If Child Is at Greater Risk
When CPS finds that a child’s safety
continues to remain at-risk, they can
remove a child from the home. Besides
the priority of keeping families together,
taking children away from their parents
is a complicated, expensive, and time-
consuming task that CPS wants to
avoid as much as possible. If a child is
placed outside of their home, it is only
because CPS has found the parents
non-compliant with the safety plan
and there is no way to guarantee the
child’s safety in the home.
CPS tries to keep children as close to
their current living situation as possible;
close to their current homes, in the
same school, and in contact with their
family. This is where church members,
who are in the same community, can
be of great assistance by serving as
foster families.
race with questions. If you have more
questions, invite a CPS social worker
to come to a church staff meeting or
volunteer training for a Q&A.
The goal of this article was to ensure
that uncertainty about a process did
not create passivity. It will never be
“comfortable” when a call to CPS
is needed. But at this point you
should know enough to call CPS
with confidence and know what is
happening on the other end of the call.
This article is a modified version of Lesson 7 from
Becoming a Church that Cares Well for the Abused. The
full version of all 12 lessons is available for free at
churchcares.com.
We know this brief article cannot
answer all the questions you have
about CPS. When a child’s safety
is at risk our minds can and should
Brad Hambrick
Brad Hambrick serves as the Pastor of Counseling
at The Summit Church in Durham, NC. He also
serves as Instructor of Biblical Counseling at
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary,
a council member of the Biblical Counseling
Coalition. Brad’s background in pastoral care and
creating resources for churches served to shape
the educational design for Becoming a Church
that Cares Well for the Abused.
16 • Solutions