The 2008 "Increasing Adoptions Act" financially motivates Social Services investigators to find more parents unfit than ever before. Inappropriate financial incentives set forth in that Act have contributed to increasing levels of inaccurate reporting of incidents.
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Lack of transparency, accuracy, and due process with Social Services
It appears that the current trend is for Social Services to blame inaccurate reports on "training issues". It is easy to see why they don’t mention their financial incentive plan as a potential cause for the inaccurate reports. The inaccurate reports are systemic at this point - and it is NOT primarily because of a lack of training, although I'm not sure that the individual caseworkers understand where the pressure is coming from. The United States government literally pays Social Services extra for each time they take custody away from a parent. This would not normally be Constitutional, except that your state has probably agreed to waive its 10th amendment right to state sovereignty on this issue as a condition of accepting all of the Federal incentives. If you are involved in a custody dispute with Social Services, read the Act, please!
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How much is this incentive to take my children?
Q: How much is the "incentive" for separating you from your "older child?" A: $8,000 (plus a bonus $1k extra if they can take away more kids than in past years), plus other incentives, often including gifts to the child for going against their parent, sometimes including offers of laptops, scholarships, etc.
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Is this problem going to go away? What can I do to protect myself?
My prediction is that since the financial incentives are legislated to increase according to the Act, until 2013: (1) there will be a 100% or more "structurally motivated" increase in so-called "abusive parent reports" in the next 4 years nationwide; (2) that much of this increase will continue to involve inaccurate reporting motivated by direct financial incentives for the investigative agencies, and (3) that many who are accused of abuse, but cannot afford lawyers will continue to have their children removed, due to inaccurate reports and "emergency measures" that circumvent normal due process. The damage being caused by this "structural incentive plan" is absolutely astounding. If you are involved in a custody dispute with DHS, I recommend buying a voice recorder to keep things honest.
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