I want to know how to file an Injunction against Child Protective Services without an attorney.

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Garland, Texas

Already Tried:
I have tried working with Cps and meeting all of their demands but they will not respond this are the recent letters we have drafted CPS: Dorace Armstrong (Our FAD Worker – Dallas) – XXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX@XXXX.XXXXX.XX.XX Tamara Harris (Children’s Case Worker – Denton) – XXXXXX.XXXXXX@XXXX.XXXXX.XX.XX Cassidy Baker (Tamara’s Supervisor – Denton) – XXXXXXX.XXXXX@XXXX.XXXXX.XX.XX Lori Powell (Children’s CASA Worker) - XXXXXXX@XXXXXXXXXX.XXX Amy Lord (Children’s Attorney Ad Litem) - XXXXXXXXXXXXX@XX.XX.XXX Abbe Leal (Thurma’s Therapist) - XXXXXXXX@XXXXXXX.XXX Beginning: Our 2 children (Onyx and Thurma Worley) were placed in our care as a Kinship Placement in April of 2006. My wife was very good friends with the children’s mother and they wanted us to take the children since they could no longer care for them. CPS had the children in their custody and brought them to our home as a permanency placement as they were moving towards terminating on the mother and father. In June of 2006, the both parents voluntarily relinquished their parental rights and it was decided by all involved that our home would be the perfect for raising the children. The 1st initial attempt at Adoption was National Adoption Day in November 2006 but failed because Denton CPS failed to get the proper documentation to our Foster-Adoption Worker (FAD) worker Dorace Armstrong. Children had spot visits by then current case workers, our FAD Worker, and CASA Worker Lori Powell and per those visits with all involved, our Thurma has consistently stated she wanted to be adopted by our family. In fact, she grew restless and asked me to push on CPS to move along with the process faster… and I tried. We were told that were we being held up because they could not locate Thurma’s birth records. Current: In August, I begin to step up the intensity and begin communicating with all parties involved, CASA, Ad Litem, My FAD Worker and Denton CPS regarding the status of our adoption. We then learned that there was a new case worker for the children, Tamara Harris. I then sent a note to Tamara, copying the old worker and all the appropriate parties to find out our status. We were told again that the only hold up was my daughter’s birth records and they were working to get them. From the email strings, the Ad Litem stated she was in constant contact w/CPS and pushing them to move forward but again no results. Finally in October, my wife took the initiative, called Parkland, and located the birth records in 1 day. After we got the info, I then sent an email to all parties letting them know we located the birth records and what needed to be done for them to obtain them. And that’s when they put us back through the ringer. They requested a list of things required for the adoption: school information grade, address, name dental dates, doctor, address, exam medical dates, doctor, address, exam adoption physical results (date, doctor, address) adoption psychological/developmental evaluations (date, doctor, address) Dates of any conversations with the children regarding adoption, and who was present (need at least three). Family history than can be included on the HSEGH (family will certainly know more than we have in the file). Straightway, we begin to provide all this information within 24 hours and scheduled the adoption psychological evaluation 2 weeks later. Issue: One morning in November 2007, Lori Powell, went to visit my daughter at school. She took McDonald’s and they had their visit. Normally, Lori calls me direct when she finishes a visit but this day was different. When I got home from work that evening, I asked as I always do when I know there has been a visit, “how did your visit go with Lori?” Thurma told me fine but Lori got up and left really fast. This raised an eyebrow because Lori didn’t call me to discuss afterwards as she normally would. We later found that day that there was investigation into my wife for alleged abuse on Thurma. This concerned us because it wasn’t true. We began to reach out to the same parties to find out what was going on but things were different, they didn’t talk to us nor did they return our phone calls. And my daughter began acting very strange, she began sleeping on the floor and began to behave in a way that she never had in the prior 19 months. Later that week, Lori and Amy went to visit my daughter at school again and when I came home and learned of the visit, I asked as I normally would and she told me that “They told me not to talk to you!” Enraged at this point, I begin to send emails to all parties asking what was happening and why are they telling my daughter not to talk to us and that’s when our partnership dissolved; we were no longer parents, the children were clients and we were the foster parents. Very devastated we immediately requested a meeting to sort through things and were denied. At this time, we have not had any conversations or visits from the children’s case worker Tamara Harris nor had she intervened or responded in any of the emails regarding the current situation. The Ad Litem and CASA worker were in total control and they never communicated any information back to our FAD Worker Dorace Armstrong nor us. We later received a call and visit from Kimberly Dominguez, who works for CPS and investigates all allegations of abuse. After speaking with all parties, she later determined that there was no abuse as alleged in the investigation. Also during our conversations, Kim told us that she saw no need for the children to be removed from the home and saw no signs of danger with the children being left in our care. We were cited for physical discipline by CPS as a violation of the minimum standards. Children could not be spanked or hit. We did violate this standard on a couple of occasions by hitting the kids once or twice on the butt for disciplinary action. Nothing was found where we went over the top and hit the kids daily; just a couple of documented cases where we hit them on the bottom to correct an action. Again we were wrong and we enrolled immediately in a Behavior Intervention class to learn better strategies and methods for disciplining our children, including our daughter. Monday, December 3rd; we had a visit from the CASA worker and the Ad Litem to discuss the case. We invited our FAD Worker to be present so that we would have a witness to the conversations. During the conversations, the Attorney was very aggressive and alleged several things at my wife and I and tried to make us look unfit and abusive. After standing our grounds, the Attorney softened her stance and told us plainly, verbatim “We are a nice couple and there is no reason that we shouldn’t be able to foster any other children with CPS. But she and the CASA worker feel that the children are not a match for our family.” She even added if we weren’t in this situation she could see herself having lunch and coffee with us. Of course I stated that that’s not an acceptable outcome because these are our children. We were once again reminded that we are not the children’s parents and that CPS is the managing conservator for the children. We are foster parents only. She also added that if we tried to fight her ruling that she would go to the judge personally and have him side with her. No more than 3 hours later, we received an email from the Denton Case Worker telling us that she removed the children from school and placed them in Respite as she was instructed. Our frantic calls to her went unanswered and she replied via email that she informed our FAD worker of this decision, which our worker denies; stating she was notified the day after the removal. We then had a meeting scheduled Wednesday December 5th to discuss what happened and what needs to be done to get our children back. At the meeting, Cassidy Baker, Tamara’s supervisor was over an hour late and they said she must be in attendance for use to proceed with the meeting. This was our first physical interaction with Tamara and it was very brief and cold. We told her that the investigation was closed as no findings of abuse and she hit us with a bombshell stating that there was another allegation reported against my wife and they couldn’t say anymore to us until it was closed. She told us that we’d have to reschedule for later in December because they were busy and didn’t have the space in their schedule. As we were leaving, the Ad Litem, Casa Worker, Case Supervisor, Child Therapist all stayed behind to chat and we were still in the dark. Once again, Kimberly Dominguez came to our home and told us of the allegations and again there was no truth to any. They accused my wife of pinching Thurma on Thanksgiving and then cursing her out the next day. We had witnesses that were at our home during both alleged actions and gave their name and numbers to Ms Dominguez to investigate. She told us that the allegations were very inconsistent from what was reported and what was given to her by my daughter and the case was closed out with no abuse. No we have been waiting to hear from CPS with a new date and time for a hearing to at least see our kids because we have been banned from all contact via phone or personal. They have denied via email all requests to allow us to visit the kids at a neutral location just to assure my oldest that we are doing everything we can to get them back. Her and my daughter Kenedi attend the same school and she often inquires do we miss her and do we want them back. This breaks my heart because I can hug her and tell her that Daddy and Mommy still love them very much and are doing everything we can to get them back home. We were not allowed to see or visit them on Christmas and as I write this I doubt if we will see them for New Year’s due to all of the holidays and people being out of the office. I write this to see if you can help us get our children back and then help us to advocate for other foster parents who have had children in their long term care get the rights any biological parents would have. Our biggest dilemma is that CPS has recertified our home in the midst of all these investigations and have told us that we are still an eligible and recertified as family for adoptive/foster placements December 12th, but according to the Ad Litem and the CASA Worker, we are just not fit for the children that have been in our home since April 2006. Thank you and we look to you as our last resort to get our children back home where they belong. Anything you need I will gladly provide; it's going on 1 month and we are growing desperate that we may have our children taking away from us with out cause and without a consistent practice to CPS' guidelines and the The 1997 Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA). I am not looking for a fight... we just want our kids and begin the healing process as soon as possible! Our Perceived Failures of CPS Never received a permanency plan as state law mandates Never received the 6 month updates per state law Tamara Harris has never had a home visit nor any contact w/our children prior to these allegations nor has she made any steps to discuss and resolve this situation Per CPS Minimum Standards, we were due in writing the allegations and a notice of how to appeal CPS Actions, we have never received Proactive Responses for Rehabilitation (All Completed the Week of December 15th): Completed Health and Fire Safety Home Inspection (For CPS Foster Home Recertification) Completed Certification for First Aid and CPR Completed Psychotropic Medication Training Completed Behavior Intervention Training Verified Inconsistencies From CPS Team: Per Amy Lord, Kimberly Dominguez stated my wife was depressed and angry. We asked Kimberly and she stated she never said this Per Tamara Harris, our FAD worker and everyone involved agrees with the removal of the children. We spoke w/Dorace and she said that she has never had this conversation with Tamara. In fact, her emails to Tamara go unanswered to this day. Per Tamara Harris, our FAD worker was notified prior to the removal of the children. We spoke w/Dorace and she said she found out the day after via email that the kids were removed. Per Tamara Harris, Our daughter has never asked to visit with or see us. She tells my daughter at school everyday that she misses us and wants to come home but doesn't know if they will let her. Child no longer wants to be adopted by us and doesn't feel safe in our home. Compass Psychological Evaluation disagrees; in the evaluation they gave in mid-November 2007; Thurma was ready to be adopted and wanted to be adopted. She told Kimberly Dominguez in her investigations that she wanted to be adopted by our family as well.