Having to DCF that you are good enough to be a parent is definitely a very challenging thing.

I'm Erica Heilman, this is Rumble Strip, Vermont.

Last winter, I made a show about people who work for the Department of Children and Families.

And I promised to make a show about what it's like to be a parent who's had to work with the State Agency,

which is responsible for the safety of Vermont

children.

It's no secret that DCF is currently understaffed and overworked.

The opiate epidemic is one major factor in the growing number of kids taken into temporary custody by the state and the growing number of TPRs or terminations of parental rights.

Addiction, multi-generational abuse, lack of education, problems with housing and transportation,

and maybe the mother of all problems, poverty.

If you ask any DCF cas worker they'll tell you the source of the problems is way

upstream from where they work and this isn't a show that's going to solve any of

those problems. What this show does do is give you a very close look at what it's like to be on the wrong side of DCF as a parent.

To have your choices, your lifestyle, your living circumstances under the

microscope of a state agency that's capable of taking away your children.

DCF is an intensely private agency and there's no way to corroborate the details of these cases.

The truth about these cases is always elusive and always complicated and I'm not looking

for good guys or bad guys here.

This is a show about six parents with six very different stories from all over the state of Vermont.

Fair warning, there's graphic language and descriptions of violence in the show.

Welcome.

My memories of Parenting Brianna was that I'm going to be there for you, I'm going to talk to you, I have an education

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