When the DCP&P becomes involved with your family, you might be on the defensive—and understandably so. While the DCP&P can get the authority to remove your child from the home temporarily, it can also provide struggling families with valuable services they need. Services such as case management, family skills training, child care, counseling, therapy, and substance abuse treatment can help you meet the requirements needed to keep your child at home or reunify your family.
Sometimes these services are provided as part of a safety plan. If the parent accepts the services and follows the plan, in many cases the child can stay at home. Other times the parent uses the services while the child is in foster placement and must meet certain milestones to reunify. Regardless of your situation, the services the DCP&P can offer either directly or through contracted community services might be of help.
When Help Becomes a Burden
It’s important to understand the DCP&P might request you accept services you don’t feel you or your family need. When involved in a child welfare case, you already have enough worries on your mind. If you are asked to accept unreasonable or unnecessary services, consider speaking with an attorney. It is not uncommon for the DCP&P to give parents more tasks than they can handle, which can create barriers to reunification if the parent is unable to meet the DCP&P’s expectations. And, in the end, it is the child that suffers most.
Speak with an experienced New Jersey child welfare attorney if you have questions about the services and support the DCP&P is offering. An attorney can advise you on what services you must accept to stay or reunify with your child and make sure those services aren’t unreasonable or unnecessary—and they sometimes are. An attorney can also make sure your child receives the services he or she needs to thrive, whether in foster placement or at home. It’s always best to have an advocate in your corner when child welfare caseworkers and the court are telling you to do certain things, so you know your rights and how to defend them.
Visits with the DCP&P can be stressful, but the knowledgeable attorneys at the Williams Law Group, LLC have the experience needed to defend your rights as a parent and protect your child’s best interests. Located in Short Hills, New Jersey, Williams Law Group, LLC provides compassionate and dedicated legal services to Union, Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, Monmouth, and Middlesex counties, and the surrounding areas. Our knowledgeable attorneys handle divorce and family law, child custody, and child abuse/neglect cases. Call our office at (908) 810-1083, email us at info@awilliamslawgroup.com, or contact us through our confidential online form to schedule a consultation and ultimately get you connected with an experienced New Jersey divorce and child custody attorney.
