892 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 526

568. Procedure in Children's Cases:

a. Information, investigation, petition:

Any person, individually or as the agent of any society
incorporated under the laws of this or any other State for
the care and protection of children, may, and any Police
Officer shall, give to the Magistrate any information in his
possession relative to any child that is intended to come
within the provisions and is in need of the protection of
this act. Thereupon the Magistrate shall make prelim-
inary inquiry to determine whether the interests of the
public or of the child require that further action to be
taken. Whenever practicable, such inquiry shall include a
preliminary investigation of the home and environmental
situation of the child, his previous history and the circum-
stances of the conduct or conditions alleged. If the Magis-
trate shall determine that formal jurisdiction should be
acquired, he shall then authorize a petition to be filed with
the Clerk to said Magistrate.

Said petition shall be in writing, under oath or affirma-
tion, and shall allege in substance as follows: That a cer-
tain child or children, naming the same, if the name or
names be known, and also naming the parent or parents
of such child, if there be parent or parents known to the
petitioner, or the name of the custodian of such child or
children, if there be such custodian known to the petitioner,
and the place or places of residence of such child or chil-
dren, their parents or other custodian, where known to
the petitioner, is or are delinquent, dependent or neglected
as defined in Section 560 of this subtitle, and that it is
for the interest of such child or children, and the State
of Maryland that it or they be taken from its or their
parent or parents, guardian or custodian, and placed under
the jurisdiction of said Magistrate for Juvenile Cases,
together with such other pertinent facts if any, as the
petitioner may think proper to state. The Clerk to said
Magistrate for Juvenile Cases shall file and preserve such
petition and all papers relating to such petition, and docket
such case, wherein the petitioner shall be named as plain-
tiff, and the child or children, its or their parent or
parents, guardian or custodian, when named, shall be
made defendants in such case. The said Clerk shall imme-
diately upon the filing of the petition and making the
proper docket entries, call the same to the attention of
the said Magistrate for Juvenile Cases.

b. Summons, notice, custody of the child.

After a petition shall have been filed and after such
further investigation as the Magistrate may direct, unless
the parties hereinafter named shall voluntarily appear, the