Children are not the property of the State.

Unclear and unconstitutional legislation in many states has given government agencies and judges a dangerous amount of power. Without any evidence, a state agency can remove children from a loving home. Even after the State forces a parent to prove their innocence, family court judges might still strip one parent of custody with little to no evidence to support such a finding.

My three little girls have suffered this fate. After winning THREE trials, the State still prevented my daughters from returning home.

The family policing system, which includes Child Protection Services and family court officials, operates outside the bounds of the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court has long upheld the fundamental right of parents to direct the care, custody, and control of their children. However, states have run roughshod over this right. They will continue to do so until we hold them accountable.

According to Human Rights Watch, one in three children in the United States will endure a child protection investigation by the age of 18.

On average, 700 children per day are removed from a parent due to an allegation of abuse or neglect. In 2021, more than three million children experienced an investigation. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, less than twenty percent of those cases found maltreatment occurred. A finding of maltreatment by Child Protection Services often happens with little evidence and no due process afforded to the parents.

Most often, unsuspecting parents comply with state workers who have conflicting responsibilities. Chris Gottlieb, a law professor and child welfare expert at New York University, has this to say:

“Social workers play a dual role with opposing goals—they are expected to support the same parents they are charged with investigating and prosecuting. That creates a conflict that is not resolvable. If we want social workers to actually be helpful to families, the roles must be separated.”

Parents with children thrust into family courts fare no better. A parent who desires sole custody will often weaponize the child protection system and/or the family court system without realizing the extreme harm caused to their children.

Dr. Linda Nielsen, a professor at Wake Forest University, conducted a meta analysis of sixty studies to determine the effect of parenting time on children. She found children who shared close to equal time with their divorced parents had better outcomes in the following areas:

• Academic and cognitive development
• Depression, anxiety, and self-esteem
• Substance abuse and hyperactivity
• Physical and mental health
• Familial relationships

The systems in place make it extremely difficult for parents to protect their children. Whether willingly or unwittingly, bar associations, attorneys, counselors, consultants, and mental health hospitals benefit financially from parental conflict and their “support systems” propagate it. Legislators have a hard time knowing how to rewrite laws, and judges relinquish power to government agencies or outsource authority to mental health professionals. Children often suffer through years of litigation and often “age out” of these systems when they turn 18. Our society is left to deal with the fallout.

Sadly, children in real need of protection often go undetected due to the massive amount of false reports. Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, has this to say:

“The systems are deluged with these false reports and trivial cases so they don’t have time to find the very few children in real danger. Those cases are a needle in a haystack. For 50 years, we’ve tried to find the needles by making the haystack bigger. That hasn’t worked. It’s time to find better ways to detect the needles instead.”

We can and we must change these systems.

Resources: Human Rights Watch Research, Journal of Child Custody 2018 Report, Health and Human Services 2021 Report, NPR 2023 Analysis