(What i am posting is not about Oakley but about the situation in general. Oakley's case is extreme).
When I used to commute three hours both ways every day to work, I came across a case that had accumulated almost ten volumes and clearly looked as shocking CPS mishandling. The true problem, as I later found out, is that sometimes abuse is very much ingrained in the family history and spans generations. One has to come to a conclusion that maybe, those abusive parents were not so horrible because compared to what had been done to them, they were trying to be better than their own parents, you know? Sometimes a parent that "allows bad abuse" was subjected to such extreme abuse herself, that all taken into account, she should be praised for not letting her kids to at least go through what she had endured. (And then, her sister is not abusive at all, but to know right from wrong, she had to move out of this rural environment, be exposed to different life, and go through therapy. And get on normal medications, while the one staying in poverty has no clue that she is suffering from PTSD and depression, and self-medicating with what her neighbor cooks at home).
This, and not all foster parents are perfect, merely "less abusive". Very seldom can one take the kid away and move to the best, most educated, most willing, family in another part of the state. And as everywhere else, there are "pockets" of poverty and affluence, and one can imagine too well that to get good services, the kid sometimes need to be moved to a better area. It seldom happens. To add, has anyone considered how much stress and even PTSD is inflicted on good people who take in foster kids, work with them, try, and then have to return them back, to biological ones? How often would these good, thoroughly vetted families, be willing to foster another child? Some, never. On the other hand, if foster parents are allowed to adopt, there is no control over their treatment of adoptees, at all.
CPS care workers, too, are overwhelmed and very easily burned out. My firm belief is that maybe one has start with asking them about changing the system. Not just impose changes from above. It is not easy, and potentially, our state could be the pilot one, because we have means, there are many people willing to give, and Governor Inslee appears sincere.
(Historically, Seattle used to be pilot in interesting projects, such as teaching everyone CPR, and it led to a drastic decrease in sudden clinical deaths. But it was long ago)
