Services??

[flcps2011]

Please tell me if I'm wrong. From what I gather, the extensive "services" that are offered and one must usually do when accepting a case or safety plan when you want to get your child back are not free. They must be paid for by the parent??

Ok, if this is true, my response is oh my god are you kidding. First of all, after having Medicaid insurance (only because my boyfriend and I found ourselves unexpectedly pregnant and I therefore, couldn't obtain pregnancy insurance), I have become fully aware of the fact that typically ANY services (insurance, etc) offered by the government or for free are terrible! None of the doctors I wanted to see ever accepted Medicaid. A social worker I encountered once told me (in reference to my medical issues), "Start using all the valuable resources available to you!!!" I was like, "Huh. What are you talking about??" She said "your insurance." I'm like, "Do you know something I don't??" She had no response to my question.

So, I would have to pay money I don't have for terrible services I don't want that actually only serve the purpose of building a case against the parents?

So is this true? We have to pay for these "services"? If that is true, how can anyone complete all their "services" and get their child back? If people are on government assistance to begin with, how do they honestly expect them to afford extra services? Oh wait, they don't. They already know this when they require it. They know most will fail. And they will get the children.

Sorry for my cynicism! I'm very physically sick and have many health problems. I know I will never be able to physically complete all this stuff they may ask of me. I also have a emotionally sick family who put me in this place to begin with. A place where I don't deserve to be!

[Eljay]

No, the "indigent" don't have to pay. In LA County, "indigent" is household income of less than about $140,000/year.

[family_man]

Eljay you must be joking! You mean any family in LA County earning less than $140K/yr qualifies for govt. assisstance? That has to be a typo right?

To answer the original question, I would say you are correct that you generally do have to pay for the "services" they mandate for you. The parenting class is pretty cheap, maybe around $50. Your psych eval is several hundred. If your own insurance doesn't pay for it, maybe the state will pay for it, but then you never know how biased against you it will be. The same goes for your mandated counseling sessions. If your children are offered the "service" of foster care, or "managed kinship care," you will have to pay child support on a sliding scale, based on your income. You'll probably also want some kind of housekeeping service to create the illusion that you're an immaculate housekeeper all of the time.

[Eljay]

True... I only know what I know, not the inner workings and payment schedules of the whole program. I do know that when they provided us with the atty at the court house, we were asked to confirm that our income was less than $140k in order to qualify.

I don't know about classes, evals, etc. as we used our own providers (got early advice from this site about NOT using their providers), but the CW said that if we weren't using our own resources, that they (CPS) would have to pay for it. So... I really don't know for sure, but that is the impression I got. Even our initial case plan with parenting classes etc. never had any mention of cost.

Seems I read somewhere that CPS gets $10k from the federal government for having to put parents through 6 months of classes so if they are taking in all of that money AND making parents pay for it... well, that wouldn't surprise me!

[flcps2011]

Sick! CPS gets 10k from the government for putting parents through 6 months of classes?!

Is there any way to keep your children if you are poor and can't use your own providers or hire your own lawyer?

[Eljay]

Don't abuse your kids. Don't do drugs. Don't piss off any vindictive people. Keep your kids in a bubble so they never get as much as a bump, bruise or cold. Take the to the doctor on a regular basis. Never ask for help or indicate weakness (they are like cheetahs on the african plains going for the slowest in the herd).

Okay... the list could go on and on, but these people are unregulated and unpredictable so you just never know. The thing is that there are usually SOME good caseworkers so don't let just one victimize you... escalate it to supervisors, ask for different caseworkers, ask for a dependency investigator. Even still, it's a crapshoot. You can do everything right and still be a victim.

[monkette31]

wow, the $140,000 income for indigent status still has me buzzing...not really, here are the correct chart for Los Angeles indigent qualifying income. http://foodstampguide.org/gross-and-net ... standards/ This is to gain cash assistance and food stamps...single person can net just a bit over $900 cash and qualify and the amount goes up with more members of the family....

Maybe that's the limit for obtaining a court appointed lawyer. I had services, parenting class was $20 per session. I know dcfs will pay for many services during the re-unification period as I know they have contracts with some treatment centers in the area I know of. If I had not qualified for free services, therapy etcetera, because I went to the indian center downtown and I'm indian. Also had to take a parent-autism course for $400 but the regional center paid for that the first time....so it might just be finding the services and getting on the waiting lists for some of these providers to take you in for free.

[Eljay]

Stop the floggings! LOL

I don't mean indigent or impoverished by society's standards, just CPS.