Child removed or detention hearing within 72 hours? Call now: 949-209-5033
Child removed or detention hearing within 72 hours? Call now: 949-209-5033
Dependency court has its own language: WIC 300, detention, jurisdiction, .26, reunification, ICWA. Every word here is a decision being made about your family. This is the plain-English translation, with the law behind each term and what it means for you. No email gate. No upsell.
Child Abuse Central Index. A statewide database maintained by the California Department of Justice listing individuals who have been reported as suspected child abusers by a law enforcement agency or CPS. A CACI listing is not a criminal conviction and does not require any court finding, but it can affect employment, professional licensing, security clearances, and the ability to work with children in any capacity.
If CPS or a law enforcement agency submits a report about you, your name may be placed on the CACI, sometimes without your immediate knowledge. California law requires written notice of the listing. Once that letter arrives, you have 30 days to request a grievance hearing to challenge it. If you do not respond within 30 days, your name remains on the index until you are 90 years old. This is not a paperwork formality. It is a permanent record with real professional and personal consequences.
Court Appointed Special Advocate. A trained volunteer assigned by the court to advocate for what they believe is in the child's best interests. They are not attorneys, and they do not represent the parent. They write reports for the judge.
The CASA will likely visit your child and may interview you. Be polite, be careful what you say, and remember: their report goes straight to the judge.
Children and Family Services, the agency that runs CPS investigations and dependency cases in San Bernardino County, California.
If your case is in San Bernardino County, the social worker assigned to you works for CFS, and the petitions are filed by CFS counsel.
Child and Family Team. A structured meeting convened by the county CPS agency, usually during an open dependency case, that brings together the social worker, family members, service providers, and support people to develop or review the family's case plan. CFT meetings are framed as collaborative. In practice, the agency sets the agenda, controls the process, and uses the meeting to document the family's participation, or non-participation, in services.
What you say in a CFT meeting can shape your case plan and be referenced in court reports. You have the right to bring an attorney. You also have the right to bring a support person. Do not attend a CFT without knowing what the agency's current position is on your case.
A trained support person who walks alongside parents during a CPS investigation or juvenile dependency case.
A Community Justice Doula is not an attorney and does not provide legal advice. Her role is distinct: she supports the parent as a person, not the case as a legal matter. At K. Adeniyi Law, our Community Justice Doula is both a trained birth doula and a trained community justice doula. She brings a grounded, family-centered approach to supporting parents through crisis, transition, and uncertainty. She helps parents stay organized, informed, and supported while the attorney handles the legal strategy. She is part of the family defense team, not the system.
When you retain KALI CPS Lawyer, you are not handed a court date and left to figure everything out alone. You have someone in your corner who understands what you are going through and whose entire role is to help you move through this process with dignity, clarity, and support. No other CPS defense firm in Southern California has a Community Justice Doula on the team. This is not a standard feature of family defense. It is a deliberate decision about what parents in this system actually need.
Child Protective Services. The umbrella term parents, the press, and the public use for the government agency that investigates families, removes children, and prosecutes dependency cases. In California, each county has its own CPS division with a different name: DCFS in Los Angeles, SSA in Orange, CFS in San Bernardino, DPSS in Riverside, HHSA in San Diego. The agency you face depends on where your case is filed.
"CPS" is a category, not an agency. When a social worker says they are "from CPS," they actually work for one of these county-specific agencies. The procedures, the social worker assignments, the courthouses, and even the way petitions are filed differ from one county to the next. Know which agency you are dealing with.
Department of Children and Family Services, the agency that runs CPS investigations and dependency cases in Los Angeles County, California. The largest child welfare agency in the United States.
If your case is in LA County, DCFS is the agency on the other side. Dependency hearings happen at the Edmund D. Edelman Children's Court in Monterey Park.
The first court hearing after CPS removes a child, generally held within 48 court hours of removal. The court decides whether the child stays removed or returns home while the case proceeds.
This is the most consequential 48 hours of your case. Decisions made at the detention hearing, placement, visitation, conditions, shape everything that follows. You should not walk into this hearing without an attorney.
The hearing held after the jurisdiction hearing, where the judge decides what happens next: where the child will be placed, what services the parent must complete, what visitation looks like, and whether reunification services will be offered.
Disposition is where the path of your case is set. The court's orders here determine your reunification clock, your case plan, and your visitation rights.
Department of Public Social Services, the Riverside County agency whose CPS division runs child welfare investigations and dependency cases.
In Riverside County, your social worker reports to DPSS. Cases are heard at the Riverside, Indio, or Murrieta juvenile courts depending on where you live.
An immediate risk of serious harm to a child. This is the only legal basis for CPS to enter your home or remove your child without a warrant, court order, or your consent.
If CPS entered without a warrant and there were no genuine exigent circumstances, that may be a Fourth Amendment violation, and the basis for a federal § 1983 civil rights claim against the social workers and the county.
A term used by legal scholars and advocates, most notably Dorothy Roberts, author of Shattered Bonds and Torn Apart, to describe the modern CPS system. It reframes child welfare as a system of state surveillance and family separation, disproportionately directed at poor families and families of color.
If you have ever felt like CPS treats you as a suspect rather than a parent, you are not imagining it. The system is built on policing logic. Knowing that helps you understand the rules of the game you have been forced into.
The Indian Child Welfare Act. A federal law giving heightened protections to Native American and Alaska Native children in dependency cases. The court must inquire at every stage whether ICWA applies.
If you have any Native ancestry, even unverified, you must tell the court and your attorney immediately. ICWA changes the rules of the entire case, and ICWA violations can void a removal.
The hearing where the juvenile court decides whether the allegations in the WIC 300 petition are true. If even one allegation is sustained, the court takes jurisdiction over your child and the case continues.
This is where the case is won or lost on the merits. If the agency cannot prove a single allegation, the case is dismissed and your child comes home. Defending this hearing is the most important thing your attorney does.
K. Adeniyi Law, and a deliberate play on CALI, short for California.
KALI CPS Lawyer is the family defense practice of K. Adeniyi Law, APC, led by Keshia Adeniyi-Dorsey, Esq. The name works on two levels: it is an acronym of the founder's name, and it is a direct reference to the state, CALI, whose family policing system the practice was built to challenge. KALI is also the integrated approach the firm brings to every case: juvenile dependency defense, federal civil rights litigation, and the presence of a Community Justice Doula, combined into a single focused practice for California parents.
You are not just hiring an attorney. You are working with a team built specifically around what parents facing this system actually need: legal strategy, human presence, and someone who will tell you the truth about your case. That is what KALI is.
An attorney appointed by the court to represent the child in a dependency case. They are not your attorney. They do not represent your interests, and you should not assume their interests align with yours.
Minor's counsel may speak with your child without your presence. They will make recommendations to the court. Treat them professionally, but do not confide in them.
The legal document filed by the county agency that initiates a dependency case. It lists the allegations under WIC § 300 the agency claims justify court jurisdiction over your child.
Read every word of the petition. Each allegation must be defended against individually. The petition is also the public record of what the agency says about you. Request a redacted copy.
The burden of proof in dependency court. It means "more likely than not," a much lower standard than the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard used in criminal court.
The agency does not need to prove their case to the level a prosecutor does. They only need a 51% finding. That makes legal preparation, witness credibility, and cross-examination decisive.
The legal requirement that the agency must provide reasonable services to help reunify a parent with a removed child. If the court finds services were unreasonable, the reunification clock pauses or extends.
Document every missed appointment, every delayed referral, every service the agency promised but did not provide. A "no reasonable services" finding can save your case.
The legal goal of returning a removed child to their parent. California law generally allows 6 to 18 months of reunification services, with hard deadlines depending on the child's age.
The clock starts the day of removal. Every week matters. Compliance with your case plan, consistent visitation, and clean drug tests (if applicable) are everything.
An informal, non-court-ordered agreement that CPS pressures parents to sign during an investigation.
A safety plan looks like cooperation. It is framed by the agency as a way to show good faith, keep the case informal, and avoid escalation to court. What it actually is: a written agreement, with no hearing, no judge, and no attorney at the table, that can require you to leave your own home, stop contact with a partner or family member, submit to drug testing, or accept services you have not been ordered to receive. Anything you agree to in a safety plan becomes part of your case record and can be used as evidence if a WIC 300 petition is later filed. If you violate it, even technically, that violation will appear in the petition.
You are not legally required to sign a safety plan. It is not a court order. The social worker presenting it may tell you that signing is the only way to keep your child at home. That is not always true, and it is not a legal statement. The most consequential sentence in many dependency cases is a safety plan the parent signed without fully understanding what they were agreeing to.
The federal civil rights statute that allows parents to sue social workers and government entities in federal court for constitutional violations during a CPS investigation or removal.
If CPS entered without a warrant, fabricated evidence, removed your child without exigent circumstances, or otherwise violated your rights, you may have a § 1983 claim worth significant money damages. This is a separate case from the dependency case itself, and our firm pursues these cases after the dependency case has closed to protect families from agency retaliation.
Social Services Agency, the agency that runs CPS investigations and dependency cases in Orange County, California.
In Orange County, your social worker reports to SSA. Cases are heard at the Lamoreaux Justice Center juvenile court in Orange.
Team Decision Making Meeting. A meeting convened by CPS, typically before removing a child or at a critical decision point in an investigation, that brings together social workers, supervisors, family members, and sometimes community members to discuss the agency's plan. TDMs are presented as an opportunity for families to have input. In practice, the agency has often already determined its course of action before the meeting begins.
A TDM is not a court proceeding, but it functions like one in terms of consequences. What is said, agreed to, or signed at a TDM can directly influence whether a child is removed and what a case plan will require. Parents are frequently asked to agree to services, safety plans, or voluntary placements in this setting. You are not required to agree to anything without speaking to an attorney first.
California Welfare and Institutions Code section 300. The statute that gives the juvenile court jurisdiction over a child. It contains subsections (a) through (j), each describing a category of alleged abuse or neglect.
The exact subsection of WIC 300 listed on your petition determines what the agency must prove and what defenses exist. Knowing your subsection is the first step in defending against the petition.
Often called "the .26 hearing." The hearing in which the juvenile court selects a permanent plan for a child, including termination of parental rights and adoption. It is the most consequential hearing in a dependency case.
If your case reaches a .26, your parental rights themselves are on the line. The "beneficial parent-child relationship" exception and other statutory exceptions are your defense, and they require skilled advocacy.
Dorothy Roberts (2022).
This is the most current and accessible text on the family policing system, Dorothy Roberts' sequel to Shattered Bonds. Our firm recommends it for anyone who wants to understand why this system works the way it does.
Understanding that this system is not accidental, and that the harm it causes is documented and named, can be part of healing for families who have lived through it.
If you have heard a word, acronym, or hearing name and need it explained in the context of your case, talk to Keshia. When you call, we answer.
949-209-5033Or start the intake so we are ready when you call.
A California family defense practice for parents in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, and Riverside Counties.
K. Adeniyi Law, APC
Orange County Office18650 MacArthur Blvd, Suite 300
Irvine, CA 92612
5800 S. Eastern Ave., Suite 500
Commerce, CA 90040