Should Parents Have Access to Information in Child Protective Services Records?

Should Parents Have Access to Information in Child Protective Services Records?

When a county Department of Social Services receives a report that a child may have been abused or neglected, may be dependent, or may have died as a result of maltreatment, the director has a duty to conduct either an investigative assessment or a family assessment. (Investigative assessments are required for reports of abuse or serious neglect. All other reports result in family assessments, which are less formal.) In the course of the assessment, the director or the director’s designee will gather a lot of information about the situation. The law is pretty clear that the child has a right to review much of the information gathered by the Department in the course of the assessment. The more difficult legal question is whether the child’s parent has a right to review the information as well. While I do not have a crystal clear answer to this question, I thought it would still be useful to ask the question and walk through some of the applicable statutes and regulations.