Law Commons^™

Ending Cps Home Searches' Evasion Of The Fourth Amendment, Joshua Gupta-Kagan

Faculty Scholarship

Every year, Child Protective Service (CPS) agencies investigate about 3 million families around the country for alleged neglect or abuse of their children. Under agency policies, all of those millions of investigations include searches of families’ homes. CPS investigators knock on the door (usually unannounced), look in every room of the house, open kitchen cabinets, sometimes inspect children’s bodies, and generally look for any evidence of child maltreatment. Yet CPS agencies rarely seek a warrant, and typically act as if that is unnecessary. (P. 18 & n.86.)