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This fact sheet talks about child protection (CPS), what they can do, and how to deal with them.
Child Protection (commonly called CPS) is a county agency that reviews reports of maltreatment and neglect of children. Then it decides how to deal with those reports. If the report seems to show that a child is in danger, they investigate to find out if maltreatment happened. They also decide if your family needs services. In some cases, CPS may file a court case and ask a judge for your children to be put in foster care or placed with a relative. This is called an “out of home” placement. “Out of home” placement can be temporary to give you time to work on the issue that caused the report to be made.
If the report doesn’t seem to show that your child is in danger, the county may close the file. Or, if they think you need some help, they may offer a Family Assessment. If you agree to a Family Assessment, a CPS social worker works with you to find services to help with the issues in your home. This could be therapy for you or your child, parenting classes, or other services to help you work on the reason for the report.
Maltreatment means the abuse or neglect of a child.
Abuse is physical or emotional harm to a child that is not an accident. It is things like:
Neglect is when the child doesn’t get necessary things like:
Family Assessment means a social worker from CPS meets with you to talk about the maltreatment report. When a family agrees to the Family Assessment, CPS won’t do an investigation. They won’t decide if maltreatment happened or not. They are there to help you find services for you and your child so the problems can get better.
But, if you do not cooperate with the Family Assessment and CPS is worried that your child is at risk, they may transfer your case to be investigated.
CPS workers investigate maltreatment reports when the report seems to show that a child is in danger because of abuse and/or neglect by a parent or custodian.
The investigation can include:
When they finish the investigation, CPS must decide 2 things:
If CPS decides the family needs services, they also decide what services will protect the child and rehabilitate the family.
When a CPS worker is done investigating, they must decide if maltreatment happened or not. If the worker believes that the child was abused or neglected, they make a “maltreatment determination.” You get a letter to let you know about the decision.
Sometimes the worker makes a maltreatment determination even though they don’t offer any services.
If a child was abused, is likely to be abused, or has been neglected, CPS may open a case file. Then they can offer services like chemical dependency treatment, parenting classes, and counseling. They can offer services without going to court if the parent agrees to cooperate.
CPS workers can’t take a child out of the home unless they have a court order, OR a parent says it is ok. If a worker feels a child is in immediate danger but can’t get the parent to agree, they call the police. Police can take the child from the home to a shelter.
There must be a court hearing within 72 hours (weekends and holidays do not count) to decide if the child should stay in foster care longer.
CPS workers can ask a Juvenile Court Judge to temporarily remove a child from the home of the parent who is suspected of abuse or neglect. The child may be placed with a relative, in foster care, or in a residential facility, while CPS works with the parent on the reasons why the child was removed.
In most cases CPS must work to reunite the family.
If you don’t agree with the maltreatment determination, you can appeal it. The letter tells you about your right to appeal and how to appeal. You only have 30 calendar days from the date you got the letter to appeal if you disagree with the maltreatment determination.
Deciding to appeal is very important because a maltreatment determination shows up in background checks. This may keep you from getting or keeping jobs that involve caregiving. These are jobs like:
If you don’t appeal the maltreatment determination it stays on your record even after the end of any court case brought by CPS. See our fact sheet What is maltreatment and how can it affect my job?
