Anyone know about Texas CPS? (apartment, renting, houses)

[Rathagos]

Okay... just a question. Does anyone know what the requirements are for house-cleanliness regarding minimum requirements before CPS would get involved in Texas?

One of my kids knows a couple (the father is 2 years out of high school, the mother just graduated)... they have a 7 month old baby). One day my son went over to their friend apartment and said it was horrible. There was some food (chips) on the floor, dirty dishes in the sink, some food left on the counter, clothes and some dirty diapers on the floor. He commented (knowingly LOL) that I would "kill" him if he even kept his room that way.

So... I told him that they (the couple with the child) needed to be careful or someone could call CPS on them. He said that he didn't think it was that bad (needless to say it started a long conversation).

Bottom line... does anyone know if there's a minimum standard or guide one could look up? Would be nice just to know.

Thanks in advance!

[ChristieP]

You can always call and make an anonymous report and CPS can go do a welfare check. Sounds like those kids could benefit from some parenting classes...

[DitsyD]

Originally Posted by Rathagos

Okay... just a question. Does anyone know what the requirements are for house-cleanliness regarding minimum requirements before CPS would get involved in Texas?

One of my kids knows a couple (the father is 2 years out of high school, the mother just graduated)... they have a 7 month old baby). One day my son went over to their friend apartment and said it was horrible. There was some food (chips) on the floor, dirty dishes in the sink, some food left on the counter, clothes and some dirty diapers on the floor. He commented (knowingly LOL) that I would "kill" him if he even kept his room that way.

So... I told him that they (the couple with the child) needed to be careful or someone could call CPS on them. He said that he didn't think it was that bad (needless to say it started a long conversation).

Bottom line... does anyone know if there's a minimum standard or guide one could look up? Would be nice just to know.

Thanks in advance!

This doesn't sound like a problem to me. A little messy? Sure. Worth getting CPS involved? I doubt it. They have children in REAL DANGER out there to check out.

Not every home has to pass the white glove test to be OK.

I'm impressed that the mom graduated with an infant. Yay! for her.

[TX75007]

Sounds like our house when we get sick.

Maybe your son could just go over with some buddies and clean the house for them and see if they need some help? Or, invite them over so they can get out and get a break?

Its tough being new parents, especially at that age.

[MaryleeII]

Outside of the dirty diapers, that's the way many families/households are.Its not a CPS issue. For all you knew he walked in while things were in transition---dishes usually land in the sink when dirty, that's where they get clean

Don't get involved with CPS, all they do is add to whatever problems they find. I'm sure a parenting class would be great---put an added burden on the parents to add to an already overworked schedule. Find time from work, transportation, babysitting, etc, for their little farce of a class. We got caught in the CPS loop, and were "required" to attend so many classes my dh nearly lost his job. We finally both just refused to do anymore, and guess what/ They left us alone! After nearly destroying our integrity as a family!

Just what do you expect when you have a baby---a picture perfect house? MYOB

[ATX Homeboy]

I have cousins who are social workers and theyve told me that cps will file a report but wont act unless the childs life is in immediate risk. That is comparable to a boo boo that only needs needs a bandaid as far as cps is concerened.

Years ago i reported a neglect issue to cps and while they did investigate and create a paper trail for the future, they pretty much told me that the child was clothed, had shelter, permanent housing and was not in immediate danger they werent gonna do anything.

Recently, a friend reported something about a child to cps and it was supposed to be "confidential" somehow the parents knew the tipster by name and come to find out cps told the child's parents who made the report. Not right in my book.

[TexasVines]

CPS is worthless

if the couple is white CPS might go through the motions of making them contact friends to contact CPS to say they are good parents and filing a report and having a "case" for the future

if they are not white it will be pretty much ignored

I had a house on my street that had been bootlegging and dealing crack for 18+ months to the point that the police knew my name and address by my voice and same with my neighbor because we had called in so many times on them....the code enforcement had video tapes of them recording three different bootlegging transactions in the time it took them to write a ticket for the couch on the porch and the yard......the crack house was also running a flop house for addicts and drunks and they were running a day/night care because you would see people dropping kids off at like 8 at night and then picking them up the next day at 8 or 9 in the morning and you would also see kids in the yard sometimes watched and sometimes not

one time my neighbor came home around 11 at night and came around the corner and there was a kid in pampers and another 4-5yo playing in the middle of the street 3 houses down with no one watching them (I guess the 4yo was watching the pampers kid)

after several hundred calls to many law enforcement agencies by me and several neighbors I called CPS when the "day/night care" became clearly a large portion of their "income" ......the idiot at CPS kept asking me if the "kids played outside alone" and I finally said look idiot I played outside alone when I was that age the difference was it was in the day, my parents knew that I knew to stay out of the middle of the street, and my parents were not selling crack, bootlegging, running a flop house for whores and addicts, and a feeding station for gangbangers and if anyone was "watching" these kids sitting out on the porch couch it was because they were sitting out there waiting to deal to someone

about 3 weeks later CPS sent me a letter back saying that no violations were found......about three weeks after that I looked out the window to see the swat team swarming the house with about 12 officers several of them in mask with full auto weapons and taking tons of photographs and several members of "the family" on the porch in handcuffs

I still had the letter from CPS so I picked it up and called and ask to speak to someone about that case number.....when the person came on the phone I ask how no violations could have been found if the SWAT team was swarming their house right at that moment......their "explanation" was that everyone they found around the house was "family".....so I said oh OK as long as it is granny and "mom" selling crack and bootlegging and having drunks and addicts and whores flopping around all day and night it is OK!

they had no real answer to that so I just told them keep up the good work...


CPS is useless and they will do nothing other than harass particular groups that have very few of the total cases so they can document that they go after everyone "equally"

[Sob22]

I have a question... can cps get involved if I gAve my infant soda one time ? Also what would they do if they find out I smoke mj? I don't smoke around him or anything like that.. sorry I'm a nervous wreak

[doctorjef]

I worked in a consulting psychologist and expert witness role with CPS in Texas for years. "Dirty House Cases" almost invariably stemmed from some allegation of physical neglect and/or neglectful supervision, rather than being the prime complaint leading to an investigation. Sometimes the living conditions were truly appalling but these were not normally the cause of a complaint per se -- again, instead it would be some specific allegation or concern of medical-physical neglect or neglectful supervision. CPS likely would not investigate unless the complaint alleged some specific, objective form of child maltreatment. Without this, the case would likely be "closed on intake", though that sometimes depends on how busy CPS workers happen to be in a particular county. Before CPS became so over-stretched, there used to be homemaker services that could be assigned -- basically para-professionals who would come in for a period of time and try to help the parents refine their skills at childcare and keeping their physical premises in reasonable good order. I was once involved in a case in which an infestation of cockroaches lodging in a home smoke or fire alarm had evidently set the alarm off, causing the fire department to be summoned. This was a classic dirty house case in which no physical neglect of the children had been detected, but the apartment was in appalling condition.CPS did become involved, perhaps largely because another agency had made the complaint. Some other concerns may have cropped up during the investigation; otherwise, the family would not have been referred to the contracted agency with which I was associated at the time, but as I recall the CPS involvement was fairly short-lived and low intensity.