With my knowledge, it's not CPS that's the issue so much as the foster homes. With my cousin, she'd driven into a wall at 50 mph to commit suicide with her toddler in the back seat. They both lived, and CPS wouldn't take the kid because they said even that is better than the majority of foster homes he could wind up in.    And, in another experience, my dad had a friend who was a foster kid when he was growing up. When his foster parents would get mad, they'd lock him in the basement for generally 2 days at a time and crap like that. No one would ever really talk about it, so nothing was ever done. The denial that this kid was abused was really strong because he had no outward signs other than being terribly thin.