If you being charged for child neglect, do you have to take a drug test?

I received this question recently: "Me and my child's other parent have roommates who smoke marijuana, but they do it outside the house. We had an incident and we had to call the police. While there, the police said they could smell weed in the house so they obtained a search warrant and found some like a 3g of marijuana. We were charged with child neglect and drug possession. They drug tested my child and it came out positive. Now they want to drug test us. I don't use drugs but I am around people who do. I'm not afraid to get tested but I just want to know my rights.

Here is my response: Many times DSS intervenes in a family for whatever reason and asks the parents to be drug tested - regardless of the reason for intervention. Sometimes it is connected to the reason for intervention and sometimes it is not. For example, if DSS intervened because your house was filthy, but asked you to have a drug test there is zero connection between those two things. But, since police charged you with possession there is more connection in your case.

You are not required to consent to a drug test unless you have been court-ordered to be tested. I don't have enough information based on your question to determine if there is currently a DSS legal case against you or if there is a court order requiring you to submit to drug testing. If you are court ordered and refuse to go, the Family Court will likely treat that as a failed drug test.

If you refuse to be drug tested DSS may initiate a removal action (legal action) to retain your child in DSS custody and seek a court order to require you to submit to drug testing. On the other hand, if you agree to be drug tested you could test positive and that would lead to potential findings by DSS or additional criminal charges.