False Neglect and Abuse Charges

[taximom5]

This is a bit of a story, so please bear with me.

Back when my oldest daughter was 3, we were planning a move from a mobile home to a house so we could have more children. When we finally bought a home our then neighbor got very upset with us. She was an odler lady, wasn't able to drive, so I did a lot of thigns for her that her daughter who lived up the street wouldn't. I took her to the store (even if it was at 3 am), ran her to visit people or do errands and so on. After we showed her the hosue explaining that we weren't moving very far away, she got ery quiet and distant. A week later children and youth services showed up at our front door. The claims, that we didn't change our daughter's diapers, we didn't have food in the house, there was dog poop on our floors and that she had a vaginal discharge.
The case worked came into the hosue, checked every nook and cranny, looked through our cupboards and freezer, checked out our daughter, asked her questions so on and so forth. She stated that she found nothing to report, and specifically told us that this wouldn't even go into a file, it was "unfounded". And even though she couldn't tell us who made the call, we told her we knew who it was and gave the name, she couldn't say it was, but she did heavily imply that it certainly was this neighbor.

Well, we quit talking to her obviously. We moved, had nothing more to do with her. Well, about 6 months alter, some friends of hers that we talked to now and then showed up at the house. Low and behold, a week later, another claim. This time that we had garbage all over the floors. Again, "unfounded".

All was quiet for awhile, then these "friends" showed up again. I didn't let them in the house, but still, a week or two later, another report (see a pattern here?). This time it was that I punched my daughter in the face while outside and that we had sewage leaking. So, in they come again, talked to my daughter, checked out the house.... this time they marked it as "no action needed at this time". But we were heavily questioned about a remodeling job we were doing in the dining room. My husband did ask them if he had to call every time we made a home improvement to get permission first. Last time I checked, replacing walls wasn't a form of child neglect or abuse.

Almost 3 years ago the last claim came in. Again, it was about garbage, but this time, because our outside garbage cans were on our front porch. I can't believe they even came for that! An outside trash can was outside, hello! But, they did come, the guy was so very rude, tried to say we cleaned up before he came (like they give warning)... and wrote that "no action was needed at this time" but threatened that next time we would be sent to parenting classes.

Well, after that, we moved. We left our hosue, and all we had put into it, all our memories because the well being of our children was more important than any material posession. We didn't tell anyone but our family where we moved to. Suprise suprise, the investigations stopped. I darn well know who it was, but apprently here in Pennsylvania, the laws protect the accusers, not the accused, so I can't do a thing about the accuser.

But thanks to all of this, there are so many things we can't do. Because even the lady who said there would be NO report filed, filed one. We tried to do foster parenting, couldn't do it, that's how we found out about the first file claimed. I can't volunteer at my child's school, I can't work at certain places now because kids are tehre. We can't have any more kids (not because of that, but because of medical issues). We have been wanting to adopt for 9 years now, and we can't. We do have a 4 yr old now also, but we wanted to give a home to child who really needs one, and have mroe children, and now it seems an impossible dream.

What I want to know is, is there anything that we can do to have that removed from the files? Can we have our names cleanred so that we have a chance to adopt, or volunteer at the kdis schools? If so, where do I start, what do I do?

I've been looking for info for some time now, but can't find an answer to this one. Thanks for any help in advance.

[panther10758]

Just a thought but contact CPS ask for a manager and explain your situation he/she can look up your file and see what your talking about. Its likely too that thyey will see where reports came from. the first repor tmay not have been filed until repeated reports came in and its possible an overzealous worker found fault or question was there wasnt any. Also consult with an Attorney see what they say as well there may be more options available