San Diego County Child Protective Services, Social Workers,
and Juvenile Dependency Court - A Guide for Good Fathers
Summary: Information and advice for fathers having to deal with San Diego
County's Child Protective Services and Juvenile Dependency Court. This is
usually due to a petition filed by a social worker alleging child abuse, child
neglect, or domestic violence. "The system" often intervenes by first
removing your child to Polinsky Children's Center.
I intend for this WWW area to provide advice and information to fathers
whose children are ``in the system'' through no fault of their own
- either due to false allegations against them, or due to the actions of
the child's mother, other caretaker, or relatives.
All parents go through tremendous stress and frustration once their
child's lives are touched by the system, so I hope to develop this WWW area
to provide advice for dealing with CPS and the courts, and for preserving
your relationship with your children once juvenile dependency proceedings
are underway.
2001 May: (Forthcoming) Articles:
- The Family Unity Meeting - be careful!
- ''Failure to Protect'' - what this charge is used for, and what it
means to you.
- Social Workers' Court Reports - common phrases and techniques used by
social workers in their written submissions to the court. Learn from them!
External Links:
- KPBS documentary on San Diego
CPS - an eye-opening but rather superficial documentary made in 2001.
This WWW site contains video clips and a link to purchase the video, in
addition to short essays on related subjects.
- The Fathers Group - San
Diego-based support group for fathers dealing with custody issues.
- CPS Watch - national pressure
group and legal advice forum, with eye-opening revelations about CPS
politics and culture. Also provides an excellent no-holds-barred Parents'
Guide to the System, and a newsletter (although the last one was published
in August 2000).
- 1992
letter from the San Diego Grand Jury
- Lifting the Veil- Examining the
Child Welfare, Foster Care and Juvenile Justice Systems
- Voices for Children - the
San Diego volunteer program for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs).
- Child Protection
Reform - includes chilling personal testimony before Congress about CPS
abuse of power.
Parting words...
If the nation had deliberately designed a system that would frustrate the
professionals who staff it, anger the public who finance it and abandon the
children who depend on it, it could not have done a better job than the
present child welfare system.
- The John D. Rockefeller National Commission on Children
Disclaimer: Observations and opinions are solely my own, based
on my experience as a father fighting to protect his son. As such I am
exercising my First Amendment rights as an individual; the contents of this
WWW area are not affliliated with or endorsed by the University of
California, San Diego.
Philip Blanco pblanco@ucsd.edu