What’s it like when your children are taken from you by CPS and placed into foster care?  After 25 years of helping families survive the trauma of a CPS removal, I still don’t really know.  But I see the anguish and tears of my CPS clients as they live out a nightmare and search for answers.

Parents always ask me questions such as ‘how could this happen?’ or ‘why would they do this?’  And I reply that it just doesn’t matter.  I don’t say this to be callous, but to help clients focus on what matters most… getting their children home.   You can spend the rest of your life trying to figure out why CPS does the things they do, and makes the decisions they make, but it won’t help you.

We need to move forward and prepare for court.  I am the top CPS lawyer in Fort Worth and, if you’ll work with me, I can save your family from disaster.  I am going to spend hours with you, getting to know you, coaching you through your case, and putting you in position to get your children home.

While every CPS case is different, my legal strategy for these cases rests on these three fundamental truths:

1.  CPS and Family Court Judges are risk averse.  Nobody wants to loose their job, or have their case reported in the media.  In 25 years of practice, I can say with certainty that no CPS worker or Judge has ever suffered a negative consequence for leaving a child in foster care.  On the other hand, things blow-up when a child is returned home only to be abused again.

2.  Once they’ve made a decision, CPS never changes it’s mind — even when confronted with the facts.  Rarely, never, does a CPS worker admit they were wrong.  Rather than continuing to evaluate cases as additional facts come to light, CPS chooses to create a narrative based on distortions, half-truths, and conjecture to affirm their initial decision.

3.  CPS Workers and Family Court Judges never consider the lasting emotional damage done to children who are removed from their home, without notice, by a CPS worker.  Children removed from their parents are suffering an emotional harm that will affect their future development and happiness.  Most of these children suffer PTSD symptoms for months or even years following their foster care placement.    Nevertheless, CPS workers always testify the children are doing “great” in their foster home.   Our family court judges should devote themselves to understanding the true long-term effects of family separation of children in CPS care.

Families in crisis have turned to me for over 25 years to help save their children from CPS foster care.  My work in these cases goes beyond the ordinary court appearance.  My experience and unique understanding of CPS helps me to work your case from many different angles; in court and out of court.

Greg Housewirth