Imagine a little kid - isolated, vulnerable, confused, alone, frightened, traumatized.  Would you want your own child, or any child for that matter, to be put through what that little girl or boy is facing?  Then, who will care enough for these children who are caught up in a DCFS child maltreatment investigation to make the effort to minimize those feelings and experiences that many of them go through during that process?  Isn't there anyone out there who will work to keep them from being victimized by "the system" after they have already been victimized by circumstances?  Well,

There's a new KiD in town.

Concerned Arkansans for a Kinder DCFS (CAKiD) is a public advocacy group being formed to develop and implement procedures, policies and legislation to minimize the trauma to our children before, during and after DCFS examinations and investigations of child maltreatment allegations, while also supporting the extremely important and vital mission of DCFS to protect our children.

This web site is an outreach to you caring adults, Arkansas legislators, and DCFS case workers, supervisors and managers, in the hopes that you will also see the need, as we have, for a more compassionate approach in protecting the unfortunate children caught up in a DCFS child maltreatment allegation investigation.  This is also a resource center for those of you who find your own child or a child that you love and care about in "the system" and just want to know what in the world is happening to them or why you are being investigated and what you can expect.

	In 2002, the Department of Human Services reported 18,541 investigations of child abuse and neglect in Arkansas.  On average, 2 out of 3 investigations are deemed unsubstantiated and are closed after the initial interviews.  But, that doesn't mean that the reporter didn't have a valid cause for concern, or that the report was false.  Be aware that certain professionals and child workers in the state are required to report if they have a reasonable cause to suspect that your child has been harmed or is at risk of being harmed, as defined as maltreatment by Arkansas law, which is what you and any other caring parent or adult would want, too, if your child or a child that you knew and loved was at risk or had been harmed.

Warning:

You may feel uncomfortable reading some of this information, just like we were uncomfortable writing it.  If that is the case just reading about it, then magnify that sick feeling in your stomach 1000 times, and you might get an idea what a little child feels like going through it.  One person in the media that we talked with said that DCFS investigations and what they do during their examinations of children is too disturbing to deal with, and we agree that it is very disturbing.  There's nothing better that we would like to do than to not have to deal with this.  But, are we going to let go on what we don't even want to talk about?  After all, it IS happening to our kids, and to not deal with it is to condone it, and to surrender our children to it.  Some may be able to do that, but, we can't do that.

What's Wrong With "The System"?

The Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) section of DHS has a vital mission and mandate to protect our children from physical abuse and other types of abuse and neglect, which all of us as concerned adults should support to the hilt and back that mission 100%.  They are trying to do the best that they know how with limited direction from the legislature (which really means us) and tight budgets at a time of increasing demands, and, like most state agencies, are stretched and stressed to the limit.  Unfortunately, in such an environment, and especially when dealing with kids and others who won't question their actions, it is very easy, and may even seem unavoidable at times, to take shortcuts and other actions of commission or omission to just get the job done quickly and move on to the next case, even by those case workers who truly have a passion for the kids and do all that they can to limit the trauma to the kids, but still agonize over some of the things they feel they have to do to the kids in order to move the case forward.  However, we want the case workers to see a kid, not just another case.

So, we citizens of Arkansas need to fix some of this to protect the emotional well-being of our children, while DCFS protects the physical well-being of our children.  The DCFS case workers will benefit as well in doing their investigations more efficiently while lessening the potential for problems with them, taking some of the guesswork out of those investigations and child examinations, by providing direction to them through legislation and through implementing and continuing to refine procedures that follow best caseworker practices.  We can also supply the DCFS case workers with equipment that will assist them during their investigations and that will help lessen the trauma experienced by the children both during the initial investigations of child maltreatment allegations and when those cases need to proceed further in the judicial system.  And, it really shouldn't take that much effort or resources to do - we've just got to make up our minds to do it and, then, act on it.  After all, aren't our kids worth it?

Let's take a look at one area that we can fix.  Currently, there are NO REGULATIONS OR LAWS governing what a DCFS case worker can or cannot do during a physical examination of a child, which is just unconscionable and beyond imagination in a civilized society, and which we must correct.  For example, fully disrobing a child during an examination should be strictly prohibited by law (and, don't say that doesn't happen, because it does - we bet that surprises a lot of you, including some of you DCFS case workers - it sure did kick us in the gut and got us started on this effort).  Just think about it - besides rage and disgust, what is the first thing that comes into your mind when you hear about someone stripping a child naked and taking pictures of her or him?  Child pornography?  Sexual exploitation of a minor?  So then, why are you and I condoning this by our own state employees, especially when there are viable alternatives that the DCFS case workers are already aware of?

You can see our ideas for fixing these and other problem areas that we and others have found with "the system" by looking at our evolving list of goals, which includes issues to address, policies and procedures to put into place, legislation to enact, and equipment to purchase.  And, if you come up with other ideas, which we hope you will, by reading the information here on our web site or through your own experience with DCFS, please let us know.

What Will You Find Here?

On our web site, we have information for you about DCFS child maltreatment allegation investigations in Arkansas and what you can do to help our unfortunate children caught up in those investigations so that they are not further traumatized by "the system" which is supposed to protect them.  But, it all depends on you to make the effort to act on behalf of these children who cannot act on their own behalf.  Click on the topics below to see what you will find here and how you can help:

• What's Wrong With "The System"  (Problems we have seen and how they can be addressed, while also leading to more efficient investigations by the DCFS case workers.)
• We Need Your Help  (Requests for legislators and other public officials, for DCFS case workers and directors, and for stories and material from the public for us to post on our web site, along with what you can do to join our efforts.)
• Did You Have A Positive or Traumatic Encounter with DCFS?  (E-mailing us with your kudos and suggestions for DCFS that we will pass on to them, or if you just want to vent; and a plea to you who decide to not get involved and to just ignore the problems, hoping that they will go away.)
• Who Will Look Out For Our Children?  (An extension of the CASA idea for volunteer child advocates working along side the DCFS case workers.)
• What Happens When DCFS Investigates My Child?  (What DCFS case workers are trained to do during a child maltreatment allegation investigation, and a general overview of investigations.)
• Stories in Our Own Words  (Stories from the public describing what actually happened during a child maltreatment allegation investigation that they were caught up in.)
• What's The Law?  (Arkansas Code, including the Child Maltreatment Act as amended in the 2003 legislative session.)
• What are the DCFS Procedures?  (Links to information on the DCFS web site.)
• What Are Our Goals?  (Evolving list of issues that we would like to see addressed, policies and procedures put into place, legislation enacted, and equipment purchased.)
• Still Waiting for Information (Requests we have made to DCFS and MidSOUTH for additional material and information that we would like to put on our web site for you.)
• Acronyms  (List of acronyms associated with this topic in Arkansas.)
• Web Sites and Organizations  (DCFS, DHS, and other child advocacy groups in Arkansas.)
• Other Pages Of Interest  (Guides, publications, books, and hand-outs from other groups and governmental entities involved in child maltreatment investigations and interviewing.)
• Contact Us (Our e-mail addresses for the various topics on our web site.)
• Introductions, Press Releases, and Communications (Our introduction e-mail to DCFS/DHS, our pre-announcement to the legislators, and our public introduction to the media, state officials, and others, along with subsequent e-mails to them.)

What You Will Not Find Here

If you are looking for a "Bash DCFS" site or organization, you will not find that here.  CAKiD is not a confrontational group, and we are not wanting DCFS to be abolished or anything like that.  Although protests get short-term attention and are a part of the American way, we had decided at the inception of CAKiD to not take part in protests, which we informed DCFS and DHS of in our official introduction to them.  We will also not be involved in any kind of hate mail or organizational or personal attacks.

We are not one more enemy in a line of enemies of DCFS, and it will take some time for DCFS to realize that and for us to build trust with them.  We want to work with them and others, mainly behind the scenes, to affect positive change for the children in child maltreatment allegation investigations.  We understand that this is a very emotional issue, especially for you parents and guardians of those children, and especially when you can't get the information you need to find out what's happening with your child, or when your child has been taken away.  We can listen, and maybe offer a few pointers, but we are a public policy group and can't at this time get involved in any particular case.

If you hear of persons claiming to represent us or to be involved with us that are currently or have been involved in bashing DCFS, please send an e-mail to us at advocates@KinderDCFS.org to let us know about it and to ask if they actually are involved with us.  Most likely they are not.  If they are involved with us or in CAKiD, we will either take care of that on our end, or we will discuss the issue with you.  Our goal is to work cooperatively with DCFS, the legislature, the courts, and other groups and state and federal officials to address the issues with those investigations and examinations of children which come to light during our ongoing research, along with addressing other issues coming from the public arising out of their encounters with DCFS.  And, although we will not be a visually oppositional type of group, we will diligently pursue resolutions to problems that we do see or that are brought to our attention.  Cooperative efforts are much more effective than confrontational efforts, especially when we expect our group and its offshoots to be active for years to come.

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Artwork By Darrel Tank of Yeshua's Ministry

CAKiD - Working for a kinder, gentler, DCFS.