interviewed outside his or her immediate presence you have the following options: Inform the parent that the child’s interview may be audio or video recorded to document the interview in its entirety. Seek an appropriate court order to interview the child outside the immediate presence of the parent. Determine if the non-maltreating parent would likely maintain the integrity of the interview by agreeing to remain silent while listening to the interview from another room or sitting behind the child unobserved. Ask: How you minimize the possibility of this happening? Trainer Notes: Guide the conversation around engagement skills, attitudes and perceptions. Say: If the parent explicitly tells you that the child is not to be interviewed by you outside of their presence, you cannot contact that child at a secondary setting (i.e., school, daycare, etc.) in order to circumvent the parent’s instructions. When the parent refuses to speak to you and access to the child is denied outright, you should immediately consult with your supervisor and determine the most appropriate response. Persist with attempts to gain cooperation from the family or caregivers by addressing, to the degree practical, the parents’ issues and specific concerns. Ask: Are there any questions about gaining access to children? Say: Ok now let’s talk about what you should do if you go to the home and the child is there but there is not a parent/guardian You have several considerations that you need to think through and if need be contact your supervisor for guidance. If the intake indicates there may be immediate danger to the child’s health or safety, or if there is reasonable cause to believe the child’s health or safety is endangered by the conditions of the dwelling, or the child is inadequately supervised and there is an immediate need to evaluate the child’s health and safety. You should immediately consult with your supervisor regarding the need to contact law enforcement and enter the home to assess the child’s safety. If the intake does not indicate any immediate danger to the child’s health or safety, or if there is not reasonable cause to believe the child’s health or safety is endangered by the conditions of the dwelling, and the child is mature enough to be
Trainer Notes: Prompt with questions related to the cycle of violence, questions related to concerns about domestic violence, power and control dynamics, out-of- control individual behavior or family conditions, etc.) Say: With domestic violence cases you should consider an off-site contact such as a place of work when the abuser’s presence in the home during the interview is likely to keep the non-maltreating parent from disclosing essential information or when the information contained in the intake describes the abuser’s behaviors as so “out-of-control’’ as to create an unsafe environment for the non-maltreating parent, investigator, or both. Ask: Are there any questions? Say: Now let’s move to children whose parents/caregivers two different households. When a child’s parents have separate households (i.e., partial or shared custody of child) only the parent that resides in the home in which the alleged maltreatment reportedly occurred is subject to criminal history checks and is assessed in the family functioning assessment. Prior to notifying the other parent that his or her child is involved in an investigation you will need to determine if the other parent retains shared or partial custody and is entitled to notification regarding the on-going investigation and that there are no domestic violence injunctions are in place. The other parent should be notified and interviewed as a collateral source unless there is justification not to do so. You do not complete the FFA on the parent, however, if during the course of an investigation a child discloses maltreatment by a parent residing in a different household from the household which was the focus of the original investigation, you must initiate a second, separate investigation by reporting the new allegations to the Abuse Hotline and complete a second, independent family functioning assessment on the second household. Ask: Are there any questions? Say: Now let’s turn our attention to the maltreater. Generally speaking, the identified maltreater should be the last household member interviewed. Prior to meeting with the identified maltreater, you should consult with your supervisor if the individual has a history of assaultive behavior or violence. You should also give consideration to having law enforcement accompany you or conducting the interview in a safer setting (i.e., office or public site).