Family Protective Services

[KeeperOfTheIceRN]

What has been your experience with reporting to family protective services? I made my first report at the end of last week and received the response that there wasn't anything for them to investigate at this time shortly after submitting it. 2 other co-workers also reported to them for the same child regarding the same situation. Fast forward to today when I receive a call from the parent stating they had been visited by CPS the other day and their reasoning was because the child had visited the nurse's office multiple times recently for one specific reason, of which, was not a reason any of us reported for. Parent now wants a copy of the child's visits to the clinic.

Here are my questions:

1) is it normal for them to say there is nothing to investigate only to turn around and visit the home less than a week after the report was made?

2) is it customary for them to use a false reason for the investigation?

3) is it possible a different person, unrelated to the school and the situation in which we are aware of, reported the same child and it just happened to be investigated after we reported?

I'm sorry if this is so vague as I don't want to reveal too much info but I'm still really confused on how this has played out. I simply have nothing to compare it to.

Thanks for your help!

[AdobeRN]

When you consider a CPS report on a child in the school setting, are things like frequent tardies or absences, missing vaccinations, inconsistent school work and poor behavior by the child (inability to cope with the variables of the school setting), childhood obesity etc factors that come into play? I am wondering how neglect or drug use in the home without overt physical abuse is discovered or acted on.

We had a drug use situation once or at least the drugs were just part of the problem -a few teachers noticed that when they assisted student into the car at the end of the day there was strong skunky odor - teacher made the call for CPS to do a welfare type of check but nothing came of it until other issues started to happen.

[KeeperOfTheIceRN, ADN]

Thank you everyone for your encouragement! I really appreciate your input! I have to admit, I did not call to report this situation, but used the online reporting instead. The 2 others who also reported did call though. I'm not sure if that makes a difference or not. When I spoke with the mom, I did not get the impression that she was upset or that she was even accusing me of calling but I suppose she definitely could've been trying to keep her intentions hidden.

While I hope its a long time before I have to report again, I do realize it will probably be sooner rather than later. Also, I do understand that I am a mandatory reporter and I'm not afraid to do what I think is best for my kiddos here. I really appreciated all of your feedback!

[T-ROD, LPN]

We almost always do any reporting with a second in with us. A counselor, administrator, another nurse, etc.. Both are fully aware of what the reporting is regarding. Our community tends to lean towards a highly reported area. I have never once been turned down here, but like I said a lot of kids here have open cases in some way. You are only doing what you can do to help protect the child. Always keep that in mind.

[Amethya]

The last few times I done it, I never been reported as the reporter, but parents guess and try to get something of me. The mom that lately was reported, is being suspicious of me and the SPED Coordinator so she's told her kid not to come visit me or SPED. I find it ridiculous because if anything happens to them, it won't be on me, but on her.

[FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN]

We need to report suspicion of abuse or neglect, but then we need to let it go and let CPS (or whatever it's called in your state) do their jobs.

Most CPS reports do not lead to charges against the parents. Sometimes the problem is poverty or other barriers to resources. Sometimes it's not great parenting, but not at the level of abuse or neglect. CPS should address whatever issues exist and offer social services, but the reporter has no right to the information about what services the family receives.

My perspective is different because I'm not a school nurse, but I was a child adolescent psych nurse on two inpatient units. I dealt with CPS a lot and saw a lot of kids who were in foster care.

A CPS investigation is tremendously stressful for a family, including the children. If it needs to happen, then it needs to happen. But we do need to let CPS decide if it needs to happen. We really should not be making multiple reports over the same incident intentionally. Schools and hospitals making a report over an incident or a set of data should communicate with each other to make one report. There is no need for the sowo, the nurse, the principal, the teacher to all call on the same incident.

We also need to be mindful that we are reporting suspicions of abuse/neglect of the child, and not because the parent was verbally or otherwise abusive to staff.

I was taught that CPS reports should never be announced to the parent. I am surprised to hear that this is the practice in some places.

I would be very careful about not releasing a child to a parent's custody without a court order. Does your suspicion override the parents rights? You need to find out.

Finally, I would like to point out the importance of maintaining a positive relationship for as long as possible with the parents of a child we are concerned for. We need to work with them as allies on issues like obesity and problem behaviors.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

When you consider a CPS report on a child in the school setting, are things like frequent tardies or absences, missing vaccinations, inconsistent school work and poor behavior by the child (inability to cope with the variables of the school setting), childhood obesity etc factors that come into play? I am wondering how neglect or drug use in the home without overt physical abuse is discovered or acted on.

I currently work with medically complex children in foster care. I have a child on my caseload- a 5 year old who was 130 lbs with severe hypertension when she was removed. She had an open case with CPS for several years because of neglect- missed medical appointments, insufficient food and hygiene, and then there was a new report filed because of concern that the parents were trafficking fentanyl through the home so the children were removed. The office that removed them told me that they couldn't believe that the office that had an open case with them for 2 years (they moved shortly before they were removed) never removed them.

My patients are in state custody for reasons that vary from born drug exposed, Mom got caught driving drunk with the child in the car, Mom was 14 and incapable of demonstrating her ability to care for her medically complex baby, teenagers with school truancy/medical non-compliance whose parents don't know how to parent them, etc. Mostly it's parental drug use coupled with medical neglect though. I have very few child abuse cases though in the program we do have a few former shaken babies and I have one whose twin was shaken (to the point of being killed). I do also have one who was taken d/t suspected child abuse/because of unexplained fractures but it turned out she has osteogenesis imperfecta so she is home now.

Medical neglect is usually discovered because of severe failure to thrive, multiple missed medical appointments, undetectable drug levels (for things like anti-epileptic medications or cyclosporine). I have one kid who was taken because his Mom refused to call 911 during a prolonged seizure because Dad was in the home and there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest.

As far as filing goes, in my state as mandated reports we call the local CPS office to file a report of abuse or neglect. The report is either "screened in" or "screened out." If it's screened out, it means CPS isn't going to investigate at all. If it's "screened in" it can be an emergency response (investigation must begin immediately and be completed within 5 days) or non-emergency response (investigation must begin within 2 days and be completed within 15 days).

In my state, CPS does not tell parents who filed a report (though they can usually figure it out). A SW in a child's Pediatrician's office and I once filed 4 reports in a 48 hour period over the family tampering with the child's valium. When the state did an emergency response and confiscated the bottle then went to court to get custody, I'm pretty sure they had to share that "the visiting nurse found that the valium bottle had been diluted" and the mother (even though her IQ was actually about 60) knew I was the one who filed the report.

I would say it's not uncommon for CPS to screen out one report and then respond when they get multiple reports filed on the same child. Sometimes that's the game you have to play with them- you keep filing new reports until they respond. Several years ago there was a high profile case in my state where a child with an open case with CPS was found dead on the side of the road and it was discovered that his CPS worker hadn't been doing her monthly visits. When newspapers were investigating, several places (like schools, MD's office and hospitals) shared what they sometimes had to do to get CPS to act. I specifically remember reading that one school's principal said his school filed 14 reports of sexual abuse before the state even opened an investigation on one of their students.

People who work for CPS aren't, as someone else mentioned above, the best and brightest. Many of them are just out of college and have very minimal training for what they're doing. About half the time I can't even get ongoing workers to call me back.

[KeeperOfTheIceRN, ADN]

When you consider a CPS report on a child in the school setting, are things like frequent tardies or absences, missing vaccinations, inconsistent school work and poor behavior by the child (inability to cope with the variables of the school setting), childhood obesity etc factors that come into play? I am wondering how neglect or drug use in the home without overt physical abuse is discovered or acted on.

In this particular case, we reported because of what the child said to us.

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

I'd say the lion's share of the reports i make are due to claims of physical abuse. I get some that are due to lack of vaccination, but the manner of report comes from not allowing the student into school due to the lack of vaccine and the lack of action by the parent.

[Amethya]

Yeah, depends on how severe the case is. If they think it's very high importance they will tell you on the phone.

I also noticed that it depends on the agent you get. We got a good one for this case of the mother and he's on task on the issue and is giving us updates about the case. I liked him because he was actually caring about the issue than just investigating and not just dropping it once he finished. No, he came to our school, explain what's going on and what's going to happen now and gave us advice to protect us.

[BunnyBunnyBSNRN, ASN, BSN]

Yeah, depends on how severe the case is. If they think it's very high importance they will tell you on the phone.

I also noticed that it depends on the agent you get. We got a good one for this case of the mother and he's on task on the issue and is giving us updates about the case. I liked him because he was actually caring about the issue than just investigating and not just dropping it once he finished. No, he came to our school, explain what's going on and what's going to happen now and gave us advice to protect us.

I'd ask him to give lessons to other agents, but that would take him away from a job he is obviously good at and is needed in.

[pedi_nurse]

Yeah, depends on how severe the case is. If they think it's very high importance they will tell you on the phone.

I also noticed that it depends on the agent you get. We got a good one for this case of the mother and he's on task on the issue and is giving us updates about the case. I liked him because he was actually caring about the issue than just investigating and not just dropping it once he finished. No, he came to our school, explain what's going on and what's going to happen now and gave us advice to protect us.

How long has he been working in this role? The people I know who were good caseworkers end up getting burned out after about a year or two.

[pedi_nurse]

Interestingly enough, the cases I've gotten the most response from CPS have been for medical neglect. Parents not filling asthma medication and refusing to bring asthma medication to the school (because they didn't trust me, because I called them to pick up their kid too much for asthma). My recent one is my non compliant T1D. I haven't heard anything back from CPS and it's been a week, but I do know they interviewed the kids yesterday. The ones I've reported for physical abuse have been one time issues - at least that I've seen. A parent pushed a kid down in parking lot and then kicked her. A very suspicious linear bruise on the inside of a forearm, sibling abuse/fighting complete with a bruise shaped in the outline of a key. Those I never hear anything back on - except I never see the kid in the clinic again even though I see them around school.