http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texa ... 969969.php

This *sounds* like a good thing, to me. Taking some of the power away from the state and prioritizing placing children with their family members? I don't think it says it in the article, but my mom saw on the news that they were going to start working closely with churches. Here, a lot of the people who foster are church goers. I do want them to take away less kids from their parents, but this seems like a step towards actually doing what's best for the kids.

What do you think?

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Mom to Christian (13), Saphira (10), Xavier (5), and Adrian (2).

Sounds like a no-brainer to me. Why didn't they do it years ago?

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http://stuffedveggies.blogspot.com/

Another thing CPS can do that is just WRONG is take children from their families without proof of abuse and KEEP them for MONTHS! They don't even need to tell parents where the kids are or allow them to see them. THAT is abuse in itself.

This does sound like a decent first step.

The studies have shown that kids do better with their parents even in abusive situations, except in the most extreme cases. It is better to work with the families than to remove kids. My wife is a psychology/social work major who has had her kids taken. She stays on top of these things.

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“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” --Albert Einstein

I don't know. Do other states do this? I do know there have been a lot of complaints that our CPS system has failed to help a lot of kids that were said to be in very bad situations. They recently called an "emergency" and hired hundreds of new people. I guess they have been too busy going after homeschooling parents, and neglecting the really abused kids. I hope this will all lead to less kids being taken away and more parental control.

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Mom to Christian (13), Saphira (10), Xavier (5), and Adrian (2).

Yep, it's nothing short of kidnapping. I can't start thinking about how little control I have over my own children, without spiraling into a panic attack, so I try not to dwell on it.

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Mom to Christian (13), Saphira (10), Xavier (5), and Adrian (2).

I agree. My dad was verbally/emotionally abusive, and while that wasn't an ideal situation, I loved my childhood and I'm really glad no one took me away from my parents. THAT would have really messed me up. I do wish my dad would have gotten help. I always knew he loved me, but had some type of disorder. My mom did try to get us away from that situation and did succeed, to some extent.

There's this absurd notion that the state cares more for a child (that they've never even seen before) than the child's own parents. Like the state gave birth to and raised the child. God gave that child to those parents, not the state, so there better be a darn good reason to interfere. I'm not saying its a good thing for a child to be in an unhealthy situation, just that the alternative often does more damage, and the state really should take that into consideration.

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Mom to Christian (13), Saphira (10), Xavier (5), and Adrian (2).