This is probably the best job I've ever had.
What I like about this job is being able to
make a difference.
This is rough reality.
This would be a horrible job if you didn't
care about people.
Well the people who are like, I want to help,
I encourage that, I'm ok, well then this is
the job for you.
The job as a CPS investigator is to investigate
reports that we receive on a statewide level
regarding abuse or neglect to children. We receive reports based on the county in
which the family resides. Once we receive
the report it's assigned to a particular unit
and then a particular caseworker.
When I get a report of abuse or neglect, the
first thing I do is look at the history of
the family.
From there I go out and visit the children.
I visit people that know the children, the
family dynamics,  I go to meet with the
parents, get medical information. I do school
collaterals and from there I go ahead and
look for resources to help the family out.
When you first knock on a door you can be
a little anxious and nervous.
You don't know what's behind the door. Today
though I'm revisiting a family who is involved
in domestic violence and they are in north
Austin. There is an emergency protective order
in place and I'm here to check the children
again and mom to make sure everything is ok
because I want to make sure, one, that he's
not trying to come back here and law enforcement
have not come here looking for him so I
want to make sure that he doesn't come back
and tries to get in and if he comes back
don't open the door and tell your son do not
open the door. Tell him to leave the residence
otherwise you're going to call the law enforcement
and so then he'll go, because we do not
want him in this house. I do not want anything
to happen. You've got a great kid, you do
a good job with him and you need to be here
for him.
When investigations determines that the family
needs more assistance, that's when they send
it on to Family Based Safety Services so that
we can help them strengthen their family,
strengthen their parenting. We have a lot
of parents that have not had the experience
of having good role models as they were growing
up so they don't know how to do a lot of things.
Maybe they don't they're not very good at
cleaning and I have to show them, you know,
this is how you organize things. Maybe they're
not very good at talking with their children.
We want our families to succeed because children
deserve to be raised by their parents, they
deserve to be there, parents deserve to be
part of their children's lives.
So when the investigator determines that a
child is not safe in their home one of the
options is to remove the children and when
that happens the children can be placed either
in foster care or in what we call a kinship
home and a kinship home is a family or friend,
someone the child knows and is comfortable
with where it's safe for the child to stay
in the meantime.
So today I've got three visits scheduled and
my first stop is a kinship caregiver but she's
basically like the children's grandmother.
She's tried to be there to support them, she's
championed the things that they've done well
and she's tried to help the parents make better
decisions. This is the kid's room. Oh, and
that's mother kitty. She's the queen of the
house. Is she a mother? Yeah, she was once
upon a time but she's no longer doing those
duties. Both girls are still on the bottom
and Eli's on top? Yeah, he's on top. And we
may have to do something different if you
become a licensed foster parent so, you know,
if you need to get a bed let me know, there
are ways we can help with the bed also. He,
that's in the works, hopefully.
Our role is to ease the transition for the
families.
Foster families have been through a lot of
training, they know what they're getting into
whereas kinship families often don't really
know what they're getting into, there's a
lot of complications with the CPS system,
with the legal system. They may not realize
what's really happening in the home with the
children, they may have a lot of things to
deal with with the parents and so in kinship
our role is help them through all of those difficulties.
 
What we do is we help children who have been
removed from their home and placed into foster
care or kinship placement. Kinship placement
is when they're placed with a relative.
We give the family the opportunity to get
the child returned to them. They have usually
have between 12 and 18 months to get the child
back and to do that, they have to go to court
with us and demonstrate that they've changed
their behavior so that the child will be safe
in their care. We also montly visit the child
to make sure the child is safe in their current
placement.
So can you read me a story?
Twinkle twinkle little star, a bedtime story.
We facilitate visitation with the child and
parent.
We sometimes assist the parent with transporation
to various courses and classes they have to
take so they can learn new skills to make
them safer and more capable to be a parent
for their child.
More often then not, the parents starts their
time with CPS hating us. They don't like us,
they don't like the fact that we're involved
with their life and normally I get told that
they didn't do anything wrong, CPS is wrong
for interfering with their business and so
their just already angry by the time I get
the case.
It's my job to try to de-escalate the situation
to talk to them to get them to work with me.
Sometimes I'm successful and then sometimes
I'm not. I've had parents who just refuse
to work with the agency at all and that's
very frustrating because we're here to help.
In order to adopt a child the process can
take anywhere from six months to one year.
We need an adoptive home study. They need
licensed to adopt. We interview the family.
We present the child's case to them so once
they're chosen to be a permanent home the
child will need to be placed in the home for
six months before we can proceed to consummate
the adoption.
This agreement is showing that you are in
agreement with making your home for an adoptive
placement from today until the adoption.
In order to match a child with a family, first
of all we need to know the child very well.
I need to know his life, his diagnosis, what
kind of behaviours he exhibits at home, at
school.
Do you all get along well? Yeah. You all don't
fight right?
The reason we wait six months is to provide
support services and ensure that the child
is well adjusted, that the family is able
to manage and that it's a successful placement. We want to be supportive for all these adoptive families.
 
If you like things that are regimented and
predictable, this is not the job for you.
What I tell my caseworkers is the only thing
that's constant about investigations is change.
And it can be fast paced because everybody
wants it now. They want to make sure that
child is safe, then they want you to get everything
documented, um, then you're put on another
case while you're documenting this case, trying
to contact this family member while you're
also trying to go back and revisit other familes,
and other cases, so you juggle.
I can plan for just being in my office all
day long but then I get a call and I have to
go out. I have to go pick up the kid because
the placement broke down. I have to go transport
a child to a doctor appointment because the
parent can't all of a sudden. There, you just
never know sometimes what you're day's going
to be like.
We're up early in the morning. I've met clients
at seven o'clock in the morning before they
go to work. I drive around and meet them on
their lunchtime. I've gone on construction
sites to meet with individuals so we do what
is necessary to get that information to make
sure the child is safe.
You definitely cannot take the bus to do this
job. You're going to need your own car it's
going to need to be a reliable car and you're
going to have to be able to pay for all the things
that are going to be required to do the job.
Eventually you will get paid back, mileage,
you get a mileage reimbursment for it but
when your car is being driven an extra 500
or 700 miles a month then you're going to have
more maintenance costs as well so you have
to be prepared to do all that yourself.
You can't go into this job expecting everything
to be rainbows and roses. There are going
to be hard times. There are going to be times
where you're like, why am I even doing this
because you feel as though you've failed.
You have failed.
It takes an emotional toll because you're
seeing situations that you have no control
over that you can't make better or you see
children being hurt.
The most frustrating part of this job for
me is the removal of a child or child death.
I, that's heartbreaking. You have to recover
from that and you don't really get a time
to process it because you have to go on to
the next case.
One of the cases that really sticks with me
is involving domestic violence. We recieved
a report concerning domestic violence between
mom and the father to one of her children.
She was, she appeared very protective
and we had given her resources to the local
domestice violence shelter for counseling
services and the actual perpetrator, the aggressor,
he was not living in the home, and mom
signed plans to the effect he wouldn't be
in the home, and then on Halloween, following about a month after the investigation
had come in, he entered the home and he
murdered the mother and then he shot himself
and you always just look back and think what
else could have been done? I played that investigation
over in my head a multitude of times, and felt that as an agency we had done what
we could, we had offered services, but
people are just unpredictable and there are
just a lot of things we can't control.
One thing that I do in particular when I have
very bad days, um, I will go and visit my
daughter and my grandchildren, just so
that I can sit and watch them and say this
is why I do what I"m doing because every child
deserves to have a happy home and to grow
up like this, and then it makes it OK
then I can go on for another day.
When an individual is hired to be a CPS investigator
or an FBSS specialist or a CVS specialist,
they're going to go through a training program
where they'll be given an individualized training
plan, also called the ITP. With the ITP they
are assigned a mentor. The mentor can be a
certified mentor whose been with the agency
two years or more or it can be a mentor candidate
whose been with the agency a year or more.
That protege, that new hire, will follow that
mentor throughout the duration of their day
so if that mentor works 8 to 8 then that protege
is with that mentor from 8 to 8, 80 percent
of the training is going to be on the job
field training and 20 percent is going to
be in the classroom. The proteges are followed,
they're given regular feedback, they meet
with supervisors weekly, they meet with their
mentors every day, they are actually able
to work on real cases, they're seeing
real families, they're seeing real services,
they're seeing real home visits and they're
doing more inside the home than working with
actual investigators then spending time in
a classroom.
If your unit is really connected and really
supportive of each other then they can help
you out. Also, they're someone to talk to
when things get difficult, when things get
overwhelming because they're in the same boat
as you and sometimes they have techniques
that you're not aware of to help them cope,
help them get things done quicker and sometimes
they're finished with whatever they had to
take care of and they can help you out.
To do this job I believe that it takes a character,
a type of character where you're gonna
have a passion for what you do, you have
to put everything that you have into this
job, in terms of, if something is
not done at the end of the day, then you
could potentially be leaving a child at risk.
The skills necessary to be successful in my
job is, first of all, having people skills,
you have to be, you will be engaging with
people all time.
And you're talking to people who are angry
and upset and, you know, the job is to help
whittle through what it is that they're upset
about and, you know, help them out with that
and if you don't care you're just going to
get worn out. It's going to beat you down,
and it's going to happen quickly.
A good investigative caseworker needs to be
organized, they need to be very detail oriented.
They need to be well spoken and well written.
They also need to be able to adapt to change
and that is very constant in this agency.
They need to be able to work long hours and
handle the stress, that comes along with
this job.
The qualities necessary to be a good caseworker
are patience, a willingness to help.
Have sympathy, empathy, and a passion.
A person has to be willing to roll up their
sleeves, get in the middle of everything,
and clean up.
You can't have a chip on your shoulder, I
mentioned that earlier and you can't go in
here thinking, ok, I dislike this person because
of what they've done. I dislike this person
because of the way they dress. You can't do
that. You have to go in and be polite, be
nice.
I think there are many people that probably
are not suited to handle this job. You have
to separate your emotions, at the end
of the day you have to make sure you have
a good balance. You have to make sure that
you can separate your work from your personal
life. You have to make sure that  if the
work does affect you in ways that is becomes
concerning that you reach out for help and
that you ask someone for help but it does
take a particular type of character, to
do this job and to be able to have that separation.
I think one of the biggest perks of working
here is the mobility, all of our caseworkers
are mobile, you have the ability to work
from Starbucks if you'd like. You have the
ability to work from your home if you'd like.
You have the ability to spend your morning
documenting and then doing afternoon home
visits or vice versa, um, you have the ability
to schedule your day how it best works for
you.
For me, I would be horrible for just sitting
at an office so I like to be out and doing
things. I don't like to be doing the same
thing, you know, day after day, I want to
be meeting new people and for me, that sort
of keeps me going.
Seeing my kids graduate from high school is
one of my favorite things to do. I love going
to the graduation, being there, getting to
clap for them, celebrate with them afterwards.
I love seeing my kids. I spend time with them
playing on the floor, reading books. It's
just so rewarding to see these kids succeed
and go on and do better things after what
they came from.
If you're thinking about a career in CPS,
you have to ask yourself, you know, how hard
are you willing to work because this is not
going to be a job that is easy, um, but if
you do care about making a difference with
children then you can make a huge difference.
I do this job because I like seeing a difference
in a person's life. I like to see a success
story and, um, that's what we're looking for
and sometimes you don't get success stories
but when you do get one it just makes you
just feel great inside, energetic.
What I like about this job is being able to
make a difference, being able to change the
lives of children, change the lives of parents,
change generations.
If someone is thinking about taking this job
I'll tell them that if they're doing it for
the money, it's not the job for them. But
if they want to help, if they want to go out
there and change somebody's life, if they
can be flexible, this job might just be the
one that they're looking for.
This is probably the best job I've ever had.
I've worked at this agency for seven years,
um, I have a passion for it. I can't imagine
honestly can't imagine working anywhere else.
If you have the passion and you have the drive
and you have the want to be here this is definitely
the job to have.
