Military families suffer a unique vulnerability to false allegations of child maltreatment made by State agencies of Social Services. 

DoD and military leadership is sensitive to claims that not enough is being done in the military culture to prevent child and spouse maltreatment, and fears that any action taken to protect military families from unlawful intervention by state agencies will be misconstrued as protecting or covering up real incidents. This can result in military leadership unwittingly assisting state agencies in operating outside state provisional authority to obtain jurisdiction of a military family’s children. Some bases have instituted agreements with State agencies that have been interpreted to require that families living on base allow the agencies more authority to access their home and family than is authorized by law.

Families do not know that state agencies can not order them into services without legal authority, and are often subject to threats of the children’s removal if the family does not comply.

The service member is also vulnerable to threats on the member’s career as a means for ensuring compliance of that service member regardless of lawful provision.

DoD’s FAP is supposed to be advisory to the service member’s command. It provides a full range of services designed to help the military family cope with the unique stressors of military life. FAP is not staffed for investigatory expertise of child and spouse maltreatment according to full statutory and regulatory authority. Federal funding for the investigation function is already provided to state agencies. 

Thus, FAP should be used to prevent family problems before they reach the level mandating intervention of state agencies and does do that in many instances. In other instances, if the State agency can not obtain legal basis for intervention, they will contact the military Family Services Program. The FAP, in turn, contacts the military leadership and the military member can be ordered to comply.  I have seen that even if FAP has unsubstantiated allegations made against a military family, the family must still undergo the trauma of fighting in civilian court to keep their children out of state jurisdiction, because military support does not extend to protecting the family from unlawful attack by state agencies.

Unwarranted intrusion into a military family can only serve to diminish military family readiness. Preventing child maltreatment is a worthy goal, and one that deserves to be served within proper lawful authority.

We are working to inform our military leadership that unwarranted intrusion is an attack on the very people who have sworn to take a bullet to protect the covenant, our Constitution, that these State Agencies routinely ignore.  

Definitely check out our How to Fight CPS page.  It is packed full of NEED TO KNOW INFO.

CPS is Terrified by, HATES military daddies

Stories-

(AgapePress) - A columnist and Los Angeles radio talk-show host says military service costs some men their children. He says a federal act dealing with members of the armed forces needs to be amended to address family law problems that can arise when a serviceman is overseas.

Military dads fall victim to child-related injustices
Military service costs some men their children.
Jeffery M. Leving and Glenn Sacks 
Tuesday, March 16, 2004