Parental Consent for School Interviews

“I want to interview their children alone,” the CPS investigator told her supervisor, “but I’m sure the family’s attorney won’t agree to that.”

“Are they homeschooled?” asked the supervisor.

“Yes,” the investigator replied with disgust. “Otherwise I wouldn’t even need the parents’ consent. I would have already gone to the children’s school and interviewed them there.”

While we have never been privy to a conversation like this, we know it happens all the time.

When CPS opens an investigation, their standard protocol is to interview the children first of all. These interviews, normally alone with each child, generally ask the children a host of questions.

When children are at home, families have many protections against CPS intrusion.

But those same protections do not always apply if the children were at school.

In many states, CPS can enter the school, have children removed from class, and then interview them without parental consent. Sometimes CPS has to let parents know after the interview, but sometimes they do not even have to do that.

In most states, the school has a say: they can simply refuse to grant the investigator access to the child. Yet government school administrators rarely refuse. Many private schools do refuse, but in a few states even private schools are required by law to cooperate.

Note that regardless of whether a child is at home or at school, law enforcement and CPS investigators in every state can always get access to a child who is in danger under exigent circumstances or with a court order.

The summaries in our Law and Policy Vault explain if the school’s consent is required and if a parent’s is required. If the state requires some notification to the parent, the summary also includes that information.

Where the law is silent, CPS standard procedures can sometimes be found in their policies and procedures handbook. These are not binding and are subject to change, but they still provide insight into how CPS typically operates.

The laws on this issue provide yet another reason to homeschool. If parents want CPS investigators to have to go through the parents or follow due process before interviewing their children, homeschooling is the answer.

Non-members can also access the Law and Policy vault with a free account. Log in to see the law and policy on parental consent for school interviews in your state, and check out all of the other issues we cover in the vault.