C.F.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Petition and Detention In May 2013, the Mendocino County Health and Human Services Agency2 (the Agency) filed a petition pursuant to section 300 on behalf of Minors. As later sustained,

1 All undesignated statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code. 2 The petition named the Mendocino County Department of Social Services as real party in interest. In its opposition brief, the real party in interest explained that its current

1 the petition alleged failure to protect (§ 300, subd. (b)) in that Mother had a substance abuse problem that inhibited her ability to parent her children and that Mother and the children’s father, E.L. (Father)3 were not providing their children with adequate food or shelter. Minors were detained. At the time, they were eight, seven, and three years old. According to the detention report, sheriff’s deputies conducting an ongoing investigation went to a home occupied by two men (neither of whom was Father), and found the two younger children, R.L. and A.L., in their care. The home was found to be in an unsafe condition; the deputies saw glass pipes with residue used for smoking methamphetamine, used syringes, pipes and…