A social worker with a folder stands on the porch as a father argues from the doorway, his daughter peeking out behind him

Preparing for Court

What Social Workers Can and Can’t Do in a Custody Case

Social workers play a crucial role in child custody cases. They are often called upon to evaluate the living conditions of each parent and make recommendations to the court. However, there are certain limitations to what…

Best for the Children Editorial·10 min read·February 12, 2026·Updated October 6, 2026

A social worker in a custody case can interview you, your child and the people around your child, visit your home, read records, and write a report that recommends a parenting arrangement. A social worker cannot decide custody, give you legal advice, or promise to keep what you say private from the judge. The judge decides. The report is often the single most persuasive piece of evidence the judge reads, though, so it pays to understand exactly what the social worker is there to do.

The answer also depends on which kind of social worker you are dealing with. “Social worker” covers at least three very different jobs in family court, and their powers are not the same.

First, figure out which social worker you have

Court-appointed custody evaluator

This is the most common one in a divorce or parenting-time dispute. The judge orders an evaluation, and a licensed professional (often a clinical social worker, sometimes a psychologist, counselor or psychiatrist) investigates and writes a report with recommendations. The Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, which publishes the main professional standards for this work, now calls it a “parenting plan evaluation.”

States set their own qualifications. Texas, for example, requires a master’s degree in a human services field plus a Texas license as a social worker, professional counselor, marriage and family therapist or psychologist (or a psychiatrist), two years of supervised experience, at least 10 supervised court-ordered evaluations, and eight hours of family violence training. Other states are looser or stricter, so check your state’s rules.

Family court services staff

Many courts employ their own social workers. In Cook County, Illinois, the court’s Family Court Services office uses licensed social workers and psychologists to do custody evaluations, and they are free for households with a combined income of $50,000 a year or less (as of October 2026). California courts have similar Family Court Services offices. Ask your court clerk whether your court has one.

Child protective services (CPS) caseworker

A CPS worker is a government investigator responding to a report of abuse or neglect. CPS is not there to settle a custody dispute between parents, but a CPS finding can change a custody case overnight. CPS also has powers an evaluator does not, covered below.

A guardian ad litem or child’s attorney may also be appointed. Some are social workers, some are lawyers. Their job is to speak for the child’s interests, which is different from neutral fact-finding. Ask the person directly: “What is your role, and who appointed you?”

What a custody evaluator can do

A court-appointed evaluator has wide room to dig. Expect most of this:

Interview each parent, usually more than once, about your history, the relationship, your child’s routine and your concerns about the other parent.
Interview your child, alone and sometimes with siblings, in a way suited to the child’s age.
Watch your child with each parent, at the office or during a home visit. (Our social worker home visit checklist covers what they look at.)
Talk to other people: teachers, pediatricians, therapists, grandparents, stepparents and new partners. Cook County’s evaluators, for one, list all of these as possible contacts.
Read records, including school reports and medical records, police reports and texts or emails you or the other parent hand over.
Recommend a parenting arrangement to the court: who has decision-making, what the schedule looks like, and whether anything like supervised visits, counseling or substance testing should be ordered.
Testify about the report, and be cross-examined by both sides.

How long it takes varies. Cook County aims for 10 to 12 weeks if both parents cooperate and turn in paperwork on time. Private evaluations in contested cases often take longer.

Cost varies even more. Court-employed evaluators may be free or low-cost. Private evaluations usually run from a few thousand dollars to $10,000 to $15,000 or more in complicated cases (as of October 2026), and the judge decides how the parents split the bill.

What a custody evaluator can’t do

Decide custody. The report is a recommendation. Judges usually give it a lot of weight, but they can and do depart from it, and they weigh it alongside everything else in the record. See what judges look at when deciding custody.
Take sides or act as your counselor. A neutral evaluator should treat both parents the same: comparable time, the same questions, the same chance to respond to concerns. The AFCC’s 2022 guidelines also tell evaluators to avoid giving interim recommendations before the work is done, except when needed for a child’s safety.
Give you legal advice or represent you. Your lawyer does that.
Keep your statements confidential from the court. This surprises a lot of parents. The ordinary therapy-office privacy rules do not apply in the usual way, because the whole point of the evaluation is to report to the judge. The social work code of ethics tells social workers to explain the limits of confidentiality at the start. Assume anything you say, write or post can end up in the report.
Order you to do anything. An evaluator can recommend parenting classes, therapy or drug testing. Only a court order makes it mandatory.

Who gets to see the report

This is set by state law. In California, Family Code section 3111 requires the evaluator’s report to be filed and served on the parties or their lawyers at least 10 days before the custody hearing. The report is confidential, stays out of the public court file, and a court can sanction anyone who shares it without a good reason. Other states handle access differently; some let parents read the report only through their lawyers. Ask your lawyer or the clerk how it works where your case is filed, and do not post or forward the report to anyone.

What CPS can and can’t do

A CPS caseworker can do things a custody evaluator can’t, and is limited in ways that matter.

Interviewing your child at school. Many states allow it without asking you first. Texas law, for example, lets investigators interview a child “at any reasonable time and place,” including school. Other states require notice or have stricter rules, so check your state’s rules.
Entering your home. CPS workers are government officials, and the Fourth Amendment applies to them. In Calabretta v. Floyd (1999), the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a social worker who entered a home without a warrant, consent or a real emergency violated the parents’ rights. In general, a caseworker needs your consent, a court order or a real emergency to come in. Refusing is legal, but CPS can go to court for an order, so talk to a lawyer before you decide.
Removing a child. In most states CPS (often with police) can remove a child in an emergency without a prior court order. A court must then review the removal quickly. Minnesota, Montana, Pennsylvania and Vermont, for example, require a hearing within 72 hours, with weekends and holidays not counted in some states. Timelines differ elsewhere.
Deciding your custody case. CPS can’t. But a substantiated finding, a safety plan or a dependency case will shape what the family court does, so treat any CPS contact as part of your custody case and tell your lawyer the same day.

How to work with the social worker in your case

Evaluators see stressed parents all day. What stands out is a parent who stays focused on the child. In practice:

Be on time and keep every appointment. Missed visits get written down.
Bring organized documents: school records, medical visits, a short timeline of key events, and the parenting schedule you’re proposing. One page beats a binder. A clear parenting plan proposal shows you have thought it through.
Talk about your child more than your ex. Know the pediatrician’s name, the teacher’s name, the bedtime and what your child is struggling with this month.
Raise real safety concerns plainly, with specifics: dates, what happened, who saw it, any police or medical record. Exaggerating or making claims you can’t back up tends to hurt the person who makes them.
Don’t coach your child. Evaluators are trained to spot rehearsed phrases (“Daddy is mean to me” in adult words). Tell your child it’s fine to tell the truth and that no one will be upset.
Don’t badmouth the other parent in front of your child or the evaluator. Whether you support your child’s relationship with the other parent is one of the things being judged. If co-parenting is already breaking down, read when co-parenting goes awry.
Get the home ready, not staged. A safe, reasonably clean home with a bed for your child and some of their things in it is the bar.
Look after yourself. The weeks of an evaluation are hard. Some ideas are in how to handle stress during a custody case.

If you think the evaluator got it wrong

Your options run through the court case, not around it.

Challenge the report in court. Your lawyer can cross-examine the evaluator, point out facts that were missed, and call your own witnesses.
Hire a reviewing expert. Another qualified professional can review the evaluator’s methods (not re-do the evaluation) and testify about gaps, such as one parent getting far more interview time.
Ask for a second evaluation if the first was seriously flawed. Judges don’t grant this often, and you may pay for it.
File a licensing board complaint for real ethics violations. Know that it won’t change your custody order, and that many courts treat court-appointed evaluators as having “quasi-judicial” immunity from lawsuits over their work.

If you don’t have a lawyer yet, this is the stage where one helps most. Here’s how to choose a family lawyer for a custody case and what to cover in the first meeting. And if you and the other parent can still talk, mediation can settle a lot before an evaluation is ever ordered.

Before your first meeting with the social worker

Ask what their role is and who appointed them (evaluator, court staff, CPS, guardian ad litem).
Ask who will see what you say and whether you’ll get to read the report.
Ask about cost and timeline if it’s a private evaluation.
Tell your lawyer about the meeting before it happens and after.
Bring your one-page timeline and your proposed schedule.
Go in planning to talk about your child, not to win an argument with your ex.

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This is general information, not legal advice. Custody law differs from state to state, so check your state’s rules or talk to a family lawyer about your case.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Family law varies by state, and your court’s local rules matter. Check your state’s rules or speak with a licensed family lawyer about your situation.