Renegade Agency: A Memoir of a Family in Crisis and the Systems Meant to Protect Us - Paperback

Andrea Verbanic began December 2, 2013, finger-painting and practicing yoga with three toddlers. By 9:00 p.m. that evening, she was the main target of a felony child abuse investigation that upended her life. The ordeal that unfolded over the next six years is equal parts social commentary, whodunnit mystery, and drama-filled soap opera that will challenge what you think you know about the systems we trust to protect us.

Andrea's worlds collided in a devastating way when the police and Child Protective Services (CPS) came knocking. Once a CPS social worker and now married to a detective, she suddenly found herself being investigated by her former agency and railroaded by the police. Renegade Agency is both an acutely personal account of a mother investigated for child abuse and a social worker's critical analysis of what goes wrong in child abuse investigations and why. Andrea seamlessly weaves together these storylines to give an insider's view that is deeply felt and astutely observant.

The voices of those most impacted by the child welfare system are rarely heard because they are typically poor, disadvantaged, and ashamed of being accused. We are conditioned to view the suspects as villains and the police, social workers, and doctors as heroes when reality is sometimes the opposite. Drawing from her experience investigating over 1400 reports of child abuse and neglect, Andrea reframes the narrative and sheds light on the hidden suffering of families.