The Child Protective Investigations unit, or CPI, is the unit of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services in charge of investigating reports of the abuse and neglect of children.
Generally speaking, CPI must investigate all detailed reports of abuse or neglect. They can decline to investigate reports that on their face are too lean on details or that do not describe abuse and neglect.
On the other hand, CPI does not make judgments about who reported the allegations or whether the allegations might not be true until they perform their investigation. The investigation could include a visit to the children’s home and school as well as an interview with the children, parents and others.
This means it is quite possible for a parent to report the other parent, even anonymously, for abuse and neglect in an effort to get them in trouble and thereby get an edge in a child custody case. At a minimum, their report could put an innocent parent and their children through a needless CPI investigation.
What are my remedies if my child’s other parent unfairly reports me to CPI?
The first step is to defend against any false allegations of abuse and neglect. If not defended, an allegation to CPI can do a lot more damage to a parent even beyond affecting their custody rights.
A substantiated allegation of abuse could also impact a parent’s personal and professional opportunities in the future. Also, CPI will routinely forward their investigations to law enforcement for them to consider whether to charge the accused parent with crimes.
While it could be tricky to show that the other parent made a CPI report falsely or with bad motives, courts can consider such poor behavior when making decisions about custody.
A parent in the Houston area needs to make sure they protect their rights during CPI’s investigation. They also may need to evaluate their options if they believe that the other parent made a false or frivolous report.