Report Finds ‘Over Policing’ Of Black Parents In NYC Children’s Services Investigations

The report found that although Black and Hispanic people make up around 50% of NYC's population, they account for over 80% of child welfare investigations

A concerning new report found that New York City’s child welfare investigations are disproportionately targeting low-income Black and Hispanic families.

The report outlined the ripple effect of causing parents to be denied employment or losing their jobs, making it more difficult to take care of their families and compounding the effects of hardships from the Administration Of Children’s Services.

The study was conducted by Legal Services NYC. The advocacy group sorted through data from the city’s Administration for Children’s Services from January 2020 through July 2022.

The group shared its findings with The Gothamist, which reported that while Black and Hispanic New Yorkers make up only 48% of the city’s population, they account for 81% of child welfare investigations.

In 2022 alone, over 70% of the reports in which investigations found enough evidence to substantiate the allegations were categorized as neglect. The consequences of these investigations can cause even more difficulties for parents to get onto their feet.

The cases marked as credible show up on parents’ employer background checks for up to eight years after the report. Advocates have described the ACS as investigating “neglect” and punishing families for being poor.

Washcarina Martinez Alonzo, a senior staff attorney with Legal Services NYC, said, “There’s an over-policing now that’s occurring that is disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic folks in New York City and survivors of domestic violence.”

The ACS, the group that conducts all of NYC’s child welfare investigation, said it is actively working to reduce racial disparities in the process through alternative avenues of reporting.

The ACS is encouraging more people to turn to calling city support lines instead of calling the state abuse hotline so that it can assist families in getting access to the resources they need rather than having to conduct mandatory investigations in a disproportionate number of Black and Hispanic families.

The support line works in partnership with schools to help families with high needs connect with social workers instead of the ACS.

Marisa Kaufman, an ACS spokesperson, said, “Through methods like decreasing unnecessary child welfare involvement and promoting supportive services that better stabilize families, we work to reduce both the racial disparities within the child welfare system and the number of families unnecessarily impacted by the child welfare system.”

“We look forward to reviewing the report once it’s made public, and we will always continue to listen, learn,, and evolve our critical work to uplift New York’s children.”

Currently, ACS is legally required to respond to reports of neglect it receives from the state with an investigation, even if the reports are anonymous.

Legal Services NYC’s report has spurred advocates to call for New York lawmakers to ban anonymized reporting of child abuse allegations and to put in place protections for parents to be better informed of their rights before ACS investigators enter their homes.

Executive director of a nonprofit advocate group, Joyce McMillan, pointed out that complaints that can prompt an ACS investigation are usually “lack of sufficient food in the home, using candles instead of electricity because they can’t afford to keep the lights on, or a crowded home”—in other words, it’s poverty, not neglect.

“Once a family is investigated they’re at risk of being separate,” McMillan said. “What most families need, she said, is a little more support and money.”