Racial disparities have long existed in child welfare systems across the country, including here in New York City. We know that poverty, lack of social or economic supports, and racial bias are factors that can lead to reports to the State’s child abuse hotline, known as the Statewide Central Register (SCR). All too often, families become known to the child welfare system not because their children are in imminent danger, but because they need access to critical resources. And those families are disproportionately Black or Latinx.

The New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) – the agency that I lead – is committed to addressing this issue. And in keeping with society’s painful acknowledgment of systemic racism, ACS is now taking more aggressive and comprehensive action than ever before. We are committed to supporting and strengthening families as the best way to keep children safe. At the same time, we must confront the unintended negative consequences of our involvement on the experiences of families and communities.

To prevent unnecessary and intrusive investigations, we are advocating for changes to the mandated reporter system, which accounts for the vast majority of reports to the SCR. We believe that mandated reporters – men and women who have regular professional contact with children and have a legal responsibility to report observed or suspected abuse or neglect – should be required to participate in periodic implicit bias training, to guard against disproportionate reporting of families of color. We also are working with major groups of mandated reporters, such as educators and health care professionals, to encourage use of alternative channels to address families’ service needs.

While we are legally required to respond to all SCR reports referred to us, we emphasize the provision of support and services to address family needs. We are expanding use of an alternative child welfare approach that focuses on family support and does not require a traditional investigation in cases where there is no indication of significant safety risk or physical abuse to a child, but where a family may need services. In New York City, this approach is called Collaborative Assessment, Response, Engagement and Support (CARES). The CARES program focuses on engaging families in supportive services that meet their needs and enhance their ability to care for their children. Specially trained child protective staff partner with families to identify needs, empower families to address them, and connect families to appropriate services. The CARES approach is family-centered, family-driven, and solution-focused.

Even when our involvement with families identifies safety concerns, overwhelmingly our response is to connect families with support services through our prevention programs, while keeping families safely together. Our continuum of prevention services serves as a key equity strategy, and we are now making sure it is designed with an explicit focus on family voice and choice, and racial equity, in meeting family needs.

In summer 2020, we implemented a new set of prevention programs offering 10 different service models to families throughout the five boroughs. For the first time, the social services provider agencies we contract with are now required to incorporate efforts to address racial disparity in their organization and service provision, including through formation of racial equity committees that include all levels of staff representation.

In every prevention model, ACS providers are responsible for doing comprehensive assessments of families’ needs and creating service plans to address underlying factors that may put children at risk, including poverty. All prevention providers are expected to plan for families’ concrete needs, including food, housing, and medical care. Crucially, our prevention array also offers therapeutic and treatment models that can help individuals and family units work through difficult issues like trauma, substance misuse, and challenging family dynamics. Research shows that many of these models help strengthen families and keep children safe. This work is a complement to, not a replacement for, meeting the concrete needs of families.

We are also committed to providing the so-called “primary” prevention services aimed at getting families the support they need completely independent of the traditional child welfare system, with the goal of avoiding any involvement with that system. For instance, in 2017 we piloted our first Family Enrichment Center (FEC) in a neighborhood with high child welfare involvement. Fast forward to today: We now have three FECs: one each in East New York, Brooklyn, and Highbridge and Hunts Point/Longwood in the Bronx (the Hunts Point FEC is pictured above).

What makes these centers unique is that they are co-created with families and community members, so that they truly represent responses to community-identified needs. They are open-door, walk-in facilities, with no connection to other child welfare services. During the Covid-19 pandemic, FECs have sought to meet families’ critical needs. That has included offering: technology and hotspots to assist children with virtual learning; Lyft car credits so community members can pick up food and medication and commute to doctor visits; and food, laundry cards, and detergent.

Another critical component of our primary prevention work is our Community Partnership Programs (CPPs). While many neighborhoods are rich in services and resources, these assets are often poorly connected with one another and difficult for families to access. In 11 high-need neighborhoods around the city, CPPs leverage existing services. They help to connect the service dots so that families are aware of, and can better benefit from, the full continuum of supports in their neighborhoods.

Racial disparity has been the legacy of the child welfare system, but it does not have to be its future. ACS seeks to administer equitable child welfare and juvenile justice systems in which a child or family’s race, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation do not predict how they fare. We will continue to focus on placing equity at the center of every decision, policy, and initiative, including all aspects of our prevention services continuum.

David A. Hansell is the commissioner of the New York City Administration for Children’s Services.

Photo by Kamille Vargas.