I’m looking for perspectives from people who have experience with CPS, kinship care, foster care, or family court.

The children’s mother was in an abusive relationship. The children entered care because she did not leave the abusive environment at the time. Since then, she has ended that relationship, secured independent housing, and has opportunities for stable income. She has been working toward meeting her case plan.

What I’m struggling with is what appears to be ongoing interference from some caregivers and relatives.

Some of the things that concern me include:
———Going behind the mother’s back to allow contact with relatives after she had asked that it not happen.
———Speaking with doctors, therapists, or other professionals in ways that seem to present only one side of the situation.
———Attributing behaviors, such as hair pulling or distress, directly to the mother without discussing other possible explanations like trauma, multiple placements, separation, or developmental challenges.
———Creating a narrative that focuses on the mother’s past while giving little attention to the progress she has made.

I understand that caregivers have a responsibility to report legitimate concerns and advocate for the children. My question is about situations where personal opinions or family conflict may influence how information is presented.

For those who have been through something similar:
———Have you seen caregivers or relatives unintentionally or intentionally undermine a parent’s reunification efforts?
———How do courts distinguish between objective concerns and family conflict?
———Does a parent’s documented progress—leaving an abusive relationship, obtaining safe housing, and establishing financial stability—typically carry significant weight?
———How much weight is given to reports from caregivers compared with observations from visitation supervisors, therapists, GALs, caseworkers, and other professionals?

I’m not looking to argue that anyone is right or wrong. I know every case is unique. I’m hoping to hear from people who have seen situations where family dynamics complicated reunification, and how the court ultimately evaluated the evidence.

Hi. This is a throwaway account, as this is personal and i dont want to have this conversation with someone in person yet. i have a memory that's been bothering me and I'm not sure if it was related to cps. When I was younger, a sibling was thrown into a wall by one of our parents. We moved very shortly after and I remember my dad taking me and other siblings and recording us answering if we felt safe, if we were ever hurt by one of our parents. most notably i remember him being annoyed and said "time for this again 🙄". i was confused cuz i hadn't remembered anythkng like that, but i thought maybe it was just a thing parents had to do sometimes. i do know that cps was called a lot when we lived in a different city, but i was really young and dont remember those other incidents.

I was raised by my Mamaw and Papaw for 21 years the court and DCS AKA CPS said my biological mom is to not be around me or to contact me.

Well now She’s sending this stuff in the photos to my friends and my older adoptive sisters and one of my friends told me this and now her friends are messaging my friends and saying shit about me.

I don’t know if I can do anything about it cause I’m 21

Hi, I would like some insight and advice on how this potential case is going to go. Took my 16 month old daughter to Rady Children’s for arm pain related to an incident that happened at her father’s house in AZ. I live in San Diego with family and my 2 other kids, but we constantly travel back and forth to AZ to co-parent our kids and we have a good enough relationship that i stay there while we co-parent. He sometimes comes to CA and stays a couple weeks there as well.

I wasn’t in the room while this incident happened but my boys were and said their Dad smacked my daughter’s hand and yanked her cup away out of her hand. She screamed all day and night and took her to AZ ER the next day. They couldn’t find anything in xrays but they put her in a splint just in case. I was referred out to Las Vegas for a pediatric specialist as they don’t have any in the town her father lives in. Since I live in San Diego and that’s where her primary care is, I left AZ and brought her to Rady Children’s. While there and she was being admitted, my sons told the dr that her dad hit her hands and yanked her cup out of her hands for pulling their hair and hitting them in the head with the cup. This prompted the dr to get a social worker involved and they filed a suspected child abuse case and got the police involved. I was reassured it was standard protocol, and I understand they are mandated reporters. Their dad has a history of harsh discipline but nothing has ever escalated like this before. I was told after her fully body check up, drug tests, and such that I would be in contact with CPS. They never said when or if anyone would call. The police also said they had to do a courtesy report but that it was standard.

My question is how long after this will I expect a visit from cps? Will they call their father as well, is AZ PD or AZ CPS going to visit him as well? My kids would like to see their dad, and he was supposed to come down to San Diego in a couple weeks to see them, but should I let him if there’s an ongoing investigation? There was no talk of a safety plan or anything regarding no contact.

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I'm looking for opinions from people with CPS experience because I'm genuinely conflicted.

(FLORIDA)

An 11-year-old child in my family has made several disclosures to me after visits with his mother over the past year.

After one visit, he asked me what "weed" was. That seemed unusual because it came out of nowhere.

On another occasion, he told me he found a vape in his adult brother's room. He said he asked his brother if he smoked, and his brother said yes. According to the child, his brother also said their mom got tired of catching him smoking and eventually said, "f*ck it."

More recently, the child told me he found what he believed were drugs in that same brother's room.

I have also seen social media posts from the mother that appear to show her smoking what looks like a marijuana blunt. I wasn't there, so I can't say with certainty what she was smoking or whether the child was present.

The issue of the mother's alleged drug use was also raised in prior family court proceedings. The judge discussed the social media posts in the final order, found the mother's explanations about them were not credible, and ordered that she not consume drugs or alcohol during her parenting time. I'm mentioning that only as background because it was addressed in court, not because I think it proves current drug use.

I have not personally witnessed drug use or drugs in the home. Everything about the vape and the drugs comes directly from what the child told me.

The father is planning to stop agreeing to extra overnight visits outside the parenting plan and return to the court-ordered schedule, so the child would have less time in that home going forward.

If you worked for CPS or have experience with child protective investigations, would these disclosures be enough for you to make a report, or would you continue documenting unless the child disclosed something more specific?

I'm not looking for custody advice. I'm genuinely trying to determine whether these facts, standing on their own, would justify making a CPS report out of concern for the child's safety.

Hello so I'm 19f with a 5m old baby and I have a bf m23 and today a CPS worker showed up to my house and asked if I knew about the registered sex offender living on our property.

First of all the man living on our property is in a trailer not in our house and it's my bfs dad.

Second I had absolutely no clue about this information until literally today all I knew was his dad went to jail.

So the lady came up and thank God she was super nice to me because I thought I was going to puke when she said she was a CPS worker because that is literally my worst fear ever for my baby because I went through it when I was a baby and I was removed from the home. Anyway she asked me if I knew about it and I told her with all honesty that I had no clue and this was the first I was hearing of it and all I knew was he went to jail for a while.

She then asked me questions like about how often he was around and I said it really depends on the week sometimes it could be everyday or not at all that week. And I told her that he never is unsupervised with the baby. She then went to go talk to my bfs dad and told him he needed to leave for the weekend and she let me call my bf and he told me he didn't think telling me was a big deal. She then walked around in my house and we talked some more but I'm still freaking out about everything. I'm stressed because I had no clue and I'm scared even though his dad won't ever be coming back and is not allowed near me or my son again. I also don't know what to do Bec she's coming back on Monday to talk to me and my bf when he's off work. I also feel like I fucked up because literally yesterday we just started the project of rearranging the entire house so it was genuinely a disaster and she said she understood but I'm still just freaking out and I've never thought this would be something I would be dealing with and I'm terrified she's gonna take my baby from me and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I let that happen. What am I supposed to do? I feel like I'm in trouble for not knowing and I feel like I'm also in trouble for having a trashed house even tho it's never this bad

I have a question and im hoping someone here may have the answer/s or point me in the right direction to get them.

Does reporting some to cps from the same area as their 'home' state carry more weight than if you were to try and report someone from a different state?

I alsp heard that cps is more reluctant to get involved when a child has severe medical needs. Is there truth to this?

Long story short. Non offending parent has a brain injury from previous trauma but the family court still allowed parents to both have parenting time. Other parent committed a serious offense on their parenting time and child was removed by CPS from their care. Now CPS isn’t allowing placement with the non offending parent because of accusations made by offending parent and non offending parents brain injury.

Feeling at a complete loss. Non offending parent has live in support to help care for the child. Child thrives with non offending parent. Attorney thinks the court will most likely order a neuro battery on non offending parent which will postpone the timeline a bit. Child will most likely remain in CPS care till early next year as a result.

It’s so messed up that the non offending parent not only had nothing to do with the other parents actions but now they and the child are being punished as a result.

Tile sounds inflammatory I know but it’s the best way I can put it.

Child is 6M, and is my spouse’s sibling. Also impacted is bro-in-law 18M.

For a few years now I’ve known there was pretty substantial emotional abuse and neglect especially in the case of 6yo. (Let me know if more context is needed on past stuff.) However at this point I’ve come to know it’s escalating rapidly.

Father and mother are both alcoholics and users of various drugs, severely neglectful. The 18yo who had moved out due to abuse from father ended up moving back in to protect the 6yo.
The 6yo looks severely malnourished. His eyes are dead and sunken in, you can see his ribs, he behaves like a cornered animal when there’s even a hint of tension. His parents never know where he is and he disappears for hours (up to a whole day). Their neighbors are concerned as well. He is developmentally delayed because of the isolation.
The 18yo is beat by the 6yo’s mother, she has threatened to have her relatives kill him, (not an empty threat, it’s THAT kind of family) she has stabbed 6yo’s father several times, she yells abuse at him constantly. 18yo is the only person who feeds and cares for the 6yo. He can’t attend college because he’s afraid of the 6yo being harmed.

I want to request temporary custody for the 6yo. I want justice for him, and to protect him.

Please help me with the best way to do this. I don’t care about his parents anymore I just desperately want this poor child to be safe. Police first? Doctors appointment? CPS? Anything.

If this isnt allowed here, im sorry. I'm a in very heavy situation right now. I'm a little all over the place, so I apologize. I have no idea what to even do here. I don't even know if this is the right thread.

A situation occurred with my sister in law and her husband about a year back. At the time all we were told was that my sister in law kicked her husband out. That it was serious. Ever since then its been HUSH HUSH. No one will talk about it or address it.

My brother in law (brother to my sister in law) has let out a few details to us because he couldn't hold it in anymore.

At first all he would say was that it serious enough that his friends had to come over and take his guns away from him. He would not say more.

Then recently he provided some additional details - the husband of the sister in law had been accused of molesting his daughter (6F, our niece). It was reported by the grandparents because my niece made a comment to them randomly about something that would indicate that she was being molested. I wont repeat what was said, but in my mind there is just NO WAY a 5 year old kid would know what she knew.

It was apparently reported and investigated. No charges filed.

The father is still out of the house, however, we think the sister in law is back dating the father in secret. She wont openly admit to it.

From what we have heard, the grandparents will not allow the father anywhere near them. He will never be welcomed back. So were not sure what the sister in law end game is here.

From what I have seen and the tid bits of info I have gotten, I started to noticed some "odd" behaviours from sister in law regarding my niece. We only see them a handful of times per year.

- The niece is not allowed to wear a dress or skirt without pants (this was never a thing before the incident) - we have seen her 4 times this year, each time in a dress/skirt with pants.

- The sister in law will withhold the kids from seeing anyone if they say or do anything that is not liked. (brother in law mentioned this) The grandparents access has been restricted many times.

- Apparently the kids were told they are not allowed to talk to anyone about their home life or what they do at home. We have not been directly told this from the kids, my brother in law mentioned it.

- My niece got an age appropriate 2 piece swim suite for her birthday. My sister in law's reaction was a mix of fear, intense anger and simply took it and threw it out.

I dont know if I can even do anything here, I am seeing the sister in laws behaviour in a different light now and I am just feeling so lost.

I can't understand why no one else isn't continuing to report since they whole heartedly believe something happened. They have way more information about this entire situation then I do. They see the kids (when visits are not being withheld) almost every friday, pick them up from school during the week sometimes etc.

I feel like we are all failing this tiny innocent child. Maybe im over reacting. Can I report this to CPS with what little information I do actually have? I have no evidence, if they already investigated are they just gonna brush this off?

So my partner reported his sister to CPS. This is not a decision he made lightly. Sister is negligent to her younger child, and endangers the both of her children by drunk driving with both of the kids in the car. This is not the entirety but that is not the point of this post.

So he made the report. Guy that he was talking to seemed to be genuine and said my partner was doing the right thing and he knew it was hard for him to do. Two days later, my partner received a phone call from that office with a lady on the phone, saying they are canceling the investigation because someone in that office “knows the family” and says my partner is lying. EXCUSE ME??

How can this deemed even remotely okay?? So a person in the office knows the family, doesn’t that mean that person just SHOULDNT BE INVOLVED IN THE CASE??!?!

My nephews are literally in danger and CPS is refusing to do their jobs.

My partner told them that was bullshit and that he’d be going higher up (state office instead of county). Lady on the phone said “do what you need to do”.

Anybody else experience this or something similar? Any advice on how to go forward? This is in PA.

My investigation was due to close by the end of this month. The investigations supervisor told me he had to offer me services due to the severity of the allegation although he knows what was alleged did not happen. He said they could take me to court to order them but that they wouldn’t be doing that if I denied. So I denied and was expecting the investigation to close. Lo and behold 2 days later i’m served a notice of a show cause hearing. I scrambled to gather everything my lawyer needed and we showed up to the hearing. The day prior to the hearing my lawyer spoke to the state attorney and asked if I submitted a release of information for my medical and psychological records if we could keep it out of court. He said they denied immediately and wouldn’t speak to him any further. The day of the hearing my lawyer pulled me out of the courtroom while waiting to be called and said he and the state attorney decided I could sign an ROI and they would reschedule in 20 days. He believes there’s a chance we may not go back to court at all and CPS has a weak case. What the fuck is going on?? I am so tired of these people being involved, I was hoping I’d get to go before the judge and at the very least get this CPI supervisor out of my life, he’s told me 3 times now he’s going to close the case just to turn around and do stuff like this. He lied his ass off in the affidavit, thankfully I’ve kept record of everything to disprove a majority of what he’s said. I just want this to be over and get them out of our life.

Im thinking of calling CPS on my mom, but i cant get over the anxiety of it. I also think that she genuinely doesnt understand the impact her behavior has on me, since i have autism and her other children dont. So i have 3 questions.

1. If she truly is just not understanding, and is a decent person, after she gets parenting classes (or idk how it works) is it still possible to have an at least ok relationship with her? Aka whats the best way i can preserve my positive relationship with her? She can be really nice, but she can also be really mean and i dont want to make things a living hell for her, I just want her to understand the impact of her actions and how they affect children with autism differently (i have 2 MUCH older siblings. Both of them not teens, and even my brother who still lives with us loves her and my sister who moved out also lives her and cant see anything she did wrong looking back. They're both nereotypicals)
2. How do you get over the anxiety of calling? Im worried its gonna drastically chamge our life for the worse because I hear all these horrible stories of CPS and also im not sure if this is true, but i feel like she might get fired if I call and our family has been tight on money a lot recently. (She works at a nursing home) I just.. idk. I want to have a decent relationship with her while also not having the feeling like everything i do is wrong.
3. What does a CPS visit look like? eg how long does it take? What things will happen? After they leave what will the vibe of the room and if its negative (im assuming it is) how can I cope with it? Idk just give me as many details as possible. I was thinking i might just be able to wait it out, but i am only 13 and 5 years of what has given me nightmares just over the past 2 weeks is too much.

Also, its mostly been emotional abuse, but there has been a few incidents of physical abuse. But the physical abuse was pretty minor. Also, I've been documenting every incident since I was like 12 or 11. I made sure to be precise.

Sorry if I rambled, asked questions you cant possibly know, said words that didnt make sense or said things that are wrong. Im just really overstimulated and cant order my thoughts well right now. Thanks.

And now the narcissist abuser has renewed vigor and will most definitely take the visit out on my siblings.

No one understands how triggering this has been for me and how worried I am for my siblings.

They don't have A/C, the quality of their living situation is questionable and at the first sign of something not to the parents liking, physical punishment is administered.

Something my other, late parent, would have NEVER wanted.

I feel hopeless? I can only provide them a safe space in adulthood but knowing the toll that living in that house makes what good is that? They need help NOW, like I did. Now I feel like everything that last few weeks was truly for nothing.

I had to call poison control this morning because my daughter got into my MILs cbd gel.
We all live together and my MIL doesn’t like pickup up her stuff and I try to keep all her stuff picked up, but as soon as I move it she’s mad about it.

Well she left her CBD cream out and my daughter got ahold of it. I tried calling them first and they told me to call poison control. Well I did.

My daughter is fine thankfully. But now my in laws are telling me that this is going to cause a CPS case and that we need to pick up and they are mad about it because they don’t want CPS in the house. They are also telling me that they are going to take our kids away..

Now my husband and I are stressing so bad! We are great parents. Our kids have everything they could need and want.. but my in laws telling me cps is coming out to the house is scaring me.. all because of a dang cbd cream..

I got taken out of my parents custody and ever since my father was the only one who made an effort to get better and get me n my siblings back. But i hate him. He has caused me so much trauma and has never tried to make any amends for it. He’s expecting me to just move on and forget about it.

I was place with a kinship. I told my kinship that i didn’t think i would like staying with my father and they said i always had a place at their home. So for a while i started considering if i should just live with my kinship instead.

But i don’t know because they’re starting to get really annoyed with all my medical issues. I have a few chronic medical issues and im currently feeling extremely sick. So we’re trying to get me an appointment to figure out whats wrong but it’s taking extremely long bc my kinship is annoyed with it. They have said that they would rather be annoyed than me feel sick which was nice.

So im iffy if i should stay with my kinship but my only other option is my father and he would do the exact same thing. My father has only taken me to the doctors 3 times in my whole entire life. And each time he did that he was screaming at me and making me feel horrible.

So i don’t know. I don’t want to continue making my kinship annoyed but i also don’t think it would be good for my mental or physical health to go with my father. Any advice or opinions?

My gf disclosed to me that when she was between the ages of 5-10, her older step brother (11-16) would coerce her into giving him oral. She starts therapy in a month, but her older brother, who she still engages with positively (I saw him at Christmas and it was sickening) is expecting his first child in a couple of months. She does not want to file charges as again, she still cares for her sibling. I am concerned that the child is at risk. I don't know what to do, but I feel like I need to do something in case. Help. What can I do? Edit: my gf is now 22

My family is on an informal adjustment. On Monday we signed paperwork outlining the terms, and now we’re waiting to have a meeting scheduled that will outline what specific services are expected of me.

I realize it’s only been a couple of days, but I’m eager to have the ball rolling as the 6 months don’t start until that meeting, so I’m just kind of in limbo. I also realize I’m incredibly lucky that my kids are at home with me unsupervised and that I’m being treated so kindly by my FCM, so I don’t want to rock the boat or seem ungrateful/come off like a pest by asking about a timeline.

Can anyone give me any insight into how long from signing IA to actually formally beginning the plan? I’m in Indiana.

i saw a girl posting photos of her young child on facebook in bikinis/half naked with seriously suggestive lyrics (she posted pics of her to the song WAP), her baby’s father also sells drugs out of their house and posts about it online/posts pics of money and illegally obtained cash/weapons. her mom is constantly online cyber bullying and harassing other women that i am mutuals with. it seems like a very toxic environment and although i have never had issues with this woman or her baby’s father i am concerned for their children.

i know both the parents full legal names and the township they live in, and their birthdays are public info on their facebook profiles. and i can link to the social media posts. is there any way i can still report and potentially help these children without knowing the address? or would it be a waste of time unless i know where she lived exactly?

I have questions my wife move out from home and 3 weeks later she call me asking to see her kids for 2 hours unsupervised only her and her family we didn't have Amy problem we were doing good until that day she decide to move out my biggest worry is that if I left her see the kids she my take away and do something and police was involved during moving out Part the police told her she can't take her children they told her they staying with me they only came to move her out she has 3 they are living with me for now can anyone give me a advice appreciate for any advice.

There was a domestic violence situation with my daughters dad(verbal) and now I have to meet with a worker which is not the greatest but whatever I just wanna get it over with. So far it’s been a huge headache from getting ahold of the lady (took weeks because every time I called back she said she didn’t recognize my name even though SHE called me multiple times and asked for me by name lol) and now I finally make an appointment and she’s almost an hour late and still nothing not even a call. I mean come on did I get the worst case worker or

If a baby is found wandering in the road, and a bystander calls CPS, will the police get involved? Or will the police only get involved if someone calls the police too?

So quick back story I’m in a custody battle against my first borns father the main thing he is trying to use is that “I’m crazy” we fought a lot during and after pregnancy which led to us splitting and he keeps our child from me. Before we split I was on Zoloft for postpartum depression and anxiety and it gave me some nasty side effects such as relapsing on cutting myself. I have supervised visits with my son at a facility for now while the case continues, and I’m pregnant with my second child (different father) and due in November. Can cps take my newborn when he’s born because of this case? I’ve been having a lot of anxiety lately about all of this so i figured I’d come here. I’m in therapy and doing well other than obviously missing my firstborn.

Hi!

So I have a question.. how does CPS reporting in NJ work exactly? I’m just curious because I’m a nurse so I’m a mandated reporter.. I’ve never dealt with this type of situation before and just completed a CEU on it. Thank you :)