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
When DCFS has reason to believe your children are victims of abuse or neglect, social workers will investigate. If this is your first investigation, you are probably confused and overwhelmed. This guide explains what is happening, why, and what comes next.
If you are experiencing a DCFS investigation, you may feel confused and overwhelmed, especially if this is the first investigation you have ever faced. This guide will help you understand what is happening, why, and what comes next.
Do not wait until you have a court date or your children have been removed. Call as soon as an investigation begins, the first time you get a call or a visit from DCFS. Early legal involvement is what keeps cases out of court and children at home. 949-209-5033
DCFS investigates any concern that a child is experiencing abuse or neglect. Those concerns arrive from two sources: anonymous calls to the DCFS hotline, and reports from mandated reporters.
Abuse can be physical, sexual, or emotional.
Neglect is when a parent or caretaker fails to provide a child with adequate food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or supervision.
DCFS operates an anonymous Child Protection Hotline that allows anyone to report suspected child abuse without revealing who they are. DCFS states that a person should only call if they know or have "reasonable suspicion" that a child is at risk or has experienced abuse or neglect.
Reasonable suspicion means only that most people would reach the same conclusion given the same information. People can and do make anonymous calls without any concrete proof.
Mandated reporters include law enforcement, childcare workers, teachers and other school employees, doctors, nurses, lifeguards, and firefighters. People in helping professions, or who work with children, carry a heightened legal responsibility to report suspected abuse or neglect. California Penal Code § 11165.7 requires them to report their suspicions.
The agency's role is to investigate these calls and reports to assess whether a child is a victim of, or at risk of, abuse or neglect. Investigations lead to one of three outcomes.
When DCFS receives a report about a concern for child safety, the first step is to evaluate whether the concern meets the legal definition of abuse or neglect. If it does, DCFS opens an investigation within 24 hours. The person who conducts it is called an Emergency Response Worker, or ERW.
Step 1. Screening. DCFS decides whether the report meets the criteria for a child abuse or neglect investigation.
If it does not meet criteria: no case is opened.
Step 2. If it does meet criteria: a case is opened and an Emergency Response Worker is assigned.
Step 3. The ERW begins investigating.
You have the right to an attorney during a DCFS investigation. Having one helps you:
Unless there is an immediate danger, meaning exigent circumstances, DCFS must get your permission to enter your home or talk to your child. You have the right to say no. Read more about your rights during an investigation.
If you refuse consent: the worker may seek an investigative warrant to enter your home or speak with your child.
You have the right to have an attorney present during the home assessment.
You will be asked to review and complete forms with information about your civil rights. You will also be asked to provide information about the language you speak and your nationality, specifically whether you have Native American heritage.
DCFS must make "active efforts" to keep your family together. This is a materially higher standard than applies in other cases. Read what ICWA requires.
The ERW may ask you to sign a release allowing them to obtain records from your child's school and doctor. It is important that you decline to sign this release. You have the right to obtain that information yourself and supply it to the ERW if you and your attorney believe it will not harm your case.
The ERW and their supervisor decide whether there is evidence of a child safety issue.
If there is not enough evidence of a safety issue legally requiring DCFS or court intervention, DCFS closes the investigation with a finding of "inconclusive" or "unfounded."
If DCFS decides a child safety issue exists, the allegations in the referral are found "substantiated." From there, two things can happen.
DCFS may offer you a voluntary family maintenance safety plan. This is a contract with DCFS that allows your child to remain home in exchange for DCFS supervising your family and requiring you to complete programs and enroll in services. DCFS will ask you to sign it and adhere to it.
Do not sign anything without first having an attorney look at it. What a safety plan actually commits you to.
DCFS may instead file a court case against you and seek a warrant to remove your child. To obtain that warrant, they must show the judge specific, credible facts supporting a reasonable belief that your child is being abused or neglected. Not a complaint. Not a hunch. And not the fact that you refused to consent to the investigation.
The warrant is reviewed by a judge, who will either approve or deny it. Read about the importance of the first 72 hours after your child is removed.
DCFS investigates any concern that a child is experiencing abuse or neglect. Those concerns come from two places: anonymous calls to the DCFS Child Protection Hotline, and reports from mandated reporters such as teachers, doctors, nurses, childcare workers, and law enforcement. A caller does not need proof. They need only what the agency calls reasonable suspicion, meaning that most people with the same information would reach the same conclusion.
Unless there is an immediate danger amounting to exigent circumstances, DCFS must get your permission to enter your home or speak with your child. You have the right to say no. If you decline, the worker may seek an investigative warrant to enter your home or interview your child. You also have the right to have an attorney present during a home assessment.
The Emergency Response Worker will attempt to interview every child and adult living in the home, privately and individually, not just the child named in the report. They will also ask about the whereabouts of any children who live elsewhere, such as with relatives. If you are the person accused, you have the right to be told the allegations against you and to have your attorney present. If you request an attorney, the worker will postpone the meeting and arrange for county counsel to attend.
The worker may ask you to sign a release allowing DCFS to obtain records from your child's school and doctor. You are not required to sign it. You have the right to obtain those records yourself and provide them to the worker if you and your attorney conclude they will not harm your case. Speak with an attorney before signing any release.
Three. If there is not enough evidence of a safety issue requiring intervention, DCFS closes the investigation with a finding of inconclusive or unfounded. If there is some evidence but the issues are not serious, DCFS may offer services, sometimes called a voluntary case. If there is evidence and the issues are serious, or the family declines services, DCFS may file a petition to open a court case and may seek a warrant to place the child with a relative or in foster care.
It is a contract with DCFS that lets your child remain at home in exchange for agency supervision and a requirement that you complete programs and enroll in services. DCFS will ask you to sign it and adhere to it. Do not sign anything without an attorney reviewing it first. What is presented as voluntary carries consequences that are difficult to undo.
Yes. You have the right to an attorney during a DCFS investigation, before any court case exists. An attorney at this stage can help keep the matter out of court, keep children at home, and document any civil rights violations for a potential later claim.
You have already taken the most important first step: arming yourself with knowledge. The second step is securing experienced legal representation before the clock runs out.
At K. Adeniyi Law, we represent parents in CPS investigations and juvenile dependency cases throughout California, including Los Angeles, Orange County, San Bernardino, Riverside, Sacramento, and San Francisco.
949-209-5033Call or text. Urgent calls answered after hours.
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
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Commerce, CA 90040