Unwarranted CPS Child Seizures Rise

State Child Protective Services (CPS) are increasingly seizing children from their parents for trivial reasons or over baseless, anonymous allegations, as the Washington Examiner describes today in several related articles.  One article discusses how Washington, D.C. continues to treat the Caplans as child-abusers even though “five doctors confirmed that an injury sustained by one of their twin daughters was not caused by abuse,” and how an Arlington couple permanently lost custody of their child even though they “had been exonerated by of all neglect charges nine months earlier.”  Another notes that “California’s 2003 Little Hoover Commission Report said up to 70 percent of children in foster care should never have been removed from their homes.”  Yet another notes that “States receive a $4,000 cash bonus from the federal government for each child adopted, multiplied by the percentage that the state exceeds its adoption goal.”  (We earlier discussed the calamitous effect such adoption bonuses have had in England.  Yesterday, we discussed the illegal seizure of over 400 children in Texas).