All 50 state notices remain on publication hold.
This is independent public-interest research, not legal advice, not an official agency form, and not attorney-reviewed or legally certified. A notice does not file an appeal, pause a deadline, stop an investigation, prevent lawful child interviews, override a court order, or prevent emergency protective action. Verify the actual notice, current law and case-specific procedure immediately.
50state notice drafts in the project
50publication holds remain
0comprehensive state certifications
4states targeted in Pass 21
What the prior passes actually established
- Pass 19: mechanically screened all 50 DOCX/PDF pairs, one-page rendering, common consent/court/emergency safeguards and deadline wording. It flagged 24 notices for editorial review of the appeal disclaimer and 34 for bottom print clearance. It was not a complete legal review.
- Pass 20: standardized an explicit warning that the notice is not an appeal and does not pause a deadline; all 50 PDFs remained one page, with at least 36 pt bottom clearance. State-specific legal paragraphs were carried forward, not re-certified.
- Pass 21: targeted Oregon, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Wyoming. Oregon and Wisconsin notice documents were revised; Mississippi and Wyoming were carried forward because eligibility or rule-version questions remained.
Pass 21 four-state follow-through
Oregon — partial resolution; exact 2026 interview rule still open
The Pass 21 register records a two-stage founded-disposition review: an initial written, signed request generally within 30 calendar days after receipt, followed by a separate Central Office review period generally within 30 days after receipt of the local review decision. The register identifies official OAR 413-010-0721 and 413-010-0740 sources for those review stages.
The ODHS rules page now confirms Division 413-015 was amended effective September 1, 2026 and directs users to the Secretary of State for current rules. The precise filed 2026 text for OAR 413-015-0420 was not independently retrieved in this pass. Therefore, school-interview notice and post-interview notification claims remain version-qualified, not cleared.
Official ODHS Child Welfare Rules and Regulations index · Oregon Secretary of State OAR Chapter 413
Wisconsin — two-stage review is supported; filed-version question remains
The official Wisconsin DCF Appeals Process Requirements document states that an initial agency review request is due within 15 days after the date of the initial substantiation notice. A separate contested-case hearing request to the Division of Hearings and Appeals is due within 10 days after the date of the final substantiation notice. The agency review and DHA hearing are separate stages, with distinct recipients and filing instructions. The agency review can proceed even if criminal or juvenile-court proceedings are pending; the DHA hearing may be held in abeyance in specified circumstances.
The current official DCF process document supports these stages. The Pass 21 register still flags the exact officially filed 2026 DCF 40 text as not independently obtained. Preserve that qualification; do not treat a secondary reproduction as the filed rule itself.
Wisconsin DCF Appeals Process Requirements (PDF) · Wisconsin DCF appeal page
Mississippi — registry change verified; ordinary substantiation appeal eligibility open
2026 SB 2805 was sent to the Governor and provides a July 1, 2026 effective date. The revised Central Registry provisions distinguish the registry from an agency investigation finding and require qualifying court judgment/conviction or adjudication processes for registry placement. This does not resolve whether every ordinary CPS substantiation is eligible for a general administrative appeal.
The Pass 21 register identifies the MDCPS general administrative appeal policy as supporting a 30-day period after receipt for eligible actions, but expressly does not establish automatic eligibility for all abuse substantiation findings. Keep that limitation next to any deadline statement.
Mississippi SB 2805 — as sent to Governor · MDCPS Administrative Appeals policy PDF
Wyoming — unresolved rule-trigger conflict; no correction authorized
The Pass 21 register identifies two published 20-day formulations: Child Protection Rules Chapter 2 §9 describes a period from the determination-notice date, while Contested Case Rules Chapter 1 §8(e) describes a period from mailing. The exact official filed rule versions and the controlling trigger were not resolved. The state statute itself requires notice by first-class mail of the right to request an administrative hearing, but that statutory text does not by itself settle the conflicting rule language.
Do not publish a single unqualified 20-day trigger. The exact 2026 Secretary of State rule filing, effective date and interaction between the two rules remain open.
Wyoming Secretary of State rules repository · Wyoming Child Protective Services statutes
Master consistency standard applied going forward
- Investigation start and completion: record the triggering event, calendar/business-day basis, response track, extensions, and whether the number is statute, rule, policy or guidance.
- Parent notification and child interviews: distinguish pre-interview notice, post-interview notice, parent presence, school/childcare interview authority, age/consent rules and safety exceptions.
- Home entry and consent: distinguish voluntary entry, child access, judicial order, warrant, exigency, and consent that can be withdrawn. Never imply a refusal automatically ends an investigation.
- Emergency action and court hearings: identify the precise custody/removal posture and separate notice, petition, affidavit, hearing and review clocks.
- Findings, registry and appeals: separate agency findings, substantiation, registry placement, administrative review, grievance, contested-case hearing and judicial appeal. For each clock record eligibility, trigger, recipient, filing method and proof of timely filing.
- Records, retention and expungement: distinguish access to one's own case records, confidential reporter/third-party information, registry correction, retention and expungement.
- Source/version control: prefer current official statutes, filed regulations, official agency policies and actual notice forms. Record publication/effective date and flag secondary sources or inaccessible filed versions.
Project-wide editorial controls
- Use the same plain-language warning on every notice: NO APPEAL FILED — this notice is not an appeal, hearing request, grievance or court petition, and it does not pause any deadline.
- Never collapse “notice date,” “date sent,” “mailing date,” “postmark,” “receipt,” “service” or “agency receipt” into a generic “within X days.”
- Keep the consent boundary precise: voluntary consent is not the same as lawful investigative authority, child access, a court order or emergency action.
- Keep the research page separate from the notice itself; do not imply the webpage or notice is a legal filing.
- Retain all source gaps and version conflicts in the public audit trail. No state moves from HOLD to cleared on a targeted source check alone.
Remaining high-priority work queue
- Wyoming: retrieve and compare the exact filed 2026 versions of both rule chapters and identify the controlling trigger.
- Oregon: obtain the September 1, 2026 filed OAR 413-015-0420 text and compare it line by line with the current school-interview and post-interview statements.
- Wisconsin: obtain the officially filed current DCF 40.03/.04 text and reconcile it with the DCF process document and actual notice form.
- Mississippi: resolve whether and how ordinary substantiation findings qualify for administrative review under the current policy, and confirm the current policy version.
- Next cross-state batch: re-open every deadline-bearing notice flagged in Pass 19, beginning with Texas, Maine, Idaho, Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Utah, Nebraska, Tennessee, Indiana and Kentucky. Verify each route separately rather than assuming one appeal process per state.
Release decision: Pass 22 does not clear any state notice. The 50-state collection remains a research library of working drafts. There is no claim of attorney review, legal certification or case-specific legal suitability.
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