“Having housing and a place to call home gives one hope and stability, which is essential, especially when you grew up in a system that gave you neither.”
‘Four out of five families who enroll in prevention programs complete them. And, once they complete services, these families are five times less likely to experience another report of abuse and/or neglect in the near term. Prevention services have also helped to safely reduce our utilization of foster care. Currently, there are less than 8,000 children in foster care, down from over twice that much a decade ago.’
‘Primary prevention—working with families further upstream to avoid child safety issues altogether—represents the future of child welfare services, but thus far the city is going it alone, with no financial support from the state or federal governments.’
‘There is an assumption in our culture that underlies all of this coverage—that without constant surveillance, Black parents are a danger to their own children. These articles are not based on facts.’
‘ACS has retreated from reform and subjected more children to the enormous trauma of needless foster care.’
‘In 2018, the number of children in foster care in New York City fell another 6 percent, while nationally the number of young people in foster care has steadily increased over the last few years.’
A report says complicated backstory of the city-state Close to Home program—and its early success–are a model for youth-justice systems around the country.
The de Blasio administration is moving to consolidate and expand its birth-to-five education programs. Will it take this opportunity to address a yawning gap between what city teachers and their nonprofit counterparts make?
‘It’s time we recognize that the interests at stake for parents under ACS investigation are just as compelling, with consequences that can be just as grave, as in a criminal case.’
When facing the possible loss of their children, New York state parents have the right to a lawyer only when a case moves to court. Even then some counties fail to provide them. And many key decisions are made before a case ever gets to a judge.