The Department of Children and Families wants to get a full picture of your child’s life so that they can make a determination on the allegations against you. They’ll want to make sure your child is up to date on vaccinations and gets regular checkups. While it may seem like no big deal to sign the releases, it allows DCF to talk directly to your child’s doctor, which may not be necessary. DCF may also want to speak to your doctors and get information on you, which could be very invasive if not done properly.
In most cases, yes. When a lawyer gets involved in a DCF investigation he or she can explain to DCF that they will get the information DCF needs from the doctors without the social worker having to directly contact them. Your lawyer can get a letter from the doctors in question covering the information DCF needs, avoiding the risk of DCF unnecessarily poking around in you or your child’s medical history.
DCF may also want to look at your child’s education records during an investigation. To learn more about allegations of educational neglect, click here. Even investigations for other categories of abuse or neglect may lead to DCF wanting to learn more about your child’s educational history. Again, this could open the door to DCF looking into more than they need. Similar to medical records, your attorney can work with you or with the school to get the information DCF needs and nothing more.
Typically, DCF has 45 days to perform and close out an investigation. Cooperating intelligently could help the process. By this we mean cooperate without offering up more than is necessary. Remember, everything you say to a DCF worker can be used against you at a later date either in the DCF investigation or in a related criminal investigation. An attorney can help you move the case along and provide evidence to DCF to advocate for a positive resolution.
DCF investigations can come up out of the blue, and when presented with a piece of paper to sign your knee jerk reaction might be to just go ahead and do it. An experienced lawyer could help make sure you understand what you are doing before you are doing it and protect your family from unneeded intrusion. To learn more about whether you should sign a release during a Connecticut DCF investigation as well as working with the attorneys at Mark Sherman Law, click here to read our hundreds of client reviews. Give us a call anytime, we are available 24/7 to take your call.
