What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? I live in MD, but my CO is out of PA, where father lives.
On 6/5 I was awarded "sole physical custody of [my son]... until further order of This Court. The custodial rights of Father, xxx, as to said child are temporarily suspended until further order of the court."
This was done through and ex parte hearing. What prompted me filing was that my son's older sister (she is 15 and dad had primary custody) was given back to her mother temporarily due to an active DHS investigation.
Before this, our custody arrangement was that I had primary physical / legal and our son would go to his dad's every 2nd and 4th weekend during the school year and then for approx. 9 weeks over the summer. He also would be at his dads for almost all holidays.
Her mother and I are on speaking terms so she contacted me because she first thought I had called but I hadn't. She told me that DHS had said that if she didn't file for temporary custody then DHS would remove the child from her fathers home and put her in foster care. So on 6/1, her mother filed an emergency, was granted temp sole physical custody based a letter that DHS had faxed in to family court. Their hearing is tomorrow.
Upon my request, the social worker forwarded me a letter citing the main concerns were: dad admitted to no heat, hot water, there is a concern inadequate supervision and father was not being cooperative. Has anyone ever heard of DHS stepping and asking for such a drastic result for these allegations? Is it possible that there was a stronger allegation, but that they wouldn't inform Mom or Dad of?
I spoke to the worker personally and she was very vague in saying whether or not I should file also. I don't know if it was because she didn't have authority to give an absolute in my situation or what. My son was not the focus of the report because I wasn't contacted by DHS, I contacted the worker myself. She basically said that if I was not comfortable with him being in the home w/o hot water and also concerned on who would watch him now that the sister was not there, then maybe I should file also. What raised a red flag was that the worker had told her mother that if she didn't file for custody, they would have removed the daughter. So I didn't feel comfortable with my son going for the summer.
The concern about the lack of supervision was already going to be addressed at a modification hearing that is scheduled for 6/24. I didn't want to wait until then was b/c my son was set to go to his fathers for at least 4 weeks, if not more this summer on 6/9. (The 6/24 hearing was for dad appealing the Master's recommendation of now having to provide 50% transportation and also his summer visitation being reduced from 9 weeks to 4 weeks)
Some other points in my petition were that I was concerned about my son (9) being left with his sister (15) for extended periods of time. Last incident was over Memorial day weekend from 8 AM Saturday to 2 AM Sunday. My son is on many medications for depression, anxiety, PTSD, asthma and allergies along with being diagnosed with ADHD and ODD. So I am concerned he isn't being properly supervised while on this medication or in general. He told me that on that day, he spent the day outside from 12 to about 8 and that his sister was in the house with the front door open.
Another concern about supervision is that my son was sexually assaulted by a minor male cousin on his fathers side and then their was an incident of inappropriate touching by a different minor male cousin, again on his fathers side. His father has been told by both family court, juvenile court and by DHS that he needs to closely supervise our son because as a result of this abuse, he has acted out on other children.
There are no orders that states this though. These were 'recommendations'.
On top of all this, Dad contacted me to say that the DHS worker is a fraud and that she is only doing this for a woman friend who he wouldn't date. I have checked with dhs.phila.gov and the daughters mother has spoken to her supervisor so she seems to check out. But his claim is that the worker is doing this for a personal vendetta. He says he will be suing DHS for investigating him unjustly and also for advising us (the moms) to file for temporary custody when the allegations had not been founded yet. (Even though he at least admitted to the no heat or hot water). Could me and the other mother be faulted in any way?
How long do these type of investigations take? Does anyone know a time line? My son is pretty bummed that he isn't going as of right now. What realistic expectation can I give him, if any, of when he may go to his dad's again? Regardless of the outcome, I will make sure he at least gets to see his dad, meet him at McDonald's, Chuck E. Cheese or something during this process so that he still gets to see him. But because of his behavioral issues he handles stressful situations better if he can be given some expectations.
Our emergency hearing is going to be 6/18 and I have no idea what to expect.
On 6/5 I was awarded "sole physical custody of [my son]... until further order of This Court. The custodial rights of Father, xxx, as to said child are temporarily suspended until further order of the court."
This was done through and ex parte hearing. What prompted me filing was that my son's older sister (she is 15 and dad had primary custody) was given back to her mother temporarily due to an active DHS investigation.
Before this, our custody arrangement was that I had primary physical / legal and our son would go to his dad's every 2nd and 4th weekend during the school year and then for approx. 9 weeks over the summer. He also would be at his dads for almost all holidays.
Her mother and I are on speaking terms so she contacted me because she first thought I had called but I hadn't. She told me that DHS had said that if she didn't file for temporary custody then DHS would remove the child from her fathers home and put her in foster care. So on 6/1, her mother filed an emergency, was granted temp sole physical custody based a letter that DHS had faxed in to family court. Their hearing is tomorrow.
Upon my request, the social worker forwarded me a letter citing the main concerns were: dad admitted to no heat, hot water, there is a concern inadequate supervision and father was not being cooperative. Has anyone ever heard of DHS stepping and asking for such a drastic result for these allegations? Is it possible that there was a stronger allegation, but that they wouldn't inform Mom or Dad of?
I spoke to the worker personally and she was very vague in saying whether or not I should file also. I don't know if it was because she didn't have authority to give an absolute in my situation or what. My son was not the focus of the report because I wasn't contacted by DHS, I contacted the worker myself. She basically said that if I was not comfortable with him being in the home w/o hot water and also concerned on who would watch him now that the sister was not there, then maybe I should file also. What raised a red flag was that the worker had told her mother that if she didn't file for custody, they would have removed the daughter. So I didn't feel comfortable with my son going for the summer.
The concern about the lack of supervision was already going to be addressed at a modification hearing that is scheduled for 6/24. I didn't want to wait until then was b/c my son was set to go to his fathers for at least 4 weeks, if not more this summer on 6/9. (The 6/24 hearing was for dad appealing the Master's recommendation of now having to provide 50% transportation and also his summer visitation being reduced from 9 weeks to 4 weeks)
Some other points in my petition were that I was concerned about my son (9) being left with his sister (15) for extended periods of time. Last incident was over Memorial day weekend from 8 AM Saturday to 2 AM Sunday. My son is on many medications for depression, anxiety, PTSD, asthma and allergies along with being diagnosed with ADHD and ODD. So I am concerned he isn't being properly supervised while on this medication or in general. He told me that on that day, he spent the day outside from 12 to about 8 and that his sister was in the house with the front door open.
Another concern about supervision is that my son was sexually assaulted by a minor male cousin on his fathers side and then their was an incident of inappropriate touching by a different minor male cousin, again on his fathers side. His father has been told by both family court, juvenile court and by DHS that he needs to closely supervise our son because as a result of this abuse, he has acted out on other children.
There are no orders that states this though. These were 'recommendations'. On top of all this, Dad contacted me to say that the DHS worker is a fraud and that she is only doing this for a woman friend who he wouldn't date
. I have checked with dhs.phila.gov and the daughters mother has spoken to her supervisor so she seems to check out. But his claim is that the worker is doing this for a personal vendetta. He says he will be suing DHS for investigating him unjustly and also for advising us (the moms) to file for temporary custody when the allegations had not been founded yet. (Even though he at least admitted to the no heat or hot water). Could me and the other mother be faulted in any way? How long do these type of investigations take? Does anyone know a time line? My son is pretty bummed that he isn't going as of right now. What realistic expectation can I give him, if any, of when he may go to his dad's again? Regardless of the outcome, I will make sure he at least gets to see his dad, meet him at McDonald's, Chuck E. Cheese or something during this process so that he still gets to see him. But because of his behavioral issues he handles stressful situations better if he can be given some expectations.
Our emergency hearing is going to be 6/18 and I have no idea what to expect.
