  But let’s not damn the whole system due to this horror.

 I am a volunteer in the Juvenile Court System and have seen this from the inside.  Here is what I have learned:

·         Most DFCS workers are women who have college degrees in Social Work.  A majority have Masters degrees and enjoy a pay rate of about 2/3 their similarly educated peers.  You have to WANT to help children to go through this much effort for so little financial reward.

·         It is not unusual for a DFCS field worker to have as many as 100 children under their supervision.  This portfolio is not impossible, but it’s difficult to really manage this type of load.  Why aren’t there more agents?  Ask your state legislature who refuses to add to their budget.

·         Everybody hates the DFCS worker.  That’s a pretty dramatic statement but the truth is that when one of these well-educated, well intended souls shows up on your porch it’s either to inspect your home, ask difficult questions or potentially to take your child.  The DFCS workers role is to come to the aid of children in harm’s way and find them a foster home or similar situation until the situation at home is designated safe for return.  Sadly, this return process does not always happen.  Not surprisingly, employee turnover at DFCS is very high.

·         Few people tell the DFCS worker the truth.  Parents lie, children lie, family members lie and yet the child’s best hope for a safe night’s sleep, DFCS, must see through this and make snap decisions regarding the safety of the child.  As a human, it must be very hard to bring the hammer down and call a drug addled mother a liar and take her child.  That’s the job of the DFCS Agent.

When I’ve gone to court I have seen juvenile judges berate DFCS workers for not having their facts straight or for not having visited a child’s living environment in several weeks.  Judges know what they are doing so I know there must be some merit to the chastisement.  But I’ve also seen the enormous turnover in this department and other children’s defense groups.  It will wear you down.  I’ve seen parents and siblings of innocent young children doing horrible things to each other and to the child. 

Most of us have jobs and I’d like to invite you to take a moment and imagine the worst possible day you could have, job related.  Would it be a deal you lost, or a student who fails?  We all know what the worst day for a DFCS Agent can be; the loss of a child under their protection. In the end, my fury goes to the drunken parents of all races and income levels, the dead beat dads, the drug pushers and pimps that put themselves first and helpless children dead last.  DFCS is there to help, but it’s a damn high mountain to climb.

I promised a happy ending and I’m glad to share it.  My most recent case involved a newborn child, now named Jackson, who was identified by doctors and DFCS when he was a newborn, still in Grady Hospital, as in immediate danger.  Both the mother and father (unmarried but somewhat together) were bad drug addicts living on the streets.  One was a recently released sex offender and the other a meth addict.  The child was born with chronic lung issues and his future was bleak indeed.  Through the efforts of DFCS, this young child was introduced to a Foster Family in Gwinnett County, GA who not only took him in, but went through very specific, uncomfortable treatments several times per day and took the youngster to numerous doctors’ visits.  I can remember at least three hospitalizations where this mother of four slept in the hospital room with young Jackson.  Last Friday Jackson was adopted into this loving family.  I was invited to see the papers signed and the entire family and their support group including DFCS was in attendance.  This is why they do what they do.  DFCS helped save a life.  Who else can say that?