What to Do When CPS Is At Your Door

Before Signing Anything, Have a Lawyer Present

When faced with a Parental Child Safety Placement or Child Safety and Evaluation Plan, you need to make sure that you have a lawyer present before you sign anything. With a lawyer by your side who is working in your best interests, you are giving your case the best chance of a successful outcome.

Contact Slate & Associates, Attorneys at Law online today. Please include enough details to express the urgent nature of the emergency. Emergency cases can be answered outside of regular business hours.

If Child Protective Services (CPS) is at your door, you should ask to have the plan reviewed with a lawyer present before singing. If you have already signed, you should still contact our firm. We have been handling CPS cases for more than a decade and understand the pressures you are facing to sign the Safety Plans to keep your children or grandchildren out of the foster care system. We can help you fight to protect your family and the best interest of the child.

About Parental Child Safety Placement (PCSP)

Parental Child Safety Placement is often set up during the investigation or a case by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services when the safety of the child is a concern. During this placement, the TDFPS will take the opportunity to determine if a risk to the child is present. This time is also used to collaborate with families to achieve specific goals to enhance the safety of the child.

About the Child Safety and Evaluation Plan

The Child Protective Services investigator at your door may request that you sign a “safety plan.” The Child Safety Evaluation Plan is often presented by TDFPS with the threat of having your child placed in foster care if you refuse to sign. The goal of CPS is to investigate the case while the child is in a safe environment, but signing the document can place CPS in your life indefinitely.

Fighting Child Protective Services

When you retain the legal services of Slate & Associates, Attorneys at Law, you will receive the legal protection our firm offers and we can provide you with sound and reasoned advice during your case.

If you have been presented with the Parental Child Safety Placement or Child Safety and Evaluation plan, take the following steps:

  1. Remain calm and do not answer incriminating questions;
  2. Document everything that takes place;
  3. Exercise your right to privacy if the investigator asks to come inside your home; and
  4. Get legal representation immediately

Keep in mind that, without exigent circumstances, CPS is not legally allowed to remove your children just because you refuse to sign the plan. CPS must be able to show that an immediate danger exists and that without removal of the child, serious danger will occur to him or her. Just because CPS suspects that a danger may exist, that is not enough to warrant his or her removal from your family.

When your child’s future is at risk, we do not take the case lightly. Our Houston CPS attorneys are prepared to fully assess your case and prepare an effective defense in response to the allegations against you or your child’s parenting. We represent both parents and grandparents as they face the pressures of CPS.

Call our firm today at (281) 407-9254!