Diamondeye wrote:
The government gives grants to private agencies and programs to carry out specific works; it doesn't give grants to itself. It's for private agencies that are assisting in certain areas to be able to go to people's homes to provide in-home help. This may or may not be a good idea, but it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with "forced" home inspections by "government agents."
Not correct, at least not in this case. This is a federal grant program to distribute money to state agencies. State agencies, by their nature, employ "government agents."
Now, that said, the law itself, states:
Quote:
Social Security Act 551.sec E:
(7) Assurances that the entity will establish procedures to ensure that—
(A) the participation of each eligible family in the program is voluntary; and
(B) services are provided to an eligible family in accordance with the individual assessment for that family.
The only problem, potentially, is that while participation in the program might be voluntary, key goals of the program are [emphasis added]:
Quote:
SSA 511.sec D
(2) Improvements in outcomes for individual families.—
(A) In general.—The program is designed, with respect to an eligible family participating in the program, to result in the participant outcomes described in subparagraph (B) that the eligible entity identifies on the basis of an individualized assessment of the family, are relevant for that family.
(B) Participant outcomes.—The participant outcomes described in this subparagraph are the following:
(i) Improvements in prenatal, maternal, and newborn health, including improved pregnancy outcomes
(ii) Improvements in child health and development, including the prevention of child injuries and maltreatment and improvements in cognitive, language, social-emotional, and physical developmental indicators.
(iii) Improvements in parenting skills.
(iv) Improvements in school readiness and child academic achievement.
(v) Reductions in crime or domestic violence.
(vi) Improvements in family economic self-sufficiency.
(vii) Improvements in the coordination of referrals for, and the provision of, other community resources and supports for eligible families, consistent with State child welfare agency training.
Either of the bolded items could warrant a "justified" referral of parents to Child Protective Services by an overzealous and/or asshole-ish agency employee if the parents refused to enroll in the program. Essentially an abuse of the function.
And, I think, we all know how great CPS is at actually, you know,
protecting children.
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