Fam. Code, § 7851 · Article 3. Investigation and Report
Fam. Code, § 7851
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) The juvenile probation officer, qualified court investigator, licensed clinical social worker, licensed marriage and family therapist, licensed professional clinical counselor, or the county department shall render to the court a written report of the investigation with a recommendation of the proper disposition to be made in the proceeding in the best interest of the child.
(b) The report shall include all of the following:
(1) A statement that the person making the report explained to the child the nature of the proceeding to end parental custody and control.
(2) A statement of the child’s feelings and thoughts concerning the pending proceeding.
(3) A statement of the child’s attitude towards the child’s parent or parents and particularly whether or not the child would prefer living with the parent or parents.
(4) A statement that the child was informed of the child’s right to attend the hearing on the petition and the child’s feelings concerning attending the hearing.
(c) If the age, or the physical, emotional, or other condition of the child precludes the child’s meaningful response to the explanations, inquiries, and information required by subdivision (b), a description of the condition shall satisfy the requirement of that subdivision.
(d) The court shall receive the report in evidence and shall read and consider its contents in rendering the court’s judgment.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2019, Ch. 115, Sec. 102. (AB 1817) Effective January 1, 2020.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FAM§ionNum=7851.
- Text hash
- sha256 ed1a4bff19fcffc2a5efae4a9293e71d4f7050be13182b5e25b3520788f1ef13
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
Cited by 2 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Fam. Code, § 7851. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Welfare and Institutions Code
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