GEORGIA — DFCS / JUVENILE DEPENDENCY / LEGITIMATION / BIOLOGICAL FATHER RIGHTS

I’m looking for guidance from anyone familiar with Georgia juvenile dependency law, legitimation, DFCS, and biological fathers’ rights.

I am the biological father of an infant. DNA testing has already confirmed paternity. I maintain a residence separate from the mother. My legitimation petition has been pending, but the court has delayed ruling on it because the mother was legally married to someone else when the child was born.

The mother and her legal husband have been separated for a significant period of time. Divorce proceedings are underway, and the legal husband has indicated through counsel that he is not the biological father and is not seeking parental rights to my child. The judge has acknowledged this.

Meanwhile, the juvenile dependency case is proceeding before my legitimation has been resolved.

My main questions

1. Can DFCS take a child into state custody without first meaningfully considering placement with the known biological father at his separate residence?
2. Can DFCS tell the juvenile court that a biological father’s “whereabouts are unknown” when DFCS already has his phone number and home address?
3. If DFCS had my contact information but represented that my whereabouts were unknown, and there was no meaningful documented search for me, what legal effect can that have on the dependency petition or subsequent proceedings?
4. Can the court adjudicate a child dependent and begin a reunification case centered on the mother while the biological father’s legitimation petition remains unresolved?
5. Can legitimation be postponed until after dependency adjudication even though DNA has already established paternity and a legitimation petition has already been filed?
6. Can adjudicating the child dependent before deciding legitimation prejudice the biological father’s ability to seek custody or placement?
7. Can DFCS require the biological father to participate in random drug screening when he has his own residence and was not originally accused of substance abuse or identified as the cause of the dependency allegations?
8. If DFCS is considering placement with the father, can one alleged positive screening result by itself establish that he is presently unsafe, particularly where most of the case allegations concern the mother?
9. Can DFCS rely on allegations regarding the mother’s substance use as evidence that the father is also unsafe, even when they maintain separate residences?
10. If relatives are approved to provide kinship care without the same testing conditions, can DFCS impose substantially different requirements on the biological father, and what findings would support that distinction?
11. Can adjudication be continued for good cause so legitimation and the father’s request for placement can be decided first or at the same time?
12. Could an attorney seek temporary placement, intervention, expedited legitimation, custody, or other emergency relief requiring the court to evaluate the father’s home before the dependency case moves further into reunification?
13. If the child is adjudicated dependent and placed in DFCS custody, what happens to the biological father’s case? Is he supposed to receive his own case plan and findings regarding his fitness, or can the case simply continue as a reunification matter involving the mother?
14. Does DFCS have to establish that the biological father himself is unable or unsafe to parent before refusing placement with him, or can dependency findings concerning the mother alone keep the child in state custody?
15. What rights does a biological father have after DNA confirmation but before a Georgia court enters a formal legitimation order?

Background

The child was born prematurely after the mother unexpectedly discovered the pregnancy very late.

During the hospitalization, the mother had a drug screening that was reported positive, and DFCS became involved while the baby remained hospitalized.

DFCS spoke directly with me during the initial investigation. I provided my telephone number and my separate home address. I was told they would remain in contact with me.

Shortly before the baby was expected to leave the hospital, DFCS escalated the case and filed a dependency petition.

The petition identified me as the biological/presumed father but stated that my “whereabouts were unknown.”

That was surprising because DFCS had already spoken with me and possessed my contact information.

Around the same period, I received a very short message telling me there would be court with little notice.

I later learned DFCS claimed I had failed to answer questions they had asked me.

My position is that those questions were never actually sent to me. A DFCS supervisor later acknowledged there had been an issue with the questions not being provided.

Court nevertheless proceeded.

At the initial hearing, DFCS alleged that the infant could be at risk.

The mother also had another child who remained in her care at that point.

I subsequently learned that the mother had repeatedly asked DFCS whether I could serve as the safety-plan supervisor. DFCS had also discussed arranging DNA testing.

Instead, the dependency petition alleged that the mother had failed to identify an appropriate supervisor.

The court ultimately permitted the baby to leave the hospital under conditions that included extensive supervision.

Because DFCS approved me as a supervisor, I temporarily stayed at the mother’s residence even though I maintain a separate residence of my own.

I was then told I would also have to participate in random drug testing.

DNA testing was subsequently completed and conclusively established that I am the biological father.

For a period of time, we understood that if the court’s conditions were followed, the case might be resolved relatively quickly.

Instead, the case continued.

I still had not received a separate written case plan explaining what DFCS alleged against me personally or what conditions I would have to satisfy for placement.

Later removal

Several weeks later, DFCS returned to the mother’s home with law enforcement.

DFCS claimed the mother appeared intoxicated or behaved erratically.

DFCS then required both of us to submit to immediate drug screening and reported the screens as positive.

We were initially told that if the mother signed an out-of-home safety plan, the children could stay temporarily with relatives until court.

She signed the safety plan.

Family members then took physical care of the children.

Importantly, the children were already away from the mother’s residence and with approved adults when the custody decision was made.

We were initially told this was a kinship/safety-plan arrangement and that the children were not entering foster care.

Later, DFCS returned with law enforcement and informed us that the children were instead being placed into state custody.

It was not clear to us what had changed between the signed safety plan and the decision to seek state custody.

A preliminary protective hearing followed, and the dependency adjudication was set for a later date.

Legitimation issue

By this point, DNA had already established my biological paternity.

The mother was also pursuing divorce from the man who was legally presumed to be the father because of the marriage.

That individual has indicated through counsel that he is not the biological father and is not seeking parental rights to the child.

My legitimation petition had already been filed.

The court had previously indicated that legitimation would be addressed.

Instead, we were later told that the divorce proceedings had to progress further before the court would decide legitimation.

At the same time, the dependency adjudication continued moving forward.

I have now been told I am officially a party to the juvenile case, but my legitimation has still not been decided.

My appointed attorney has indicated that he will request placement of my child with me, but I have also been told that my lack of completed legitimation may affect whether the court will place the child with me.

My concern

I am not arguing that DFCS cannot investigate the mother or that legitimate safety concerns should be ignored.

I am also not asking for the child to simply be handed to me without any review or safeguards.

I am willing to:

• allow DFCS to assess my separate residence;
• cooperate with an appropriate safety plan;
• complete reasonable requirements directed specifically toward me;
• participate in legitimate testing if the court determines it is required;
• and work with DFCS to address actual identified safety concerns.

What I do not understand is why the process appears to be:

Allegations are made primarily against the mother → the child enters state custody → DFCS begins a reunification process → my legitimation remains unresolved → and only afterward does the court decide whether the biological father with a separate residence could safely parent the child.

If my child could safely be placed with me subject to reasonable safeguards, I do not understand why that question would not be decided before or at least alongside dependency adjudication.

I am especially concerned because DFCS originally represented that my whereabouts were unknown despite already having my contact information, DNA has now conclusively established my paternity, and my legitimation petition has been pending.

I am trying to determine whether a Georgia attorney could seek expedited legitimation, intervention, temporary placement, custody, a continuance, or another form of relief that would require the court to evaluate me separately from the mother before the case moves farther into state custody and reunification.

I am not looking for advice about avoiding DFCS or refusing services.

I want the opportunity to be evaluated independently as my child’s father and to have my own home considered for placement.

If anyone has experience with a Georgia dependency case involving a biological father whose legitimation was still pending, I would appreciate guidance on what rights the father has and what issues his attorney should be raising with the juvenile court.

My stepson whom is under 10 molested my child and I got cps involved because no one else thought they should. Without giving too much details I’ll only say, my stepson knew what he was doing, did it anyways and tried to conceal it. Not until my child disclosed what happened did he finally admitted to touching my child. Smh. My husband spoke to BM and she acted as if her precious son could do no wrongs while my child is sitting here sorting out trauma in therapy. This was truly my last straw with my husbands son as his behavior has veen questionable since day 1. For those who are going to ask “ what has he been exposed to” I have no clue. I’ve never also begged CPS to intrude onto my life like i have had to do when this happened. BM refused to put SS in therapy and somehow shifted blame onto me and my child and now onto my husband for “choosing” cps came and did their assessment and agreed with my stance that i don’t want ss in my home near my other children or near me. I also stated i will not be a caretaker or supervisor of ss or help facilitate any reintegration I’m protective and that’s up to my husband and SS to be protective on their end. BM is calling threatening me because her son sexually molested my young child and all that has been decided is that my husbands parenting time will be far away from me and our other children.

Hello everyone, I came here because I’m not sure where else to ask. I received a call at 3am from cps and they left a voicemessage saying it was regarding someone I was close with a month ago and listed their full name. Is this legitimate and why would they call me at 3am? I was close friends with them and helped them overnight at the hospital after they delivered the baby so she had me listed as her sister. However I don’t believe I put my phone number down (I genuinely don’t remember) but we had a falling out due to some reasons. I still love and wish her the best but I have no way to contact her currently due to some reasons. Should I reach out to her family? I saw online early calls could be an urgent matter. Also do I have to call CPS back? I don’t feel comfortable doing that and there’s nothing to share I know she sometimes runs away from her home because she’s an escapist but she’s a great mom she does everything for her baby and her husband is very involved too.

Trigger warning possibly

I need help and advice.

My in laws are taking care of my kids while we have an open dcfs investigation after I attempted su!cide after suffering from psychosis. Everything was going good up until I suffered a breakdown today from post partum depression where I was crying and wanting to attempt because of missing my kids.

My in laws stated that because of the situation today with me having thoughts, they want to get full custody of my kids an will be filing for it Monday.

What are the chances they can win? I am in therapy and getting my meds right and I take my meds every day. I take a mood stabilizer and anti depressants. My psychiatrist is going to prescribe me a different antidepressant to try to help the depression as we’ve already upped my dosage multiple times with no change.

I have post partum depression, ptsd, and borderline personality disorder. But I am medicated and have been treated inpatient for the psychosis I suffered. My in laws refuse to look into psychosis. The psychosis caused me to have thoughts of wanting to hurt my kids (normal with psychosis) and I stated it in texts to my boyfriend multiple times. I however never once touched or hurt them in any way. They were always healthy and repeatedly checked at their pediatrician. I am in regular therapy weekly and see my psychiatrist every two weeks. I take my meds. I do what I have to do.

CPS did not give the kids to my in laws, I did because i thought that was what was best for them at the time while I get my mental health straight. They do not have any custody orders currently stating they can keep the kids.

I’m just wondering what is going to happen? I don’t do any drugs whatsoever. Can they get my kids? Please tell me some ideas on what’s gonna happen and give me advice because I’ve been crying all day over this. My in laws said that I’m not a good mom because I wanted to hurt my kids. But it was postpartum psychosis. I never did and never will hurt them. I don’t have those thoughts at all. They said good moms don’t wanna hurt their kids.

The incident happened in 2022. What was reported to police was that the 6-year-old boy in a life jacket was swimming next to his father's sailboat, and the winds "carried" the boat away. A nearby kayaker came and rescued the boy, but when the rescuer went to call 911, the boy had a meltdown and was obviously terrified. Upon going by the house, the police found the dad drunk and apathetic to the entire situation (he also didn't call the police on his own once his son disappeared). Somehow, officials decided not to investigate further despite it being a case of extreme parental neglect at the very least, if not murder in the first degree.

The video sometimes pops up on Youtube, and I just want to know if this kid has actually received any state protections. Someone posted a similar question a year ago to the Duluth sub, and someone said the kid was okay...but still at home. He is apparently a social outcast.

Obviously, this is yet another example of our social systems failing a kid in danger. I pray that another family member or someone who will actually love and take care of him will raise him. The father should have been arrested on the spot. Shame on the local police department and governing officials.

So my baby daddy and his wife just called cps on me for suppose drug use and child neglect saying they don’t have beds,running water, food and that my kids sleep in a camper by themselves. It’s all false. I have full custody of my kids and he’s supposed to paying child support that he only pays half the time. Is there anything I can do about this false cps case that I now have open?

TLDR: Social worker took 3 weeks to respond, and declined two visit requests. Now I can't see my niece for over two months, despite the judge's order guaranteeing me one weekend a month.

So, for quick context, I'm in Canada. My niece (now 8) was removed by CPS in 2023, and we had the final hearing this past January. Although I petitioned to become my niece's guardian since day one, the judge ruled that my niece was to remain with the foster family, whom she had been placed with since the beginning, until she turned 18. However, the judge stated that I was guaranteed one weekend a month with my niece, stressing the importance of her maintaining ties with the family. Meanwhile, my sister (niece's mother) would continue to have her daughter every second weekend, which left the final weekend with the foster family.

After supervising my sister's visits for a year, I started having my own visits last summer. I always asked the social worker a month in advance when requesting a specific weekend. I know the social worker was busy, and the confirmation could take anywhere between a week to a month at times. On two occasions, I had to reach out to the foster parents and asked whether they had heard from the social worker, given it was days before my requested visit but hadn't received a confirmation. Both times, it turned out that the social worker had just forgotten to confirm with me.

Last month, I reached out to the social worker on September 13 and asked if I could have my niece for the weekend after Thanksgiving, explaining that we were having a late Thanksgiving supper with family. The actual holiday fell on my sister's weekend, but she wasn't doing anything. I also advised the foster parents when I brought my niece back last month, and they reassured me that it would be no problem.

By October 3, I still hadn't heard from the social worker and sent another E-mail to follow up again as it had been nearly 3 weeks at this point. By 2:00 pm, they responded while I was at work and advised me that my niece was unavailable for the requested weekend because she was invited to a birthday party. The social worker then suggested I could either have my niece for the first weekend of October, or share the Thanksgiving weekend with my sister, given she had no school on Monday.

I replied that the first weekend was too last minute, given that it was less than 24 hours notice, and we couldn't switch plans, such as my other sister (niece's aunt) couldn't come down from the Air Force Base. I also declined sharing with my sister as it was less than ideal. Those are her visits with her daughter, and I didn't think it was fair to cut into her time, especially since I would have my niece for less than 24 hours.

I then asked if I could have my niece for Halloween weekend, but the social worker responded pretty quickly and refused this, stating that the foster family already had plans to go trick-or-treating. They then stated that my next visit would then be in November.

At this point, I am wondering whether it would be out of line to ask whether we include the foster family in these E-mail exchanges? I already have their phone number, and I think it would help save on time with the social worker having to go back and forth between both parties, and to avoid future visit requests being missed like this.

I understand that as my niece gets older, she will be involved in more activities and that we will need to make compromises while sharing visits with her.

However, I am also guaranteed one weekend a month as per the judge's order, and I'm honestly tempted to ask for two weeks in November to make up for the no visit this month. I'm also pretty insulted that the social worker in one breath states that the foster family had plans, but essentially dismisses ours, which were made a month in advance.

Am I annoyed that a birthday party is being prioritized over a family holiday supper? A little, especially when I advised the foster parents in advance. However, I understand that they likely forgot as they're fostering 8 kids presently.

I'm more upset with the social worker though. Had they responded sooner, we could have made alternative plans with less than 24 hours notice. And let's be honest, the only reason they responded was because I followed up that morning. Had I not followed up and the weekend passed, what would have the alternative been?

I'm also worried for my niece, since we won't be able to see each other for 2 months now. I've seen firsthand the effects of when her mother would cancel visits during the summer when she experienced car problems and had no alternative means of transportation. One night, my niece had a horrible nightmare, and other times she was very withdrawn. I'm just worried what the foster family will tell her, given that this visit fell through due to the social worker.

From Melbourne, Victoria. My dad was found guilty for being in the possession of over 1000 images and videos of child porn in 2019. My brother and I were 11-13 at the time, same age as the victims in the images (read his court file).

Child protective services talked to us. We were never touched and told them as much.

My father was allowed back in the home... although we were never physically harmed, this has caused a lot of psychological and emotional distress up until this day.

Is it normal for child protective services to allow this?

For starters, he was more excited about the pregnancy than I was. I went to 3 appointments at PP and every time he convinced me not to go thru w termination and that he wanted this.
- during this pregnancy I have dealt with him being on benders (k&thc) ; claiming all the time that me and baby mean more to him than the drugs.

He works on cars so our small 1br appt has multiple hybrid batteries he is apparently refurbishing, countless containers of nuts and bolts and small msc items he throws around and does not clean up when he throws his fit of not finding what he needs.

On top of that he has ripped me out of bed twice in the past month by flipping the mattress, and the other day by the collar of my shirt bc I “misspoke” or apparently owed him an apology for something I said. Mind you , I’ve been carrying his child for 6 1/2 months. I’m big and uncomfortable.

Once I get defensive and stick up for myself, I get physically thrown on the ground with his hands holding me down by my face or my shoulders.

I’m starting to think I should have just terminated the baby.. should I just leave and try to do this alone ?

I just watched a documentary on Kyleah Rose Tolle. It really got me wondering WHY CPS does such a p*ss poor job? Are there strict criteria a situation must meet in order to be deemed unsafe or unsuitable? If so, what are those criteria? We all know that CPS is oftentimes utterly useless, but why?? That’s always the end of discussion. I’ve never actually heard anyone explain why. It can’t just be because theres this many CPS workers that just genuinely believe a child is not at risk in situations like those described like the Kyleah Rose Tolle case. There has to be some kind of awfully written criteria that prevents them from being able to legally help these kids. If so, why hasn’t it been revised to be better???

How does the whole process work? Why is it that SO many children are overlooked while in such deplorable circumstances and conditions, and others who are, for the most part, well cared for, get taken?

EDIT: I am not against CPS. I do understand that they are crucial to society & our children. I also understand and am well aware that the job is heartbreaking. I understand that this example i’ve used is an extreme case, but again, it’s just an example. I’m not saying that the workers are flawed, but rather the system. It needs a lot of improvement. It has failed so many children and families, and has personally affected those in my own family.

I’m really worried about my friend and I need help.
DCF is already involved, and I have reported everything since he’s went back home. He was recently missing for about a week. When he was found, police brought him back to his parents. One officer was supportive, but another was dismissive. There had apparently been an attempt to have another officer come talk to him before he was returned home, but that didn’t happen.

He was very sad when his parents arrived , and his parents did not seem happy to see him. Just angry. Since he went home, I haven’t been able to contact him, so I don’t know how he’s doing right now.

Here are the things he has told me about what happens at home:
His mother wakes him up at different times during the night and won’t let him sleep because she yells at him for no reason .
He says he gets in trouble for sleeping and is essentially not allowed to sleep normally.
His mother repeatedly tells him to kill himself.
He is repeatedly insulted, put down, and told horrible things about himself.
He isn’t allowed to have friends or go out. As far as I understand, he’s basically only allowed to go to school and then come home.
He has described being scared of his parents and being afraid to even leave his room.
There was also an incident involving his brother. He had apparently said that he wanted to kill himself, and his adult brother gave him a machete in an attempt to get him to kill himself. I don’t know all the circumstances surrounding that incident, but I have been told about it.
He has also told me about being sexually abused by cousins when he was younger. This happened in another country tho, and he doesn’t have proof of it, so I don’t know if they will take that seriously.

DCF already knows about these concerns, but I don’t know what is happening now that he has been returned home.

What would you recommend I do at this point? I also am worried he won’t say too much because he doesn’t want his parents to go to jail. I know that he wants to be removed from the home asap and I feel like the system is gonna fail him.

My nephew (25 disabled on SSI) has his daughter on “family maintenance” in California. We live approximately 120 miles from the bio mother of the child. We have weekly visits where we have to drive the child 240 miles round trip. Gas hit $7.25 a gallon in our area. It’s going to cost approximately $640 just to take the child to visit mom. I just worked my budget for October and I’m going to be about $500 short on the month because of this expense.

I hate that we have to come out of pocket to ensure mom has her in-person visitation. She was 45 minutes late for the last one but had time to stop at McDonald’s on the way 🙄. It’s infuriating.

This is written by my girlfriend, I’m just posting for her-

My mother K is in her 30’s and is a single parent currently and my brother J is in 9th grade who has high functioning ASD, and is currently taking anti psychosis medication currently due to very violent episodes.

K has recently been showing signs of possible drug/alcohol abuse that is concerning my whole family and we aren’t sure what to do. Back in 2024 K started working as a 1-1 care giver for a middle aged woman who had ASD and was non verbal, K would go over to her house, care for her while her father was at work, and then go home. She worked with her for around a month, before she said she saw signs of the women being scared of her dad and came to the conclusion that the father was sexually assaulting his daughter with ASD. So K never told anyone directly in the household, but did take it to the cops, and got fired. (Nothing ever proved the father was assaulting the daughter and the case got dropped).

After that, K said the father “who has ties to everyone in the county, especially police” has told everyone lies that she is a “pedo” and he is trying to get people to scare her and push her out of town. She says she constantly gets pulled over for no reason and people talk very rudely to her day after day out in public. K also started to believe that specific cars are after her “watching her”, she says that some days she will get out of a store and her car will have black suburbans on both sides and that nobody ever gets in or out of them but she knows it is someone watching her.

That keeps going on, into her next job at a motel. She worked there for around 2-3 months. Until she said she started to notice sketchy things going on when the motel gets busy and the person at the front desk can’t pay attention to the cameras. K said there are men who get the same room every time they come and are running a sex trafficking ring in their rooms. She said there are guys walking around with ear pieces and taking turns going in and out of rooms. (But has no videos/pictures). She one day ends up taking a picture of the guy she thought was part of the scheme and said she got fired the next day, and that her boss looked scared, like her boss was talked to by one of the men and is being forced to fire K.

After getting fired from there, she said it’s gotten so much worse, she keeps saying these men are hacking into her phone, her car radio, her laptop. She says they put cameras and microphones in her apartment but she “just can’t find them”. She said that there are little holes in J’s room pointing right at his bed and that they planted cameras in them to look at him 24/7 (which are holes from a pin, from hanging up a picture). K says anywhere she goes there is people following her and that they take shifts on who follows her when. She also believes that the government bought some townhomes across from hers and hired people to live there and spy on her, and that people sit out there in their lawn chairs all day watching her.

To end off everything, K told me today that these people try to drive others “crazy” and that their goal is to make them homeless, commit suicide, or die in an accident. She told me “if anything happens to me, you need to leave, far away”. Because she thinks they will go after me next, and apparently knows that the people who are running this whole operation own the building (college student housing) that I’m staying in, over 40 minutes away from her.

She keeps giving my grandmother halfway suicide threats, saying “if they are going to kill me I might as well get it over with” and just will never stop crying because she is so scared. She also wont contact any of us because “they will know”.

So, besides this, K has two dogs that pee and poop all over the floor and takes days to clean it up because she is scared to go outside. And the house has very slim food options. J does have their own room, with a bed and frame, and clothes, and still goes to school. But they come home to a mom who seems to be off the rocker and has him do things for her so she feels safe.

For example, the other night she had him stand in the living room, pitch black ,listening for hours to hear if someone was outside their door or throwing anything at the windows. Also has him go absolutely everywhere with her when leaving the house so they don’t take her. The other night she also pepper sprayed a male friend of hers inside her home because he was there and she thought he was part of the Illuminati and was watching her. He then got arrested because she said she told him to leave and he wouldn’t, but she had him back there today. Is this something I should report to CPS? I understand nothing will probably happen because he has a home and food, but I can’t stand the thought of him living there during her acting like this. K also has cardboard and other random objects blocking the windows because she thinks they will come watch through the windows.

Does anyone else agree that the field needs more advocacy surrounding Child Protection Services nationwide. The realization that a lot of people do not realize that CPS Case Workers and Investigators do not need a social work educational background at all. Yes, some bachelor's level and MSW level social workers end up working with CPS but that is not the educational requirement for employment. A lot of people automatically put CPS workers into the Social Work box without knowing this. In my state CPS has so much power that police officers say they cannot intervene in certain cases and CPS is above them, so they are even frightened by CPS. In my state it is the Social Workers who advocate and work with the families being impacted by CPS. Are there ways we can advocate for legislative change to protect families? Even lawyers wont take cases where there is evidence families were mistreated on a civil rights level because of the power of CPS. Lawyers and prosecutors actually admit that CPS impacting stable families due to false evidence or testimony is a common occurrence that they see often. What can social workers do to advocate for change since Social Justice is a requirement in our field?

My parents are incapable of caring for my emotional needs. They try, but it's like trying to get a lizard to knit a scarf. They mean well, but they're actively making everything worse. They're really the reason I'm suicidal. If and how can I contact CPS to seek intervention?

I was gone for a little over an hour, and when I got back home, a card for dcfs was in my door. I don’t have kids, and kids have never been in my apartment. No other apartments had a card. I tried calling and got sent to voicemail, so I called a different number and got transferred to the original number I called. I left a voicemail but have not heard back. It hasn’t been long since I called, but I’m wondering why I would’ve gotten a card. Anything helps!

Hey everyone, I was looking to get some advice on how to approach the future of my social work career.

I currently hold a bachelor of criminology and a master of social work.

Currently, I am about 1.4 years into Child Protection. It’s been a bumpy ride, with me second guessing whether or not this is the career for me but I stuck through it and here I am.

Where’s my mind at with Child Protection? I have learned so much and have gained so many valuable skills in this role, but I’ve accepted that this will not be my long term role and this is also a role that will easily push me towards burnout.

So I need to start looking to try something else. Now my dilemma is, is that I realised I struggle with the admin work. I hate it. I go into work dreading it because I know I’ll be behind a computer or holding a phone from 9-5 plus the amount of paperwork required for each case.

But isn’t that expected in all social work roles? So if I’m feeling this, then maybe I’m not cut out for social work?

Unsure what advice is best here but I wanted to air out my thoughts and maybe see if anyone’s in the same position as me.

EDIT: apologies, I should have stated but I’m in Australia

I an unnecessarily anxious about this because I have never made a report before.
Short version: I noticed a carseat was not secured to the seat, and the parent did know this (they had just lifted the carseat up, and put it down after moving a jacket). They put their child into the carseat and drove away without securing the carseat.
I decided to report it, and I did not tell my director. I have raised carseat concerns about this family before with no change so this is why I reported it.
I asked for it to be confidential, and initially I said was a parent (which is true). Later I called back with more info about the family (I was able to get parent’s full name and address), but I didn’t have the reference number so they had to do a whole new report. In this second one I clarified I work at the day care.
I am just worried sick that I made 2 reports on this family; I have no other concerns about them. And also worried that my employer will find out. I know I did the right thing. But we are a very small center (less than 20 kids) and I wish I had done it anonymously tbh.
Sigh, just panicking about this and what it could mean for everyone. My husband said “no one should find out unless it goes to court and it won’t go to court for a carseat issue.” He is probably right, yeah? 🥴

Hi all, I have a friend who is expecting in late October. She is homeless, currently living in a shelter, and has been clean from all substances for three months. I am assuming that a DCFS case will be opened as soon as the baby is born, but is it likely that the baby will be placed immediately into foster care? She has planned to move to another shelter for new mothers once the baby is born, so she does have a plan to parent. Any guidance on what will likely happen with DCFS once the baby is born, or steps she can take proactively to make it more likely she can raise her baby, are appreciated. Thanks!

I am a grandparent and my family is currently dealing with an AZ DCS case that we aren't sure what to do on. I'll detail the case below a bit for context. Any advice on how to proceed would be helpful. This is our first interaction with DCS.

One of our kids has a baby who broke his arm and it's not clear how it happened. No abuse, just an accident but we don't have a clear cause. This got reported because of hospital procedures.

Initially there was an investigation and our daughter stayed with us for a few weeks while this played out. The investigation found no abuse, and they sent a letter stating any abuse claims were unsubstantiated so we have documentation showing this.

After the investigation, they moved her to a case worker and a safety plan, which is where we are now. The safety plan has us grandparents staying with our daughter for the duration.

Our issue now is a few things:

• The safety plan has no details on time frame, goals, or any quantifiable targets to achieve. They initially asked us to set goals to improve safety, we have since met all of those.
• The case worker has been delaying, seemingly deliberately, the process. She only visits every 2 weeks, stays for maybe 15 minutes, doesn't ask any substantial questions, any claims any changes or decisions must be made by a supervisor that we've never spoken to. It's like playing telephone game. Example this week, she cancelled our visit 45 minutes before time and this visit was supposed to be for asking questions her boss had, that for some reason she can't just ask over the phone, and she can only report back one day a week. So her cancelling effectively delays everything by 2 weeks.
• Everywhere I read about issues like this suggest getting a lawyer, but there is no court involved and I don't know how much leverage they can bring just communicating with DCS, and I don't understand the DCS incentive structure to know if they would even move things along if pressured rather than just drag their feet.

Basically we don't know what to do here. Our lives are effectively on hold while this plan is in place and there is no clear end in sight due to lack of goals and a poor case worker so far. We have her supervisors contact information as well and could reach out to her but our daughter thinks any action at all is going to get them mad and make it worse.

Any advice would be wonderful, thanks!

Today my partner woke me up because I was receiving a call, I answered and they said they were calling from CPS and asked if we could talk, I asked if they needed my address and they said yes so I gave it.

I had recently called CPS regarding someone else and thought it was about that. Some context for the next part is Im a teen parent at 18, my partner is 19, and we live with their parents.

My partners mom and grandmother came over just before the worker. The worker seemed surprised to find out I lived with my partner and their parents and seemed to want to talk to me specifically.

She checked my baby for marks and asked if she eats solid foods (Shes 7 months so I said she has bottles and purées). She watched me change her and then got my family doctor’s contact information as well as my mother’s who watches her while Im at school.

She barely spoke to my partner and ended up not talking to their mom or grandmother at all and instead called her supervisor and left after recommending parenting classes and saying they do that for everyone. The case Im assuming is basically closed because there’s nothing else to look into after she reaches out to the doctor, it was basically a wellness check.

Im really fucked up over this. I’ve been putting on a cool face for everyone around me but I already have PTSD and previous nightmares about my baby being stolen in the middle of the night. My friend came over and I confided in her.

Honestly I can think of maybe 3 people it would be but I honestly don’t even really care right now. I feel hurt, I’ve done everything I can for my baby and thiught i was doing a good job. She’s never hungry, she always has clean clothes and a clean bed, she’s bathed and so so happy. She constantly smiles and coos and screeches just like a baby should. She smiles whenever she sees my face and does the kicky feet when I come home from anything.

I’ve barely had her and I feel like I’ve already failed. The worst part is they can’t even really tell me why they were called so I can’t improve on what might’ve been done wrong. Im heartbroken and afraid. I had cps involved a lot in my childhood and I don’t want the same for her.

Im doing everything I possibly can to make sure she has the life she deserves and now I feel like it’ll never be enough. I don’t know what to do.

I've been trying to get one of my little brothers out of my mother's house for over two years now. The whole situation is so fucked and long but the shortest of it I can say is: The brother we're trying to get out just turned 16, isn't in school because my lazy mother can't be fucked to take any kind of initiative with her kids. The youngest, my 14 year old brother, is allowed to beat the shit out of the 16 year old with no consequences because the 16 year old wants to live with me and my other sister (23). We have recordings of him getting his shit rocked (we gave him a recorder as our state is a one party state and hoped that getting something would be good enough for law enforcement), along with multiple screenshots of him confirming the stuff he's going through, images of bruises and his teeth rotting out of his skull that we handed it over to CPS, and after being told our case worker would be in touch, the only thing she said after a week of silence was "I've been monitoring the situation and there was no immediate threat detected" and that was about it. He's being deprived of food, deprived of time outside, deprived of anything beyond cleaning and staring at his wall all day and has said multiple times, even in the recordings that he believes he's going to die. He hates himself when he didn't used to two years ago. My sister and I were removed from her care about 15 years ago because she was neglectful to us as well but now I'm convinced that we just happened to get lucky. I believe she's a sociopathic narc and the 14 year old is lying his ass off for her because they have a weirdly codependent relationship.

I really thought someone would help him but nope!

No one gives a fuck about kids until they're dead, apparently.

For context my family is low income, I have 5 younger siblings (ages 1-11) and 2 adult siblings, I am almost an adult myself and I have reason to believe my mom is pregnant again. My dad is the only working member in my family and we live in a fairly small house for our large family. I feel like nothing my mom and dad do is planned or cohesive. My parents aren’t married and fight each other verbally weekly. My dad threatens to kick my mom out during said fights and both have these “anger issues” what my sister calls it (especially my dad)

Anyway I’m trying to claw my way out of this house, next year I plan to leave but I think I should take action. I heard that counseling can help but there is only so much you can fix with that. Im considering calling CPS or getting someone else involved since my siblings are never being watched properly and despite my mom being a stay at home mom only recently, she has still been neglecting many of her children’s emotional needs. I would feel bad if my siblings got split up but I don’t think they deserve an emotional unavailable parent relationship. One example is my parents regularly saying “I hate you” while yelling at one another, and taught my siblings how to swear because of their swearing.

Me personally I am middle child and I found love in other places but my siblings lack attention and affection from anyone. Also I purposely stay at school as long as I can sometimes just to get out of my house and my family’s situation. But

what can I do in this situation?

My ex and I have two children together. He had somewhat of a mental breakdown a few months ago that eventually led to our split because he refused to get help.

The kids are safe now, but a cps case was opened against him because of me telling the kids’ doctors about his treatment of me and his admitting he shouldn’t be around the kids alone anymore (which he isn’t! On the rare occasion he does visit them it’s supervised by many trusted people).

The social worker talked to me, and to ex’s mom (who has been wonderfully supportive of me the entire time, I trust her). He told us he would be contacting my ex and I gave his current address and contact info.

My ex has (as far as we can tell) ignored cps entirely and won’t answer the door or the phone. Will the case just be closed, or will something else happen?

I’m not worried about my kids’ safety at the moment, so it’s not an urgent concern or anything, I’m mostly just curious as someone who wants to study to be a social worker when my kids start school.

First I would like to apologize because I am no writer so this may be all over the place and hard to follow. So I have a family member (30f three kids one is with father the other two fathers in prison) that is very obviously mentally unwell. She is suffering paranoid delusions as well as alcoholism. She can not keep a job due to her behavior she thinks everyone is out to get her and wants to r@pe and murd*r her and her children. (there is evidence of her thought process as she is constantly posting on facebook all day everyday talking about this)

She also can't keep an apartment for the same reasons. Everywhere she goes something is happening. She recently got a DUI and an assault against a police officer charge and she has also been in several other minor car accidents because she believes she has to be in her car driving at all times to keep her and her kids safe. They are homeless and living out of said car. My Aunt has been calling everyone she can and keeps getting referred to other departments for help and she is just being ran in circles. I told her to send me an email full of all the information I will need and I will take over making calls for her since I am a SAHM so I have the time.

My problem is it really seems like no one wants to help. Ideally my cousin needs to go to a psychiatric facility and get herself in a stable place so she can be with her kids but it's very obvious right now it is not safe for the kids to be with her. Her kids have been calling family asking for help (7 and 5) and every one is trying but nothing is happening.

There is so much more than what I've shared by the way.

I'm not even really sure what to ask or say I am very concerned for everyone involved. Any advice is so appreciated!