Advocates Call for Creation of Office of Family Well-Being to Enhance Kids’ Safety and Support Families at Council Hearing on Racial Disparities in New York City’s Child Welfare System
The Office of Family Well-Being will prioritize peer-based models, culturally responsive services, and neighborhood-based supports to keep children safe by preventing family challenges from becoming crises.
New York, NY – Today, the New York City Narrowing the Front Door Work Group called for the creation of an Office of Family Well-Being within Mayor Mamdani’s proposed Department of Community Safety during a Committee on Children and Youth oversight hearing examining racial disparities in New York City’s child welfare system. As the Committee reviewed data showing the disproportionate harm caused to Black and Latinx children and families through contact with the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), the Work Group urged the City to establish a new office outside of ACS that would strengthen child and family safety, avert reports and investigations for poverty framed as neglect, and invest in community-based resources that families want and need.
Although ACS’s stated goal is to keep children safe and support families, poverty and family hardship too often trigger traumatic investigations and family separations, instead of connections to trusted community-based supports. Almost 77% of ACS investigations are not substantiated – yet nearly 45% of Black and Latinx children in New York City will experience an investigation by age 18. In a city where about 60% of children are Black and Latinx, they make up roughly 90% of children in the system. While 75% of investigations are driven by neglect allegations, most often rooted in poverty-related conditions, ACS investigations often use coercive forensic tactics to gather evidence to substantiate wrongdoing by the parent, rather than connecting families to support to address child and family needs.
These interventions create lasting harm and trauma for children and families alike. Data shows that child safety has not declined with recent reductions in ACS investigations, and children are safer when families have stable housing, adequate income, quality childcare, health care, and strong social networks. An Office of Family Well-Being would serve as a central hub for cross-agency family support, invest in trusted grassroots organizations, and ensure families can access help without fear. By prioritizing peer-based, culturally responsive, neighborhood-rooted supports, the office would help keep children safe by preventing family challenges from becoming crises.
“As Chair of the Committee on Children and Youth, I believe we have a moral responsibility to ensure that the systems designed to protect our children do not cause further harm. For too many of our most vulnerable young people, particularly Black and Latinx children, contact with the child welfare system has meant trauma instead of support.” said Council Member Althea Stevens, Chair of the Committee on Children and Youth. “As a city, we must take the proper and intentional steps to build a family-centered approach that addresses poverty, instability, and unmet needs without criminalizing families.”
“CAPTA (Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act) is the federal law that established the national child protective services framework that all states must follow in order to receive federal funding. Under that law, the core functions of child protection agencies are clear and limited: to respond to allegations of child abuse and neglect, to investigate those allegations, and to take legal action. That is a policing mandate, not a social services mission,” said Joyce McMillan, Co-Chair of Narrowing the Front Door Work Group. “ACS was not designed to provide social services support like childcare vouchers or family enrichment programs. Those services belong in a separate agency focused on care, not a surveillance agency. Our coalition, Narrowing the Front Door Work Group, is calling for the creation of an Office of Family Well-Being within the proposed Department of Community Safety, and for those add-on services to be moved there, so families can access support without fear of investigation.”
“In NYC, it’s a lot easier to report a family than support a family. An Office of Family Well-Being will turn that around,” said Nora McCarthy, Executive Director, NYC Family Policy Project. “By investing in the grassroots groups that parents trust most, the city can strengthen the community bonds and access to concrete resources that keep children and families out of crisis.”
“Families across New York have long demanded a shift away from child welfare and policing systems rooted in surveillance, and instead moving toward meaningful investment in prevention and community-based support,” said Jeannette Bocanegra-Simon, Executive Director, Justice for Families. “Too often, families enter these systems not because of harm, but because of poverty and lack of resources. Justice for Families supports creating an Office of Family Well-Being and legislation like the Child and Family Well-Being Fund (A63A/S6431) because both would narrow the entry point for unnecessary system involvement and advance a future grounded in dignity, equity, and real opportunity for children to thrive.”
“The largest driver of maternal death in NYC is mental illness, overdose, and suicide. Throughout chart reviews, ACS consistently appears to be a negative factor in the women’s lives and subsequent death,” said Patricia O. Loftman, CNM, LM, MS, FACNM, BILPOC Member At-Large, New York Midwives, Member, NYC Maternal Mortality Review Committee. “Social and emotional stressors were key contributors to these deaths, including, for example, lack of housing, domestic violence, and involvement with child protective services. Based on the latest NYC DOHMH data, one-third of all people who died from a maternal death were CPS-involved. These findings underscore the urgent need for families to have access to mental health care, housing support, and peer-based services outside of ACS, through a dedicated Office of Family Well-Being where help can be accessed without fear of surveillance or investigation.”
“Graham is in favor of the creation of an Office of Family Well-Being that will center its work on making sure that families are connected with the kinds of support and assistance that they identify as being helpful so that they can thrive and succeed,” said Kimberly Watson, President and CEO of Graham. “At Graham, we truly believe that families are the experts on their own situations: knowing what they need, and what has and hasn’t worked for them. Having a place where families can get “helpful help” for the issues that are affecting their lives, without the fear of surveillance or investigation, is beneficial for them and would reduce the number of families that become involved with ACS, allowing ACS to devote its resources to investigating and intervening in truly serious incidents of harm and abuse.”
“The proposed Office of Family Well-Being has the potential to mark an important shift toward keeping children safe by strengthening families rather than surveilling them,” said Shereen A. White, Director of Advocacy & Policy, Children’s Rights. “If designed with intention—grounded in racial justice, meaningful government accountability, and authentic partnership with communities—it offers an opportunity to break from the racially disparate investigations and harmful family separations of the past and chart a new, more just path forward.”
Child welfare involvement is most likely when families experience economic setbacks or are in need of basic family strengthening services, like family mediation or behavioral health support. New York is rich in programs and resources to support family life, however, they are unevenly and inequitably distributed and difficult to navigate. Families are often reported to ACS because it’s challenging to navigate the city’s family support options. When support is hard to access, family challenges can build into crises. Parents who rely on city programs and services report needing navigation support that is cross-agency, supportive, and peer-centered. A neighborhood-based strategy that invests in grassroots organizations and the social fabric can ensure that families find the support they need.
Advocates propose that New York City’s current Community Partnership Program and Family Enrichment Centers, as well as similar family support programs in other agencies, move into the jurisdiction of the Office of Family Well-Being and be aligned and expanded to be more effective. Community planning and grantmaking would begin in the highest ACS-impacted neighborhoods.
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About Narrowing the Front Door Work Group
The New York City Narrowing the Front Door Work Group is comprised of youth, parents, and family members directly impacted by New York City’s child welfare system; community activists; lawyers for children and parents; academics; state and local government employees; and leaders in philanthropic and non-profit organizations who are committed to eliminating the destructive impacts of the child welfare system.
