What CPS Can and Cannot Do in Pennsylvania: Removal and Appeals

In Pennsylvania, what CPS can and cannot do is set by the Child Protective Services Law and by constitutional limits the courts have applied to child welfare investigations. CPS can accept and investigate reports of suspected abuse, interview your child (including at school without telling you first), ask to enter your home, obtain medical records, and, working with law enforcement or a court, remove a child from imminent danger. It cannot force its way into your home without consent, a warrant, or a genuine emergency; it cannot remove your child on suspicion alone; and it cannot compel you to attend services unless a judge orders them.

What CPS Can Do During an Investigation

Investigations begin when a report reaches the statewide ChildLine hotline and is forwarded to the county agency. If emergency protective custody has been taken or looks necessary, the county must begin investigating and see the child immediately. In every other case, the agency must begin the investigation and see the child within 24 hours of receiving the report.¹ If no finding is made within 60 days, the report is treated as unfounded by default unless court proceedings are causing the delay.²

Caseworkers must interview everyone named in the report, including the child and the alleged perpetrator.¹ Pennsylvania’s definition of “cooperation with an investigation” specifically includes schools allowing authorized CPS personnel to interview a student on school grounds.³ That is the piece most parents don’t expect: a caseworker can talk to your child at school before you know an investigation exists, and the law permits it. Learning about the interview afterward does not strip you of any rights going forward. You are still entitled to be informed of the investigation and its findings, and you can bring in an attorney at that point.

Home visits are standard, and caseworker observations of the household go straight into the file. Where suspected bodily injury is involved, the county agency can require a medical examination by a certified practitioner, and additional testing can be arranged when the practitioner or the agency has reason to suspect prior or ongoing abuse.¹ Health care providers may share a child’s medical records with CPS during an active investigation without your consent; HIPAA expressly allows disclosure to a government authority authorized to receive reports of suspected abuse.⁴

What CPS cannot do on its own is jump to a conclusion. The agency has to meet a preponderance of the evidence standard to substantiate a finding, meaning the evidence must show it is more likely than not that abuse or neglect occurred. Suspicion alone doesn’t clear that bar.

What CPS Cannot Do

The limits on CPS matter as much as the powers, because they define where you can decline without breaking the law.

Enter your home without permission. CPS has no automatic authority to come inside. Without your consent, the caseworker needs a court order or a genuine emergency involving imminent danger to the child. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has held that the Fourth Amendment applies to CPS investigations and that a warrant requires probable cause supported by specific facts; federal courts have generally reached the same result.⁵
Remove your child on suspicion alone. Emergency removal requires reasonable grounds to believe the child is suffering illness or injury, is in imminent danger from the surroundings, and that removal is necessary. An unverified allegation, by itself, is not enough.⁶
Physically take a child without law enforcement or a court. A caseworker acting alone does not have authority to remove a child. Removal without a prior court order must be carried out by a law enforcement officer or an authorized court officer.⁶
Force you into services without a court order. CPS can offer voluntary services and push hard for them, but it cannot compel counseling, drug treatment, or parenting classes unless a judge orders them. If you decline and the agency still believes the child needs protection, its recourse is to go to court, not to impose services on its own.
Keep unfounded reports on file indefinitely. An unfounded report is kept for one year from the date it was received and must be expunged from the statewide database no later than 120 days after that one-year mark.²

Refusing entry is your right, but it is not consequence-free. The caseworker can note the refusal in the report, and a court may consider it when deciding whether to grant a warrant or authorize further intervention. If you decline access, do it calmly and on the record.

One other boundary worth knowing: education records are more protected than most families assume. FERPA does not give CPS blanket access to school records during an investigation. The main FERPA exception for child welfare agencies applies only to children already in foster care and under the agency’s legal responsibility.⁷ For other children, schools can release records only in a health or safety emergency assessed case by case, or in response to a court order or subpoena.⁸ Personal observations by teachers or counselors are a different matter and can be shared freely with CPS.

How Reports Are Classified

Every completed investigation ends in one of three findings, and each has different consequences.

Founded: A court has entered a finding of abuse against the perpetrator.
Indicated: Substantial evidence of abuse exists even without a court finding, and the case is placed on the statewide ChildLine registry.
Unfounded: The evidence does not support the allegation, and the record is expunged on the timeline above.²

An indicated finding is not a criminal conviction, but it lands your name on the ChildLine registry until the subject child turns 23. That listing surfaces in the background clearances Pennsylvania requires for anyone who works with or has regular professional contact with children, and it can disqualify you from teaching, child care, health care, coaching, and school-related work. Federal law also requires child care programs that receive public funding to check state child abuse registries in every state where you have lived in the past five years.⁹ Indicated findings can also affect custody disputes, foster and adoption applications, and school volunteering.

Pennsylvania child abuse under 23 Pa.C.S. 6303 covers physical injury, sexual abuse or exploitation, serious mental injury, serious physical neglect, specific dangerous acts (including forcefully shaking a child under one year old, burning, stabbing, interfering with breathing, or exposing a child to methamphetamine production), trafficking, medical child abuse, and leaving a child unsupervised with certain registered sex offenders.³ A report that does not fit one of these statutory categories will not produce an indicated finding, no matter how upsetting the underlying allegation sounds.

When CPS Can Remove a Child

Removal is the sharpest thing CPS can do, and the law hedges it heavily. Under 42 Pa.C.S. 6324, a child can be taken into protective custody without a prior court order only by a law enforcement officer or authorized court officer with reasonable grounds to believe the child is suffering illness or injury, is in imminent danger from the surroundings, and that removal is necessary.⁶

After any removal, a shelter care hearing must be held within 72 hours. That hearing cannot be waived.¹⁰ The judge decides whether continued placement is necessary, whether the county made reasonable efforts to prevent removal, and whether the current placement is the least restrictive available.

If the child cannot go home right away, Pennsylvania law requires the county agency to give first consideration to a relative placement. The agency has to document its attempts to find a relative, and if the child ends up somewhere else, document why relative placement was not possible.¹¹ Potential kinship caregivers can address the court at the shelter care hearing about their qualifications.¹⁰

When the Court Gets Involved

If CPS believes a child needs protection and the family will not accept voluntary services, the agency asks the juvenile court to step in through a dependency petition. The petition must state facts placing the child within the court’s jurisdiction and assert that the proceeding is in the child’s best interest.¹² At the hearing, the court weighs whether the child meets Pennsylvania’s legal definition of “dependent,” which covers a child lacking proper parental care, subsistence, education, or care necessary for physical, mental, or emotional health, among other categories.¹³

If the child is found dependent, the court can leave the child at home under conditions and supervision, or transfer custody temporarily or permanently. Typical conditions include parenting classes, substance abuse treatment, mental health counseling, and supervised visitation. Permanency hearings then follow every six months to reassess progress and placement.¹⁴

There is one long-term boundary parents should know about early. Under the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act, once a child has been in foster care for 15 of the most recent 22 months, the state must file or join a petition to terminate parental rights, subject to three exceptions: the child is with a relative and the state chooses not to file, the state documents a compelling reason not to seek termination, or the state has not delivered the services in the case plan that were needed to make the home safe.¹⁵ The 15-month clock runs from the date of removal, not from any later court order, and it does not pause for delays in service delivery unless those delays are the agency’s fault. Parents who wait too long to engage with court-ordered services can find themselves facing termination before they feel ready.

Your Right to a Lawyer

Pennsylvania’s juvenile court rules require the court to inform every party of the right to counsel before any proceeding, and a parent who cannot afford a lawyer must have one appointed before the first hearing.¹⁶ That is broader than federal law requires. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that there is no blanket constitutional right to appointed counsel in civil cases that don’t involve loss of physical liberty, and that the need for counsel in parental rights cases is to be evaluated case by case.¹⁷ Pennsylvania guarantees appointed counsel to indigent parents in dependency proceedings regardless.

You do not have to wait for a court date to bring in a lawyer. You can consult one the moment CPS contacts you, and doing so early changes how you handle interviews, home visits, and service requests. County bar associations run referral services, and some legal aid programs handle CPS cases at no cost.

Appealing an Indicated Finding

If you are named as the perpetrator in an indicated report, you have 90 days from the date you are notified to request either an administrative review or a formal hearing before the Secretary of Human Services. Your appeal must argue that the report is inaccurate or is being maintained inconsistently with the law.¹⁸ If the Secretary denies the initial request, you have another 90 days to request a hearing.

Once a hearing is scheduled, proceedings must begin within 90 days of the scheduling order. The administrative law judge must issue a decision within 45 days of the hearing’s conclusion, with a possible 60-day extension for good cause.¹⁸ Either side then has 15 days to seek reconsideration. Missing the initial 90-day window is the single most costly mistake in this process. Once it passes, the indicated finding stays on the registry with no administrative remedy left.

If you believe CPS has stepped outside its authority at any stage, you can file a complaint with the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, challenge specific agency actions through the administrative appeal process, or seek judicial review. Document every interaction, keep copies of every piece of paperwork you receive, and involve an attorney as early as you can.

1
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 23 Pa. C.S. 6368 – Investigation of Reports
2
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 23 Pa. C.S. 6337 – Disposition and Expunction of Unfounded Reports and General Protective Services Reports
3
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 23 Pa. C.S. 6303 – Definitions
4
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Disclosures for Public Health Activities
5
University of Baltimore Law Review. Are Family Homes Really Private? A Look into CPS Investigations and the 4th Amendment
6
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42 Pa. C.S. 6324 – Taking Into Custody
7
Protecting Student Privacy. Does FERPA Permit Schools to Disclose a Students Education Records to the State or Local Child Welfare Agency or Tribal Organization
8
Protecting Student Privacy. Frequently Asked Questions
9
Child Care Technical Assistance Network. Background Screening
10
Pennsylvania Code and Bulletin. 237 Pa. Code Rule 1242 – Shelter Care Hearing
11
Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. Kinship Care Laws, Procedural Rules, and Cases
12
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42 Pa. C.S. 6334 – Petition
13
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42 Pa. C.S. 6302 – Definitions
14
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42 Pa. C.S. 6351 – Disposition of Dependent Child
15
Administration for Children and Families. The Transition Rules for Implementing the Title IV-E Termination of Parental Rights Provision in the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997
16
Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. Chapter 5 – Right to Legal Representation
17
Justia. Lassiter v. Department of Social Services
18
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 23 Pa. C.S. 6341 – Amendment or Expunction of Information