Rule 212.Emergency removal of a child

During court hours. Where DSCYF seeks emergency removal, a judge who has considered the petition and affidavit orders the child's physical or constructive removal from the parent or specified relative, and emergency temporary custody to DSCYF, under the statute the rule cites.

Constructive removal is worth pausing on. A child need not always be physically moved; custody can change while the child stays put, which sometimes spares a child the upheaval of a car ride at midnight.

Outside court hours. DSCYF contacts the designated on-call judge, who verbally orders removal and emergency temporary custody. The court then issues a written order as soon as practical. A judge is reachable at any hour, which is what Rule 77's always-open court means in practice.

The paperwork. Whenever emergency removal is requested, DSCYF must file a petition and affidavit no later than noon of the following business day.

The hearing. The court schedules the petition as it determines appropriate: a Preliminary Protective Hearing within 10 days of the entry of the ex parte order — or within 10 days of the filing of the petition where no ex parte order was entered but the court finds priority scheduling warranted — or an Adjudicatory Hearing within 30 days of the filing.

Read those two intervals together with Rules 214 and 215, which set out what happens at each hearing. The choice is between examining the removal almost at once and going more directly to the question whether the child is dependent, neglected or abused; either way, a child does not sit in emergency custody without a hearing date.