Your husband is correct. During that 24 hours an emergency court hearing can be convened, and further time allocated. (sadly these powers have previously been abused by SS, anecdotally leading to caution from police)
Also the police can with (or without) SS, enter any home, property or premises, without a warrant under 'Exigent Circumstances' to check on the welfare of a child. (or anyone)
It's used all the time for situations where immediate action is needed to protect public safety, secure or collect crucial evidence, and the delay in acquiring a warrant would allow the disposal or removing of evidence. This includes hiding a victim.
Probable Cause is used in welfare checks on it feels everyone except battered children.
'Removed from school to be home educated' (see also 'child/family unavailable as visiting relatives/friends') is being seen as some sort of get out clause as to why a bruised child (not the 1st either) could now not be seen by authorities, when actually the opposite is true, but it suits to hide behind the idea that these things are the issue as to why the child wasn't seen. Lets focus on the thing hidden behind rather than why we do that.
Think hard on this, it's in the abusers standard playbook, and so well known, so why does it still work?
Additionally, when coroners say 'broken bones could be more or less recent- because of healing or not ' I assume that's through x-raying and guessing.
X-rays only show so far back.
- my history was forced back onto me when a scan suggested I had some terrible disease, because modern technology revealed large numbers of bones with different growth ages and spurts from different periods, and I had to very embarrassingly reveal that I'd been suffering untreated broken bones for as long as I could remember. Scans revealed it included before I could remember too.
They also showed up serious flesh injuries including stitching from long ago.
In such vicious murders this sort of scanning should be done. (TTBOMK death doesn't affect results particularly) It would help to show just how long suffering had been occurring and make it harder for the perpetrators to receive parole later. (It might help further subject understanding as well, ie did injuries start at the same time as specific events?)
I would also like to see luminol and blood age testing used on their residences extensively, for the same reasons.
We all need to be prepared to meet the costs of those trying to prevent horrendous abuse and also those trying to prove it, or face up to what we see as most important really.