The child-welfare authorities, for instance, would have taken a dim view of Dodger's being left alone all day while his father auditioned.

The school called the child-welfare authorities.

Just watching Ms. Stone giving a geometry test is enough to make you wonder where the child-welfare authorities are when they're needed.

But he said Jasmine would be taken by child-welfare authorities, at least overnight.

The school reported the case to the child-welfare authorities.

Because the choices are so hard, child-welfare authorities often let their cases slide for years, experts say.

And so it goes for the parents, almost all of them poor, whose children have been removed from their households by child-welfare authorities.

Ms. Ortiz has been reported to New York City's child-welfare authorities several times for neglect, according to court sources familiar with the family's case records.

Recently, child-welfare authorities temporarily took the children away from Marge and Homer.

She sent her own children to her mother's home in Virginia, she said, and child-welfare authorities there took them into custody, saying they were being abused.