Job Description
Child Protective Specialists respond directly to reports of child abuse and/or neglect. Using investigatory and social work skills, they partner with families and community resources to ensure the safety and well-being of children throughout New York City.
Typical Duties
- Complete field visits to investigate allegations of abuse and/or neglect.
- Interview family members and a broad range of contacts to assess child safety.
- Assess the risk of future abuse or neglect of children in the household.
- Coordinate a team of family members, staff and service providers to evaluate safety and identify interventions that can reduce risks for children.
- Remove child(ren) into protective custody or foster care, when appropriate.
- Enter and maintain accurate and timely computerized records of all case information.
- Help families navigate government agencies and access entitlement benefits.
- File petitions and testify in family court and other legal proceedings.
Ok so I gave you the Job Description and "Typical Duties". That's just a small picture of what we really do.
Here is how a typical day is for me, wake up at 6:30 am, so that I can get my own kids up to get them ready for school which includes making them breakfast and assuring that they get to school on time and daily. Get myself ready for a days work and make sure I eat breakfast because if I don't take care of myself how can I take care of my children and the children on my case loads. Ok so in training they told us to "plan ahead". Ok so am going to go in update some notes and than make follow up visits on so and so and so. Guess what?? That really does not work....no matter how much you plan ahead, nothing ever works as planned. So I get to work at 9:00 am or 10:00 am depending on the day and how long it took me to get in. Good morning, "you have a safety coming up, you have a IC coming up, you have a FASP overdue, you have to open up that FSI to an FSS and send that 2921 in." Oh yea, umm don't forget you have to get an MH, DIR, DV or medical consult. Ring ring...children services. "I need you to complete that over due FASP and when you done submit that safety on so and so." "Julie you have a pending!" "call the source." Umm what time is it now? Lunch time!
1:00 PM back to work. Let me call this source again. Oh damn 15 messages. That's 15 calls I have to return while I update these 3 to 4 cases. "Julie when are you leaving for that pending?, but before you leave I need that safety, oh and that IC on _____." Oh so now it's 5:30 and I have a pending to go to plus those 5 other follow up visits that I have already scheduled. It's 10:00 PM "do you know where your children are at?" Yea home sleeping or awake waiting to at least get that kiss good night, being watched by my BFF who cares enough to become the babysitter after he gets home from work because my hubby has to go to work while am en route home from my final visit. So thats a typical day without the chaos.
A recent development (tragedy) occurred that just has me with my mind blown shattered. And I know a lot of people know what am talking about cause it's only been all over the news and news papers and being repeated as if people did not get it the first time! Two of our colleagues have been charged with CRIMINAL NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE FOR A CRIME THEY DID NOT COMMIT!
Like WTF!!! So you mean that I can bust my butt all day and if something goes wrong, Am going to have some type of charge?? SMH! This is absurd....enough is enough!! That's just plain abuse against us! People are quick to judge and make comments about the agency and US CPS WORKERS, without knowing the amount of work that we have to do in a given day. Work is supposed to be eight hours a day. Sometimes I find myself working 12 plus and lets not forget if we have a removal that's an extra 5 to 8 hours we are working to go home take a cat nap, shower and get back to work and have to go to court and a whole bunch of other things we have to do on that same case; along with the other cases we have in our case load.
I can not sit here and say damn they muffed up which I know that is what may be going through some peoples heads because they don't understand what we go through. But I can sit here and pray for my colleagues and empathize with them and suffer with them. To put our lives at risk with no protection other than the one we have from the Lord above and be ridiculed to charges for a crime we did not commit, is just plain inhumane.
We are the front line. We are the ones putting ourselves to the unknown. We get a case, we go out there in prayer that everything is fine with this family and that nothing happens to us so that we can continue to do what we love/like or appreciate doing. For many it may be just a job, but for some of us it's a career or something that we want and love to do. Whatever it may be, the point is we do it, because we want to.
Am disappointed on how people minimize the work that we do and the amount of cases that we have. "Typical procedures"....that's a pretty picture when you look at it. But they left out the bigger picture!! You know the one that says initial visits, mandates, follow ups, collateral contacts, source contacts, child safety conferences, meetings, phone calls, removals, referrals, consultations, field activity, court activity, placements...etc.
Let's not forget the types of cases that we get. Let's not forget the families, we don't just deal with your average Bill Cosby family! We don't just deal with your average family of four. There are times when I had to interview a family of 9 with no assistance because everyone had their own work to do....oh how could I forget the mandatory 1-11's....that's 99 questions. That will take me 2 days to type! And we are not supposed to spend more than 30 minutes to an hour in a clients home....now how do you really expect me to do a thorough assessment in less than an hour. 9 times 1-11's, that's like 3 hours in that clients house, because I have to interview them separately. And that is if they are not hostile cause if I knock and they are hostile, I got to think about my safety first...and than I have to try to calm them and engage them, that's another 15 to 20 minutes.
Oh and I can't forget, we don't work in the safest neighborhoods. We don't work in the country side. To call us GHETTO AND INCOMPETENT"!!! I WOULD LIKE TO SEE YOU WALK IN OUR SHOES!! Have you ever had to remove a crying child from their parents? Have you ever had to walk by a crime scene that had nothing to do with you or your case? Have you ever had someone curse you out because a case was called in on them? Have you ever had a door slammed to your face? Have you ever walked alone at night after conducting mandated visits praying that you get home to your own children??? WHO are YOU to JUDGE?
"Commissioner John Mattingly said on Thursday that ACS workers have an average of 10 families per worker - a lighter load than their counterparts in other cities." Surely you can't be serious!! Are those numbers correct?? I must be super CPS if I make it to that number. When we will reality strike that we have way too damn much work for us to do on a damn given day?? When will reality strike that all these damn budget cuts are taking away services that we can be providing our families?? When will reality strike that we are over worked and underpaid??
I'm just saying!!
I may not be the perfect CPS I want to be but at least I try my best! and do the best that I can do to assure that children on my case load are safe. Let our people go!!! How can you charge them for a murder they did not commit. I don't know what happened there but I do believe that they have already paid the price by being laid off. To be put in jail and charge with a crime. IT'S JUST PLAIN INHUMANE AND RIDICULOUS!!! WHAT ABOUT OUR SAFETY? WE ASKED TO HAVE THE BILL A4525...MAKING IT A FELONY TO ASSAULT ANY SOCIAL SERVICE EMPLOYEE IN NEW YORK STATE AND WE HAVE NOT RECEIVED THAT BUT YET YOU WANT TO CHARGE US WITH NEGLIGENT HOMICIDES FOR CRIMES WE DO NOT COMMIT!!!!
