Q&A
Parental consent and enforcement in CARES cases
0:58:13
ยท
110 sec
Council Member Stevens inquires about the requirement for parental consent in CARES cases and the enforcement tools available to CARES specialists. Commissioner Dannhauser explains the consent process and the referral system for ongoing support.
- ACS requires consent for child assessments in all instances, including investigations
- In about 2% of cases where access is denied, ACS can seek a court order to produce the child for assessment
- CARES cases often result in referrals to preventive services or other appropriate support systems
Althea V. Stevens
0:58:13
Another anonymous whistleblower has claimed that under ACS Cares, ACS must obtain parental consent before interviewing children or neighbors.
0:58:20
Is this accurate?
0:58:22
If so, how has this impacted ACS's ability to access children's safety?
Jess Dannhauser
0:58:26
The reality is we need consent to to do our assessment in all instances, investigation or otherwise.
0:58:33
And so, we first use our engagement skills.
0:58:37
We inform families of of their rights.
0:58:41
We are engaging with families in almost every single instance.
0:58:46
There are instances where we've been denied access to the children, and then we it's about 2% of cases.
0:58:52
We have a process with the family court where we can get an order to produce the child for an assessment, maybe at a child advocacy center, but in the great, great, great majority of instances, we're able to engage with the family.
Althea V. Stevens
0:59:05
Wood enforcement tools are available to care specialists to ensure that families are not only, not only receive referrals to necessary resources, but utilize the resources effectively?
Jess Dannhauser
0:59:15
So, the care is after care's case, there's a referral, often to preventive services.
0:59:21
That case does close.
0:59:23
Right?
0:59:23
So it's not, you know, not not continued involvement from a child protective team, but very often, I think in about a third of the cases, there's a preventive handoff, a preventive worker who can continue that service.
0:59:35
Sometimes it's a mental health counselor.
0:59:37
We have a disabilities unit that helps families navigate with OPWDD.
0:59:41
Sometimes the the parent has a cognitive challenge that needs to get met there.
0:59:45
And so we're really trying to work to your point, right, to make sure that everybody, has access to the full continuum.
0:59:53
It's not always an ACS, service that is appropriate.
0:59:57
It's sometimes it's a a mental health service or something else, and so they can support them to gain access there.