
Quoting
LawResearcherMissy
Check with Legal Aid in your area. You'd be surprised by the resources you can find with a few phone calls. You may even be able to find an attorney through Legal Aid who will sit in for free. We have more than a few attorneys in my county who are happy to help out in such fashion, such is their disdain for CPS's methods.
I'm telling you FROM EXPERIENCE that it truly is best to have an attorney on hand for CPS's interrogation session.
I've had CPS called on me numerous times by Nosy Nellies who were angry that their "advice" went unheeded. Complaints against me? The eldest refuses to wear socks, so they claimed the children didn't have appropriate winter attire. Both children are whip thin, like their father, so the claim was that the children were malnourished. I work online, from home, and I'm very, very, VERY rude to the people who interrupt my work day, so the claim was that I have an internet addiction and the children are neglected.
That's only half of them.
All unfounded complaints, but had I not had an attorney present, their interrogations could have gone on a lot longer and been a lot more stressful than they already were.
These people will want to look in your kitchen cabinets, in your refrigerator, in the kids' dressers and closets, and they will want to look into yours. They will berate you and badger you, they will demand your child's medical records, and they will try to take your child into another room to ask leading questions.
You need someone there to keep them in line, to be there when the child is questioned, and to stand up for your rights. (You don't have to let them search your home, no matter how much they tell you that you do.)
If you really and truly cannot find help through Legal Aid, ask around amongst your friends and co-workers. Perhaps you have a friend who is friends with an attorney who would be willing to sit in and protect your rights.
In any case, get someone in there with you.