Occasionally, Child Abuse – C.R.S. 18-401 cases turn into cases of Dependency and Neglect (D&N) in Larimer County. If a child is neglected, Colorado statue allows that children can be taken away from their parents.
Dependency and Neglect: Children are Taken Away for “Safety”
Sometimes in dependency and neglect cases, children are taken away from extremely bad situations, but often, it is simply an out-of-control government agency manipulating people with unchecked power. We have received calls from parents who are frantic after their kids were taken away because they refused to speak with social service workers. Social service workers have been known to intimidate people by threatening to take away their kids.
What is Dependency and Neglect in Larimer County?
Under the Children’s Code (C.R.S. 19-3-102), a child is suffering neglect in Boulder, Grand and Larimer County if they live in a variety of circumstances (many of them involve physical danger or abuse). One of the circumstances which show a child is neglected in Fort Collins, Loveland or Estes Park is:
“A parent, guardian or legal custodian fails or refuses to provide the child with proper or necessary subsistence, education, medical care, or any other care necessary for his or her health, guidance or well-being.”
You would think that removing a child from their parents should only happen if they are in physical danger. This is not always the case, as seen in the statue above. Our question is this: Who decides what “necessary education,” or “necessary medical care” is for our children? This gives a lot of power to government workers. If a neighbor sees that a family is homeschooling, or a nurse realizes that children aren’t receiving certain immunizations, they could report to social services and your children could be taken away. This unjust law gives way too much power to the government. Children should only be taken away from their parents if they are in real danger, not because the government doesn’t believe they are receiving a proper education.
Social Services Fails to Take Children’s Emotional Damage Into Account
Social Services and court magistrates in Larimer, Adams and Arapahoe County do not consider the tremendous emotional damage that can be caused by abruptly removing a child from their home and family. Often, the justification is that they are protecting the kids from danger – that they are removing them from abusive situations. In our experience, social services (AKA Department of Human Services) case workers are not concerned about the children – they are concerned with their own power and career. Every time a kid is removed from their parents, they are damaged emotionally. It should be a last resort to remove children from their parents – instead it has become a weapon wielded by social service workers against uncooperative parents.