I (29F) recently had a few new diagnosis, due to new findings and tests. I recently started putting together some things from my childhood and my brother mentioned something about a CPS case when we were kids. (I don’t remember 90% of my life before 12 yrs old) I ended up requesting the records from the local department and today they emailed me back saying it is estimated to take 14 hours of labor to copy and redact everything and will cost me around $350 to receive the copies. I’ve requested records before on a different matter and received everything almost instantly and for free, but it was only about 20-30 pages total. What did I get myself into?! Now I have to decide if I want to try to save the money to pay for it or let it go. I knew CPS was involved a little when I was in 8th-10th grade, but was never told any information about what exactly was going on.
TL;DR: I requested childhood CPS reports and there is way more than I ever expected.
Comments
Oh wow. Can you ask them how to reduce that? Maybe they have summaries you can request or just certain notes that would be helpful but not …that much. That’s not only expensive, but it would be a lot to unpack.
I thought this was gonna be about them finding out horrible things that happened to them when they were a child. Glad it wasn’t that gruesome.
I would contact your local state representative (not federal). You may get a friendly staffer who can pull some strings or figure out how to navigate the bureaucracy. I helped with random stuff like this when I worked at the state legislature.
I would call the records office and have them provide an index of the types of documents available. Then you could prioritize.
Lastly, consider doing year by year requests. It sounds like there’s a lot of records. It may be more manageable emotionally and financially to unfold your story a little at a time. I hope you have support as given your lack of memory and the mention of diagnosis, what you get is likely traumatic to learn/remember.
If it was me, I’d want all the details. But it might be really hard. Best to you!