Acute danger requires protection in time.
Alongside supporting families, the youth welfare office has a protective duty. Section 42 of the Social Code, Book VIII permits and requires protective care under specified conditions. Urgent danger can require swift action when a family-court decision cannot be obtained in time.
Those with parental responsibility are informed and the situation is discussed with them. If they object and the danger cannot otherwise be averted, the family court must be involved. The youth welfare office therefore does not have unrestricted power to decide every family’s long-term arrangements.
The other three answers
The appropriate answer describes the protective duty.
It decides which school the child attends.
The youth welfare office does not generally decide by itself which school every child attends. The question concerns a specific power to protect endangered children.
It pays child benefit to the parents.
Child benefit is handled by the family benefits office. It is not the youth welfare protective measure sought here.
It checks whether the child attends kindergarten.
General checking of whether every child attends kindergarten is not the answer sought. The example of violence or hunger concerns possible danger to the child.
Separation from the family must be proportionate.
Section 1666a of the Civil Code requires that the danger cannot be averted by other means, including public assistance. Parenting difficulties therefore do not automatically result in separation. The necessary measure must fit the actual danger.
Statutory protective care also covers cases in which a child or adolescent asks for protection. The single exam answer therefore does not cover every statutory condition and procedure.
Section 42 · Taking into protective care · Social Code, Book VIII ↗Youth welfare office: support families and protect endangered children.
“Can” describes a statutory protective power. It means neither arbitrary removal nor automatic permanent loss of custody.
Three words for this question
- die Inobhutnahmetaking into protective care
- Temporary protection of a child or adolescent by the youth welfare office.
- die Kindeswohlgefährdungdanger to a child’s welfare
- Danger to a child’s physical, mental or emotional welfare.
- das Familiengerichtfamily court
- The court deciding specified family-law matters.