Family’s Rights and Responsibilities
Child Protective Services Overview
Our goal is to partner with families to ensure that children can remain safely in their homes.
The main responsibilities of Child Protective Services (CPS) are to protect children from abuse and neglect, and to engage families in the process of helping to safely parent their children. We understand that interactions with CPS can be stressful, and we believe it is important that the caseworker and the family have a shared understanding of each party’s roles, rights, and responsibilities as the CPS response progresses.
When the local department of social services receives a report of alleged child abuse or neglect and accepts it for an Investigative Response or an Alternative Response, a CPS caseworker is required to assess the child(ren) in the household, as well any other child(ren) in the care of the alleged maltreator, and speak to the parents.