When children were placed in out of home care due to concerns for the mother's ability to protect, a background check found the biological father had harmed a child badly in the state of Wisconsin. The extent of the harm what not clear, and what type of contact between the father and the child was to happen (if at all) was not clear. The mother and grandmother knew of the harm to the WI child and believed visitation between the child and the biological father was ok. The mother was not disclosing the concerns. 
Safety planning/visitation and using family/biological parents as a placement preference first was considered, however, because the investigation was not open for concerns around the father's unsafe harm to the WI child, the hospital who examined the WI child from 2014, would not release records regarding the extent of the child's injuries, or recommendations for contact between the alleged offender and the children. Specifically the hospital stated the Statute governing Child Protection Investigation data was ‘not broad enough to release data for another child's injuries'.  The hospital requested a court order be signed by a judge for them to release the records. A judge did grant this request and the agency was eventually able to access the records, however there was significant delay. A criminal complaint was accessed from the state of Wisconsin. There was difficulty in obtaining the CP records as the mother had since moved into a different Minnesota county. There is difficulty for CP investigators accessing information about non-custodial parents due to limitations defined in various legislative statutes, and the impact this has on CP investigations, the difficulty is exacerbated due to the urgency of the information needed during an investigation in order to ensure safety of children.