K.G.

I. BACKGROUND

In May 2023, two Bureau social workers made an unannounced visit to the home of mother and her three children in response to a referral alleging mother’s physical abuse of C.G. The household also included the maternal grandmother, a maternal aunt, and two maternal cousins—10-year-old Ko.G. and seven-year-old H.G.—whom the maternal relatives had been caring for since February 2023 because their mother was unavailable.2 Mother and her children were not home, but both the maternal grandmother and the maternal aunt expressed concern for her mental health. They said that the previous week mother woke the household at 6:00 a.m. by playing loud music; cut off 8 to 10 inches of H.G.’s hair in retaliation for the child having accidentally cut some of the twins’ hair three months earlier; and grabbed Ko.G. by the hair and shoulder and swung him around the room, causing him to fall and hit his face on a hard edge of the maternal grandmother’s hospital bed resulting in a bump that was sore to the touch. During the altercation, mother pushed the maternal grandmother to the floor and threw a wooden table at the maternal aunt. According to the women, mother was diagnosed with…