While families are safe from warrantless governmental intrusion in their private homes; most states require that school and day care personnel allow state agents access to children without informing the parents either before or after contact has been made.

A way to overcome this is to teach your children to exercise their right to have their parents present before answering any questions. The easiest way to do this is by making up a laminated card and instructing the child to hand it to government agents. A sample card might look like this:

NOTICE TO GOVERNMENT AGENTS:

You are hereby informed that I have a right to have my parents present prior to answering any questions. I am now exercising that right and request that you contact my parents immediately.

The back of the card should have the child's name, parents' names and contact information. Several numbers should be listed; home, work, pager and an extra emergency number. Home and work addresses should be given as well. The more contact information, the better. This will eliminate the possibility of the agent claiming he didnt know how to reach you.

By utilizing a written card, the child need only hand it to the agent rather than memorizing what to say. Since it's in writing, the agent can't say the child didn't properly exert his right to have parents present prior to answering questions.

You may be asking; "How do I explain to my child what a government agent is?" Most of us teach our children not to talk to strangers. Government agents are strangers! It's okay to tell your child not to talk to any adult unless you've given permission.

The reason we teach our children not to talk to strangers is because we don't know what their motives are; they may be seeking to harm them. This couldn't be more true with government agents. We don't know their motives and we can't presume they are pure because the child welfare system has irreparably harmed many children in the past.

Because children sometimes can't tell the difference between government agents and 'regular' people, it is a good idea to teach children about the types of questions they shouldn't answer rather than the types of people they shouldn't talk to.

Basically, no person should ask about things that happen at home; what they eat, who they associate with, who visits, what type of discipline is used, etc. If an adult has a legitimate need to knows these things, he/she should ask the parent, not the child.