How DCF Is Organized
Here is a clear, simple guide to all the relevant parts of DCF, and who is who in their organization.
From the lowly social workers at the bottom, all the way to the evil overlord at the very top, the DCF is organized to exert unchallenged power over families in the Commonwealth, to run a vast snitch network, to manage a huge child warehousing operation, and to obtain as much tax money as possible through the activity of a large field staff of social workers.
The macro information about the agency is that it is one of many departments in the bureaucratic octopus called the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services.
The piece of this empire that you will have most of your dealings with is the "Area Office", of which there are 29 around the Commonwealth. Each area office, which I cynically term a "lair", oversees what the agency terms a "catchment area". How appropriate.
Each area office has four layers of management in its structure, which looks like a pyramid. It starts with a large number of social workers at the bottom, which are organized into teams of five or six, each under a supervisor. Four to six supervisors then report to an Area Program Manager, all of which are under the person who runs the whole lair, the "Area Director", each of whom now manage two lairs.
Teams of social workers are organized into groups that do the various functions required for case management. Some teams are investigators, who are the first to go in to a home when your family is reported to the child abuse hotline. Nest, there are teams of assessment workers, who go in after the investigators are done, and do an even more detailed investigation. There are also teams of on-going social workers, who take over after the assessors are done, and who stay with the case as it plods along over the months and years, grinding the family into despair.
Continuing on this first social worker tier, there are teams of "hot-line" workers, who take calls from people who report child abuse to DCF, which is the main way they get business into the system. Another group is made up of adoption workers, who oversee a case once it is on a track to terminate parental rights and permanently take a child for adoption. There are also some special-ops teams called emergency response workers, who do night and weekend child kidnapping, especially on Friday nights when the court closes.
These teams are under control of supervisors, the second level up. The area program managers oversee several supervisors, and are third up from the bottom.
On the top is the area director, who runs the whole lair along with an area administrative manager, generally overseeing 100-150 people. In a recent reorganization, each director is assigned to two area offices, along with an area clinical director, who presumably focuses on the therapy and services that are provided.
Area offices are organized into four regions around the Commonwealth, and are overseen by regional directors, assistant associate regional directors, deputy assistant. . . . . you get the picture.
A related but independent group is the set of regional DCF legal offices, one of which is in every region. That is where the lawyers are headquartered who persecute families in court.
There are also offices that recruit, hire, and train foster parents, in order to keep and house the 11,000 children that the Massachusetts DCF has in captivity at any one time.
Mordor - 600 Washington Street, Boston
Other notable figures in the DCF are headquartered in Mordor itself, 600 Washington Street in Boston.
There is the so-called "fair hearing" unit, which provides review hearings of investigations where parents want to challenge the findings that they have abused or neglected their children.
There is also a special unit which investigates reports of abuse in foster homes, which really covers up any injuries to children held in their warehouse operation, so as to avoid lawsuits by parents. There is also an official called an "ombudsman", meaning a parent advocate.
The two persons you will deal with the most if you have a case with DCF are your social worker and her supervisor. They are the Orcs whose decisions are being controlled by their area program managers and area directors, who you won't see much, but who are now running your life.
Area Directors are the persons to whom you must address all requests to records, not to your social wrecker.
DCF has a web site with a lot of information and statistics on it, and that I recommend that you visit and study. Of course, their Ministry of Propaganda has prettied it up a good bit, but the site still has a lot of insight into their ethos, along with a lot of facts and figures.
From the lowly social workers at the bottom, all the way to the evil overlord at the very top, the DCF is organized to exert unchallenged power over families in the Commonwealth, to run a vast snitch network, to manage a huge child warehousing operation, and to obtain as much tax money as possible through the activity of a large field staff of social workers.
The macro information about the agency is that it is one of many departments in the bureaucratic octopus called the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services.
The piece of this empire that you will have most of your dealings with is the "Area Office", of which there are 29 around the Commonwealth. Each area office, which I cynically term a "lair", oversees what the agency terms a "catchment area". How appropriate.
Each area office has four layers of management in its structure, which looks like a pyramid. It starts with a large number of social workers at the bottom, which are organized into teams of five or six, each under a supervisor. Four to six supervisors then report to an Area Program Manager, all of which are under the person who runs the whole lair, the "Area Director", each of whom now manage two lairs.
Teams of social workers are organized into groups that do the various functions required for case management. Some teams are investigators, who are the first to go in to a home when your family is reported to the child abuse hotline. Nest, there are teams of assessment workers, who go in after the investigators are done, and do an even more detailed investigation. There are also teams of on-going social workers, who take over after the assessors are done, and who stay with the case as it plods along over the months and years, grinding the family into despair.
Continuing on this first social worker tier, there are teams of "hot-line" workers, who take calls from people who report child abuse to DCF, which is the main way they get business into the system. Another group is made up of adoption workers, who oversee a case once it is on a track to terminate parental rights and permanently take a child for adoption. There are also some special-ops teams called emergency response workers, who do night and weekend child kidnapping, especially on Friday nights when the court closes.
These teams are under control of supervisors, the second level up. The area program managers oversee several supervisors, and are third up from the bottom.
On the top is the area director, who runs the whole lair along with an area administrative manager, generally overseeing 100-150 people. In a recent reorganization, each director is assigned to two area offices, along with an area clinical director, who presumably focuses on the therapy and services that are provided.
Area offices are organized into four regions around the Commonwealth, and are overseen by regional directors, assistant associate regional directors, deputy assistant. . . . . you get the picture.
A related but independent group is the set of regional DCF legal offices, one of which is in every region. That is where the lawyers are headquartered who persecute families in court.
There are also offices that recruit, hire, and train foster parents, in order to keep and house the 11,000 children that the Massachusetts DCF has in captivity at any one time.
Mordor - 600 Washington Street, Boston
Other notable figures in the DCF are headquartered in Mordor itself, 600 Washington Street in Boston.
There is the so-called "fair hearing" unit, which provides review hearings of investigations where parents want to challenge the findings that they have abused or neglected their children.
There is also a special unit which investigates reports of abuse in foster homes, which really covers up any injuries to children held in their warehouse operation, so as to avoid lawsuits by parents. There is also an official called an "ombudsman", meaning a parent advocate.
The two persons you will deal with the most if you have a case with DCF are your social worker and her supervisor. They are the Orcs whose decisions are being controlled by their area program managers and area directors, who you won't see much, but who are now running your life.
Area Directors are the persons to whom you must address all requests to records, not to your social wrecker.
DCF has a web site with a lot of information and statistics on it, and that I recommend that you visit and study. Of course, their Ministry of Propaganda has prettied it up a good bit, but the site still has a lot of insight into their ethos, along with a lot of facts and figures.