In Texas, families who are adopting children do not find out vital information about the child until just before the adoption is finalized. That put us at a distinct disadvantage.
In the adoption process, a redacted file is one in which certain information is blacked out in order to preserve some legal right. For instance, if the state had been called out to investigate a home that a child was in, anything revealing the identity of the person that submitted the report to the state is blacked out to protect them.
There was a lot of important information withheld from us during our first adoption of the four oldest boys. I have previously mentioned that the birth circumstances of one of the children were horrible. We had bits and pieces of the story, but nothing concrete. It was not until we saw the redacted file that we were able to verify the facts. It was very irregular, but we did not get the first redacted file until after the adoption was finalized. I will explain that below.
I have also previously written that one of our children came to us with a very serious medical condition, which was not disclosed to us. Tommy had a big scar down the middle of his chest and medications for him to take. We were not informed that he was a heart patient, or that he had been recently examined. The Child Protective Services worker played dumb, as if she knew nothing about it.
We had to research his condition on our own. Physicians who examined him needed his medical history and we were told that the state didn’t have it. We finally got lucky. I called Texas Children’s Hospital to see if they knew anything about him and they mailed me a very thick file. The redacted file revealed that he had been taken to TCH and examined by one of their heart specialists the day that he had been taken into state custody. The report was in the file.
In both instances, a lazy social worker did not want to do any more work than necessary. She put Tommy in danger by not advising us concerning his condition and the recent examination.
As the time approached to finalize the adoption, the same worker said that she could not locate the redacted file. We could either sign a waiver of our right to see it or risk delays in finalizing the adoption. Once again, she did not want to look for it, so she scared us by telling us there might be further delays.
In the middle of the adoption process for Isaiah, we told our competent state social worker of this dilemma. She found the time to visit the other office and located the file, had it redacted, and provided it to us in a few days. The Texas legislature is in the process of revamping CPS and giving the foster / adoption process work to adoption agencies, so that CPS can concentrate on investigations. We can only hope that these outside agencies will be more accountable to families that want to adopt.
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The Child Protection System is in Trouble