Investigating Families: Motherhood in the Shadow of Child Protective Services

How our reliance on Child Protective Services makes motherhood precarious for those already marginalized

It’s the knock on the door that many mothers fear: a visit from Child Protective Services (CPS), the state agency with the power to take their children away. Over the last half-century, these encounters have become an all-too-common way of trying to address family poverty and adversity. One in three children nationwide—and half of Black children—now encounter CPS during childhood.

In Inves...