M.C.

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Petition and Detention The Contra Costa County Children & Family Services Bureau (the Department) filed petitions on August 28, 2013, alleging M.Q., then six years old, and his sister A.Q., then four years old, came within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court.2 (§ 300.)

1 All statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code. 2 Minors’ father (Father) is not a party to this writ proceeding.

1 According to the petitions, Minors were at risk of physical harm or illness because of Mother’s serious and chronic substance abuse problem and because she had failed to provide safe and adequate housing. The petitions also alleged Mother had left the children with no provision for support and that she had abused each child’s sibling by leaving the two children alone with no adult supervision and inadequate food. According to the detention/jurisdiction report, in mid-August 2013, Minors were found wandering along a street alone. Police followed them home and found they had been left at home alone all day while Mother visited her boyfriend in another city. The children had left the house because M.C. had scraped his elbow when he was tripped by the…