Child Safety Check Alert List.
This chapter covers what a Texas peace officer must know about child Safety Check Alert List, along with the statute limits that shape each element, at the level of detail the TCOLE tests.
Chapter 19 study guide.
The Child Safety Check Alert List (CSCAL) is a tool for finding families that Child Protective Services cannot locate. It is not a missing person file and it is not a warrant. A hit on the list tells you that the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) needs to know where this child and family are, and the law then gives you a short list of things you must do.
Study this chapter in three steps. First, what the list is and how it differs from a missing person entry. Second, what Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 2A.056 requires when you locate someone on the list, including your power to detain and, in an emergency, to take possession of the child. Third, who you may release a child to under Art. 2A.058 and what you must report afterwards.
Jump to an objective7
What the list is and why it exists
The Child Safety Check Alert List is how Child Protective Services reports the names of children and their legal guardians whom it is trying to locate, either to investigate allegations or to provide services. The report is submitted to the Texas Crime Information Center (TCIC) by the CPS division of the Department of Family and Protective Services.
Family Code Sec. 261.3022 places the list inside TCIC, which is maintained by the Department of Public Safety. The list exists to help locate a child or the child’s family for three purposes: investigating a report of child abuse or neglect, providing protective services to a family receiving family-based services, and providing protective services to the family of a child in the managing conservatorship of the department.
The statute also sets the trigger. When DFPS has tried to locate the child for not more than 20 days and cannot, it notifies DPS, and DPS has TCIC place the child and the child’s family on the list. The entry includes, among other things, the department’s dedicated law-enforcement telephone number for statewide intake. That number matters, because it is the one you call when you get a hit.
- CSCAL
- Child Safety Check Alert List. A list within the Texas Crime Information Center of children and families that DFPS is trying to locate.
- TCIC
- Texas Crime Information Center. The statewide database where the CSCAL is kept.
- DFPS
- Department of Family and Protective Services. Child Protective Services (CPS) is a division of DFPS.
- Family Code Sec. 261.3022 · Child Safety Check Alert ListDPS maintains the list as part of TCIC to help locate a child or the child’s family for an abuse or neglect investigation or for protective services. DFPS notifies DPS after attempting to locate the child for not more than 20 days.
On the exam Know the three purposes of the list and which agency submits the names.
The CSCAL is kept as part of the .
Names are placed on the list at the request of the Child Protective Services division of .
One purpose of the list is to locate a family so CPS can investigate a report of child abuse or .
CSCAL entry versus a missing person report
A CSCAL entry and a missing person report can both involve a child nobody can find, but they describe opposite situations. On the CSCAL, the child is with a legal guardian. The guardian knows where the child is. It is CPS that does not. In a missing person report, the legal guardian does not know where the child is.
The guardian in a missing person report can be DFPS itself, for example when the department has conservatorship of the child and the child is gone.
The two records also live in different places for different lengths of time. A CSCAL entry is entered only into TCIC, so it is visible in Texas only, and it remains for twelve months. A missing person is entered into NCIC and remains in the system indefinitely, until the person is located.
- CSCAL entry
- Child is with a legal guardian. Entered into TCIC only (Texas only). Remains for twelve months.
- Missing person entry
- The legal guardian, who may be DFPS, does not know where the child is. Entered into NCIC. Remains indefinitely until the person is located.
On the exam Expect a side-by-side question: which system, how long, and who knows where the child is.
A CSCAL entry remains in TCIC for months.
A missing person is entered into and stays in the system until located.
A child on the CSCAL is with a legal , so the child is not missing in the usual sense.
Questions on what you just read.
- Question 1 · LO 19.1
During a traffic stop, a records check returns a Child Safety Check Alert List hit on the driver and her son. What does that hit mean?
- Question 2 · LO 19.2
Which statement correctly describes a CSCAL entry compared with a missing person entry?
- Question 3 · LO 19.2
A foster child in DFPS conservatorship leaves a placement and nobody, including the department, knows where she is. Which record fits?
The rest of Chapter 19.
- LO 19.3The update to Family Code 261.3011 authority · 2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 19.4Required steps when you locate someone on the list1 authority · 3 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 19.5Authority to detain and to take possession3 key terms · 2 statutes and cases · 4 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 19.6Placement and release of the child3 statutes and cases · 4 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 19.7What you must report, and to whom1 authority · 2 fill-in-the-blank
A subscription opens the other 5 objectives in this chapter, with 15 more fill-in-the-blank items and 7 more practice questions, along with the study guide for every other BPOC chapter.
Unlock the full guideLast checked against the Texas statutes in September 2026. This guide is a study aid for the TCOLE licensing exam. It is not legal advice, and your academy’s instruction and your department’s policy come first.
The law that drives the questions.
What recruits ask about this chapter.
What should a Texas peace officer understand about purpose of the list?
What is the Child Safety Check Alert List; The Purpose of the CSCAL is for CPS to locate a child and the legal guardian(s) to.
What does the TCOLE curriculum say about provide some differences between a missing person report and CSCAL?
Child Safety Check Alert List; Missing Person.
What should a Texas peace officer understand about update to Family Code §261.301 Investigation of Report?
Family Code Sec. 261.301: Investigation of Report, provides guidelines for how and when DFPS and law enforcement should investigate jointly a report of abuse/neglect of a child. HB 2053 added a new subsection to explain requirements to investigate and respond to CSCAL related allegations; The section reads as follows.
What does the TCOLE curriculum list about steps that must be performed upon encountering a person listed on the CSCAL?
List steps that must be performed upon encountering a person listed on the CSCAL.
Related study guides in Family, Children and Victims of Crime.
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