Overreporting and Investigation in the New York City Child Welfare System: A Child’s Perspective
Child welfare agencies are tasked with protecting children, and in so doing, with investigating allegations of abuse and neglect. If done properly, such investigations can promote child safety. But the data suggests that New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (“ACS”) subjects far mo...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Columbia University Libraries
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Columbia Journal of Race and Law |
| Online Access: | https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/cjrl/article/view/14059 |
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| Summary: | Child welfare agencies are tasked with protecting children, and in so doing, with investigating allegations of abuse and neglect. If done properly, such investigations can promote child safety. But the data suggests that New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (“ACS”) subjects far more children and families to intrusive investigations than is necessary. Nearly 100,000 children in New York City are investigated by the ACS each year, and ACS only seeks entry or body-search warrants in 0.4% of investigations. Moreover, the vast majority of these investigations are executed in homes where ACS ultimately decides that it is unlikely any abuse or neglect occurred. Such investigations come at a high cost to children: they are aggressive, traumatic, and coercive.
This piece argues that ACS’ investigative apparatus not only harms more children than it protects, but the tactics it employs violate the state and federal constitutional rights of children and their families. Using ACS’ own statistics, this piece demonstrates that New York unnecessarily investigates far too many, primarily Black and brown families; examines the harmful, and often unlawful reporting and investigation process in New York City; and enumerates reforms critical to protect both the safety and privacy rights of New York City’s children and families.
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| ISSN: | 2155-2401 |