A social worker
is at the door.
Cooperating and protecting yourself are not opposites — but they are not the same thing either.
Be polite, get names, write everything down.
Ask for the worker's name, badge or ID, agency, and the specific allegation. Note the date, time, and who was present. A calm, documented interaction is your best record — and hostility gets written into the report.
A CPS investigation can feed a criminal case.
The two tracks run in parallel, and statements made to a social worker can end up with the District Attorney. If there is any chance of criminal exposure, get counsel before the interview — not after.
"Voluntary" agreements have teeth.
Safety plans, informal supervision, and sending a child to stay with a relative all sound like ways to avoid court. They can also become the evidentiary basis for a petition. Read before you sign, and have someone read it with you.
Every hearing, in order
A dependency case is not one event. It is a sequence of statutory hearings, each with its own burden of proof and its own set of decisions that are hard to undo later.
2 COURT DAYS
Detention hearing
Also where initial visitation is set, parentage is raised, and the court's inquiry into Indian ancestry begins. First chance to name a relative for placement.
1–4
Jurisdiction hearing
Preponderance of the evidence — a lower bar than criminal court, with looser hearsay rules. The social worker's report comes in; the fight is over what it actually establishes.
SHORTLY AFTER
Disposition hearing
Services at home, or removal on clear and convincing evidence with a reunification plan. The case plan written here is the standard you'll be measured against all year.
6 MONTHS
Review hearings
If the child stayed home, § 364 review — jurisdiction must end unless the original conditions persist. If the child was removed, the 6-, 12-, and 18-month reviews under §§ 366.21–366.22. Two findings carry the case: whether the agency provided reasonable services, and whether return would create a substantial risk of detriment. A reasonable-services finding you don't contest is one you can't appeal.
FROM REMOVAL
Reunification ends
Twelve months generally, extendable to eighteen — as few as six for a child under three at removal. These clocks run whether or not anyone explained them to you.
.26 HEARING
Selection & implementation (§ 366.26)
Adoption, guardianship, or another permanent plan. Statutory exceptions exist — beneficial parental relationship, sibling bond, a child who objects — but they must be proved with evidence, not sentiment.
PERMANENCY
Review of the permanent plan (§ 366.3)
Review continues at least every six months until the plan is achieved or jurisdiction ends — including for children in guardianship or long-term placement.
Changing an order (§§ 387, 388)
§ 387 is how the county asks for a more restrictive placement. § 388 is how a parent asks the court to change an order on changed circumstances — the door that stays open after the others have closed.
This sequence follows the Judicial Council's Dependency Quick Guide (4th ed. 2025), the reference manual used by attorneys appointed in these cases.
Issues that decide cases
These rarely appear in the petition, and they are frequently where a case is actually won or lost.
Indian Child Welfare Act
- The court and agency have a continuing duty to ask about Indian ancestry
- Tribes must be given notice and may intervene
- Inadequate ICWA inquiry is among the most common grounds for reversal on appeal
Relative placement
- Relatives get preferential consideration under § 361.3
- The agency must make diligent efforts to identify and contact them
- Bring names, addresses, and phone numbers to the first hearing
Visitation
- The court sets it; the agency only manages logistics
- Frequency, duration, and supervision can't be delegated away entirely
- Visits missed for scheduling reasons should be documented as such — not as your absence
Parentage
- Alleged, biological, and presumed parents have very different rights
- Only a presumed parent gets reunification services and custody consideration
- Establishing status early is often the highest-value step a father can take — see establishing parentage
Education rights
- Removal does not automatically strip a parent's education rights
- School stability, IEP decisions, and who holds those rights are court orders — and can be revisited
- Related: suspension & expulsion · special education advocacy
Psychotropic medication
- No psychotropic medication for a foster child without a court order
- Requested on a JV-220 application
- Parents keep the right to notice and to be heard on it
Child Abuse Central Index
- A substantiated report can be listed on CACI regardless of what the court finds
- Consequences for employment, licensing, and volunteering
- A grievance process exists — and it has deadlines
Older youth and AB 12
- Youth may remain nonminor dependents to age 21, with housing and transition support
- Jurisdiction can be resumed by petition after it ends
- For immigrant youth, the court can make the predicate findings for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status — the status itself is decided federally
What parents should know early
You have the right to appointed counsel.
Indigent parents are entitled to a lawyer at every stage. Ask for one at the first hearing rather than trying to explain yourself alone.
Objections have to be made in the moment.
Dependency review windows are short, and a finding accepted without objection generally can't be challenged later. What you don't contest at the hearing usually becomes permanent. There is also a criminal side to many of these allegations — see that guide.
Relatives have standing.
Grandparents and other relatives can request placement and, later, guardianship. Speaking up early matters more than being right later.
The dependency framework, from the petition through permanency.
Authorities current as of 2025. Law changes; nothing here is a substitute for advice on your own facts.
Before the petition is filed.
In juvenile law, the widest set of options exists at the very beginning — at intake, before an interview, before anything is signed. Bring us the situation as it stands and we'll map what happens next.
Admin (916) 900-2425 · Attorney (916) 900-6917 — call or text · Fax (916) 244-4858 · sage@blackowl.law
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