How to get a job in child protective services

Types of Jobs in Child Protective Services

Abuse and neglect is a huge problem that affects the lives of tens of thousands of children in Texas each year. Every day in communities across Texas, thousands of CPS employees work to protect the safety and well-being of our state's children.

CPS is a rewarding career that gives you the opportunity to work with children and their families to make their homes safe and a place where children can thrive. In the small percentage of cases where that's not possible, CPS finds other safe places for children to live. This can be with relatives, in foster care or adoptive homes.

What jobs are available at CPS?

Investigator Specialist
Family-Based Safety Services Specialist
Conservatorship Specialist
Special Investigator
Foster Adoptive Home Development
Preparation for Adult Living
Human Services Technician

In this first video, CPS caseworkers tell us why they love their jobs:

Job Preview Video: Working for Child Protective Services

Working for CPS - Watch caseworkers in action in this in-depth look at the jobs of the five types CPS caseworkers, and what it takes to be successful. You'll learn about the challenges and rewards of these important jobs directly from real caseworkers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to have a degree?

No. Entry level Child Protective Services Specialist can have one of the following:

A Bachelor's degree OR an Associate's degree plus 2 years of relevant work experience.
60 college credit hours plus 2 years of relevant work experience.
90 college credit hours plus 1 year of relevant work experience.

Relevant work experience includes:

Social, human, or protective services.
Paid or volunteer work with social service agencies or communities that provide services to families or at-risk populations.

I think I could do this job, but will I be trained?

Yes! You will get lots of great training before beginning your job, including on the job training. While you will be visiting clients on your own, you will have the support of your co-workers and supervisor any time you need it.

Are there opportunities for career advancement?

Yes! You will receive ongoing training to prepare you to advance in your career with CPS. Caseworkers have a career ladder based on levels of certification.

Are You Cut Out for a Career in Child Protective Services?

Being a CPS social worker can be one of the most challenging and rewarding social work careers.

In 2016, nearly 3.5 million U.S. children received a child protective services (CPS) investigation or alternative response.¹ For abused and/or neglected children, these responses are often their best hope of getting out of a bad situation. In some cases, the professionals in a state’s CPS system literally save children’s lives.

If you’re a social worker or want to start a social work career focused on helping children in terrible situations, you’ve likely considered working for child protective services. But are you cut out for it? Here’s what you need to ask yourself.

Do You Know How the CPS System Is Governed?

While the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act provides guidance on how to protect children from abuse and neglect, no federal agency oversees child protection. Instead, each state has its own CPS system with its own guidelines. If you want to work in child protective services, you will need to understand your state’s specific laws and regulations pertaining to child abuse and neglect.

Do You Know How CPS Typically Works?

There are quite a few social worker jobs within CPS agencies. Some social workers are directly involved in the investigation of abuse or neglect, while others provide counseling services to at-risk families as well as to victims and families in recovery. However, all CPS social workers need to be aware of how the system operates—and aware that protecting children requires following the proper guidelines and legal procedures. In most states, CPS procedure includes these basic steps:

Someone reports to CPS a case of suspected child abuse or neglect.
CPS screens the case to determine if there is enough evidence to warrant an investigation.
For screened-in cases, CPS requests to visit the child’s home and interview the child. They may also request to drug-test the child’s guardian and/or interview the guardian and other adults familiar with the child’s situation.
If the individuals under investigation refuse to comply with CPS requests, CPS must drop the case or obtain court orders.

If, at any point, CPS believes a child is being abused or neglected, it can remove the child from the home. However, in most states, CPS must receive a court order for the removal within 24 hours of removing the child.
Guardians who’ve had a child removed can challenge that removal in court.
The child will live in foster care or with a family member while the guardian resolves issues relating to the child’s care.
Whether the child returns to the guardian depends on CPS discretion and/or legal rulings.

Do You Have the Right Traits?

As a CPS social worker, you’ll work with children who’ve suffered trauma, the guardians who’ve inflicted trauma, other family members who’ve witnessed the trauma, and/or the family members tasked with taking care of children after they’ve been removed from their guardian. It’s not a job everyone can excel at. However, having the following four traits can help:

Empathy: All types of social workers need empathy, because in order to help people get through difficult situations, you have to understand what they are feeling.

Trustworthiness: CPS cases, particularly those dealing with the removal of a child, can leave those affected feeling unmoored. For them to get through the situation, they have to trust that you have their best interests at heart.

Flexibility: Situations—and people’s emotions—can change quickly when dealing with cases of child abuse and neglect. You have to be able to adjust course at moment’s notice.

Resilience: It’s emotionally draining to work closely with children who’ve suffered abuse and/or neglect. To keep going, you have to be the kind of person who can rebound quickly.

Do You Have the Right Social Worker Degree?

Before you’re qualified to begin any type of social work practice—CPS social worker, clinical social worker, medical social worker, etc.—you have to earn a degree in social work. For CPS work—particularly if you want to rise to the managerial level—one of the most useful degrees to earn is a Master of Social Work.

Why should you choose a master’s degree in social work? Because it can give you the skills and qualifications you need to make an impact at all levels of CPS, from the local agency level to the state level. And the good news is, you don’t have to upend your life to earn a master’s degree. Some of the top online universities with a School of Social Work have CSWE accreditation and allow you to earn a high-quality Master of Social Work (MSW degree) without having to drive to a campus or attend class at inconvenient times. Through these accredited online master’s programs, you can complete coursework from home on a schedule that lets you choose when in the day you attend class—making online education an excellent choice for anyone working full time and/or handling family responsibilities.

Working with CPS can be one of the most challenging and rewarding careers in social work. Through the right online degree program, you can gain the skills and credentials you need to help vulnerable children receive the protection and services they need.

Walden University is an accredited institution offering a CSWE-accredited Master of Social Work degree program online. Expand your career options and earn your degree using a convenient, flexible learning platform that fits your busy life.

¹Source: www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cb/cm2016.pdf

Walden University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission, www.hlcommission.org.

Helping families and supporting orphans: how guardianship officers help Muscovites

There were many wonderful stories in the practice of Marina Zavyalova, guardianship and guardianship advisor at the Department of Social Protection of the Population of the Dmitrovsky District of the Northern District of the capital. Together with specialists, she helped save families, find new parents for orphans, supported foster families, and defended the rights of orphans.

Marina is a psychologist by education, she used to work in one of the capital's family centers. She has been working in the guardianship authorities for the last eight years.

Save a family for a child

All children should grow up in a family - this is an undeniable truth. It is important to do everything possible to support parents who are faced with life's difficulties, to prevent their separation from the child. Those cases can also be called miraculous when families manage to overcome all circumstances, for example, to overcome their addictions, which destroy the lives of not only the parents themselves, but also their children.

A case from Marina's practice: the family was in a difficult life situation - her mother abused alcohol. Guardianship specialists did a long job, but the woman could not cope with her addiction. The children were placed in a children's institution, and the mother was limited in parental rights. " But we continued to stay in touch with her. We visited her at home, she came to us. And in the end, it paid off: the woman got a job, regained her parental rights, the children returned home! Five years have passed since then, the family has been deregistered. Sometimes we meet on the street. They are doing well ,” says Marina.

If trouble does happen, the task of specialists is to find a family for the child as soon as possible. Guardianship authorities issue a conclusion on the possibility of becoming parents. " We treat all candidates with attention, support them even at the stage of finding a child. If an orphan child appears, then the specialists contact candidates who could suit him and do everything to form a new family , ”says Marina.

« For example, we have a family that replaced parents for eight children. Four of them have already grown up and live on their own, four are still with them, three of them are babies with Down syndrome. Parents pay a lot of attention to the development of children. We see a lot of progress. In total, we have over 80 substitute families in the district, where 100 children are growing up ,” the adviser continues.

Guardianship specialists work closely with other organizations and city social services. Employees of family centers are also involved in accompanying foster parents. Guardianship employees talk in detail about the entire range of support that the city is ready to provide, and offer to conclude an escort agreement. Family center specialists help the child adapt to new conditions.

« We try to build trust among the families we help. Families come with all their questions and problems ,” notes Marina Zavyalova.

So today, the foster mother of three orphans, a resident of district Tatiana , came to the reception.

« I have been in foster parenting for 12 years. I have a natural 14-year-old son, a 12-year-old adopted girl, a 13-year-old boy and a 2-year-old baby under guardianship. We moved to the Dmitrovsky district under the renovation program seven years ago. Then we had only the eldest adopted girl. We brought our documents to the guardianship at the new place of residence - and that’s how we met Marina Evgenievna, since then she has been supervising our family. Together with her, we went through the registration of the status of a foster family when we had younger children. The elders really wanted a brother and sister ,” said the foster mother.

Protecting the rights of orphans

In addition to the right to live in a family, children have other important rights. A large layer of work is connected with the protection of their housing rights. It is the guardianship authorities that control the housing that the child owns so that he can return there after coming of age. Employees also monitor the situation with placing children on the waiting list for an apartment from the city if they do not have their own housing or it is impossible to live there for some reason. It sounds simple, but in reality, each case can have many nuances.

For example, a child from a foster family has lived under the care of a grandmother since the age of 5. The boy received love, care and attention, but six months before his 18th birthday, his grandmother passed away. The teenager had no more relatives.

« We were able to immediately find a foster family for the young man. But the story didn't end there. It turned out that the grandmother's apartment does not belong to the teenager. But after coming of age, the young man received housing from the city. We are very happy for him , ”Marina Zavyalova shares.

It is no secret that work in guardianship authorities requires maximum efficiency from specialists. You can’t do work according to the schedule and forget about it by closing the office door after the end of the working day. Professions need to give all their resources. Each specialist has his own secret of maintaining tone and preventing professional burnout.

“ Only the result of our work can support us, inspire us, inspire us and give us strength ,” Marina Zavyalova is convinced.

Note

You can learn more about the work of guardianship and guardianship authorities on the My New Family portal. Future and established adoptive parents, graduates of centers for the promotion of family education and foster families, and everyone who is interested in helping orphans will find useful information there.

Source

Press service of the Moscow Department of Labor and Social Protection

Top 6 reasons to get a job in the social sphere

February 2, 2021

Social workers help more than 1,000 Muscovites every day. During the pandemic, they learned to provide assistance remotely. Some services have been simplified, and some services, such as recognizing a citizen as unemployed, have become established online. The social sphere is multifaceted and constantly changing. Here, first of all, people work according to the call of their hearts, and the greatest gratitude for a specialist is to benefit society. Svetlana Ryabova, a specialist in social work at the Pechatniki family center, spoke about why it is still worth going to work in this area.

A job that does not allow you to sit in one place for a long time

Svetlana has been working as a social work specialist for three years now. Before entering the university, I had not heard about social work, but after reading the description of the profession in detail, I firmly decided that this was her vocation. At the moment, our heroine is working with families in a socially dangerous situation.

“Yes, the work is not easy, you have to be in touch 24/7, know your families from A to Z in order to come to the rescue in time. Despite all the difficulties, I am sincerely glad that I ended up where my help is needed. I have a favorite job that does not allow me to sit in one place for a long time. I am constantly learning new technologies in order to provide timely and high-quality services to families. Yes, social work is far from suitable for everyone, but if you like to communicate with people and are ready to help, feel free to join our ranks!” - says Svetlana .

Social work is the profession of the future . The staff of employees is constantly growing, because in connection with recent events, there are more and more people who need help. In addition, in this industry, robots will not be able to replace people.
Social work specialist is universal. He has extensive knowledge of related industries and will always be able to find a job in a constantly changing labor market. By the way, a social work specialist is the most demanded specialty for professional retraining.
The social sphere makes it possible to constantly study and improve one's qualifications free of charge. All this allows you to be aware of new technologies of work and assistance, which means being competitive in the labor market.
Social work will definitely suit you if you like to communicate with people and help those who are in trouble. If you have a good heart, you are not indifferent to the problems and troubles of other people, then social work will be the right choice of profession. After all, then what you really like, gives joy and meaning to life, will bring not only benefit and joy to other people, but will also become the main job that generates income. At the same time, the time spent at your favorite job will not be perceived as wasted.
Large selection of workstation options . At the moment, the structure of the Department of Labor and Social Protection of Moscow has 28 subordinate organizations to support families and childhood. Everyone will be able to choose for himself the type of activity and the social category that is closer to him.
Social work specialist is most adapted to the variety of tasks and change of occupation . This is important due to constantly changing working conditions. During the coronavirus pandemic, many social workers had to change their usual work within the department in order to provide quick and high-quality assistance to the population of Moscow. Employees of social services worked in call centers, in temporary hospitals to organize assistance to residents of the city during the period of coronavirus infection.
Learn more