And it is a very short day. Children are almost never returned at these hearings. If the children are lucky, they may get to go home after the next hearing in 30 or 90 days. Or maybe they will never go home at all. In most states, a bachelor's degree in anything and a quickie training course devoted largely to how to fill out forms are the only requirements for the job.
Turnover is enormous and caseloads are crushing.
Given all that, it's easy to see why so many children are needlessly removed from their homes. But that is not the only tragedy. Enormous caseloads dominated by false and trivial cases steal workers' time from children in real danger. That's the real reason children sometimes are left in unsafe homes. Many workers know this.