Legal Question in Family Law in Iowa
Dept of human services over steps bounds?
About a month ago DHS removed my 2 girls over somthing that was supposedly closed 2 years ago. In short, my 16 year old step son was accused of touching my 7 year old daughter in appropriatly. My stepson was in texas when the allegation were made. The case was closed because he was not a caretaker of my girls and it was turned over to the police.
It was reccommended if he came back home he needed to be evaluated. We had this done when he came back and it went to DHS and was supposed to go to the police. I contacted both DHS and the police. The police said they didn't have the report yet and would contact me if anything else was needed.
Now 2 years later another DHS worker was out on a totally unrelated issue and while reading our past file decided he didn't like the way the case was handled. so he removed my girls.
We found out that DHS had lost/misfiled the sexual abuse report on my stepson and that was why we never heard anything. The girls were re-evaluated and nothing has happened over the 2 years. But due to DHS loss of the report my girls have been through 3 foster homes in a month and this seperation has done a lot more damage than the alleged incident 2 years ago, which was never proven. Do we have recourse against DHS
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Dept of human services over steps bounds?
If you mean, are you going to get a payday or an apology out of this story, the answer is probably not. DHS's guiding standard is whatever is in the best interest of the child, they shoot first and ask questions later, and I can see why they might remove the children if they thought a potentially unevaluated sex offender was in the home.
I suggest you take the issue up with your attorney at the adjudication hearing.
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