All across this country, families are being punished for struggling. Instead of being met with help, they’re being met with handcuffs, court dates, and case plans.
When the rent is behind, the refrigerator is empty, or the power bill gets shut off, that’s not abuse. That’s poverty. But the system doesn’t care about the difference anymore. They’ll call it “neglect,” and before you know it, a parent’s worst nightmare begins.
Instead of offering food, housing, or real support, agencies are removing children under the guise of protection. The same workers who could connect families to resources are writing up reports to justify taking their kids away. A home that just needed help becomes another statistic in a system that thrives on destruction.
And for what? To keep the numbers looking good? To fuel an adoption rate that climbs higher every year while reunification rates fall through the floor?
We have heard the stories. We have seen the pain. Families who were doing their best, parents who just needed a little time or a little help, now live with a hole that can never be filled. All because being poor has been mistaken for being unfit.
This is not about child safety anymore. It is about control, paperwork, and profit. A well oiled system that calls itself protective but breaks the very families it claims to serve.
To every parent who has ever been told they were not enough, when in truth they just needed a fair chance, we see you. Keep fighting. Keep documenting. And know that you are not alone.
