Child Welfare Reform Begins By Simply Following The Law
Say an anonymous person calls Child Protective Services and says that three weeks ago, you and your children were sleeping outside. The person also claims that the day before that, you were protesting for eight hours and it was unknown whether you fed your children during the protest. You never learn who made the allegations. Would you be okay based on these claims alone – without any evidence to actually support them – if a trial court permitted a social worker to search your entire residence? Probably not, I’m guessing. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, confronting these facts, agreed this past December, ruling that the Fourth Amendment prevents social workers from entering a parent’s home without first establishing probable cause. The Court held that when determining probable cause, trial courts must assess the nexus between the alleged neglect and the area to be searched, as well as the reliability of information from anonymous reporters, and the timeliness of the facts in the peti