I believe that ranking in the top three fears of most foster parents would be getting a 310 called on them. For those of you who don’t know, the 310 is the initial report filed after a call to the DCS Hotline regarding potential child abuse or neglect, which is used to initiate the agency’s assessment process and it is DCS’s legal duty to investigate possible claims of abuse or neglect.
Because it is so upsetting and terrifying, I believe that most of us in the foster care world choose not to talk about it…almost like “if I don’t talk about it, it won’t ever happen” or “if I discuss it, it almost summons the call in on me”.
Clearly nothing like that is the case…but 310s are scary and that’s why we don’t often want to talk about them.
But that’s what I’ll be doing in my next few posts; I’ll dive into what a 310 is, the investigation process (in general…because no 310 investigation is ever going to go exactly by the textbook), possible outcomes of the 310 investigation, how to protect yourself from an investigation (as best you can), and validating how a 310 makes foster parents feel.
And for those of you who are new to this world, or if you’ve never had the “pleasure” of experiencing one, a 310 is what was called in on the biological family when the children in your care were removed. But 310s are called in all the time and it is not uncommon for one to be called in on foster or adoptive parents.
I’m going to admit something I’ve very rarely admitted (because it feels so gross and smug on my part), but I thought I was doing really well as a foster parent because we fostered for eight years and never had a 310 called in. What I failed to realize is that it can happen to anyone at any time for virtually anything, and when we had our family’s 310 investigation this past summer, I very quickly lost a lot of of that smugness (and when I say I lost a lot, I mean I lost it all.
I don’t say that to scare you, but to help you understand that it’s something that happens. Often. And you don’t need to feel like you’re all alone in the experience.
As we go through this series, I will try to give you as much information as I can so that in the event it does happen to you, you’re a little more prepared to walk through it. Additionally, and most of all, I want you to know that you’re not alone in how you feel and what you experience. It has happened to many of us (probably many of whom you are unaware that it’s happened to…because it can feel embarrassing to talk about), and while it can bring up a lot of different emotions for the foster or adoptive parents, there are things you can do as you walk through to help give you a sense of control.
So as I said above, first off in the series, I want to talk a little bit about what exactly a 310 is and how it is reported. As mentioned previously, the 310 is when a call is made to the hotline regarding suspected abuse or neglect of a child.
I think many of us are aware of what is probably the most common and that is a mandatory reporting call. Anyone who sees something suspicious has a required duty to call in a report to the anonymous line. They’ll take the information and move forward with it there. As I said, it is anonymous so the person receiving the call doesn’t know who called it in although of course there might be suspicions.
There is self reporting, when a foster adoptive parent knows that there’s something wrong or something has happened, it should be called in by them and they call in on themselves.
There’s agency reporting where the agency becomes aware of something that has happened in a foster home and they call in the report on the foster parents.
One other situation I do want to mention is that the majority of the time calls are made for an adult doing something to a child. But there is the rare instance where a 310 is called in for a child doing something to another child. Like I said, it’s not nearly as common, but it does happen, and if deemed necessary, it still requires the full investigation process.
Once a report has been made, then DCS will determine if screened in or screened out. If it is screened in, then they will pursue investigation and determine if further action is required. If it is screened out then there will be no further investigation on that call.
In my next post, I will dive deeper into what the DCS 310 investigation should (or could) look like.
Sincerely,
Kris