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Child Protective Services

Child Protective Services, or CPS, responds to reports and referrals regarding children who are alleged to be abused or neglected, abandoned, or who may have unmet special treatment or care needs. By far, most of the reports that CPS receives are of alleged child abuse or neglect.

CPS conducts an Initial Assessment to gather information about the child, the alleged maltreatment, the parenting practices of the parents, and the day-to-day functioning of the parents (e.g., mental health status, problem solving skills, emotional control, daily living skills, etc.) The caseworker uses the information to determine not only whether maltreatment occurred, but, more importantly, whether the child is safe.

Safety means:

• There is no threat of danger to a child within the family and home, or
• The protective capacities of the parent or other caregiver within the home can manage threats of danger. Threats of danger generally are behaviors, conditions or situations in the home which are likely to cause serious harm to the child.

If the child is not safe, the case is opened for ongoing CPS services. CPS first considers whether the child can remain safely at home with an in-home safety plan. If agency, family and community resources cannot keep the child safe, CPS petitions the court, seeking to remove the child and place him or her in out-of-home care.

CPS programs in all counties operate in accordance with the Child Protective Services Access and Initial Assessment Standards . You may also find out more about CPS in the annual Wisconsin Child Abuse and Neglect Report .

The dominant reason for out-of-home placement of a child in the CPS system is the determination that the child is unsafe and that targeted services and supports in the home would be insufficient to control the specific parental behaviors and conditions that threaten the child’s safety.

 

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