Prevention Programs Play a Critical Role in NYC’s Child Welfare System, Let’s Increase Access
Data Resources
December 12, 2024
On Thursday, December 12, Policy and Advocacy Associate Caitlyn Passaretti submitted testimony to the NYC Council Committee on Children and Youth’s Oversight Hearing on ACS Preventative Services. On behalf of CCC, the testimony details how prevention services offered through ACS can provide an essential lifeline for families and support stabilization and recommendations on how to achieve this by prioritizing flexibility in preventative services, economic and housing stability, education equity, and access to behavioral health resources.
Read the testimony below.
Testimony of Caitlyn Passaretti
Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York
Committee on Children and Youth
Oversight Hearing on ACS Preventative Services
December 12th, 2024
Since 1944, Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York has served as an independent, multi-issue child advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring every New York child is healthy, housed, educated, and safe. CCC does not accept or receive public resources, provide direct services, or represent a sector or workforce; our priority is improving outcomes for children and families through civic engagement, research, and advocacy. We document the facts, engage and mobilize New Yorkers, and advocate for solutions to ensure the wellbeing of New York’s children, families, and communities.
We thank Chair Stevens and the members of the Committee on Children and Youth for hosting this oversight hearing on ACS prevention services. Prevention services offered through ACS can provide an essential lifeline for families and support stabilization. In New York City, there are just over 6,300 children involved in the foster care system, a steep decline from the 1990s when over 50,000 children were in the system. This decline reflects a concerted effort to expand and sustain access to prevention programs, substance use and mental health counseling, in tandem with efforts by the Administration for Children’s Services to reform child protection. This testimony will outline the importance of prevention programming through ACS, as well as the benefits of investing in supports outside the system.
Importance of Prevention Services
Prevention programs play a critical role in the child welfare system and refer to a range of supports and services intended to strengthen families and prevent entrance into foster care, or facilitate reunification and permanency when placement does occur. There are different types of prevention, ranging from services and supports outside of the child welfare system, such as SNAP benefits, child care, and housing vouchers, to these and other services provided through the Administration for Children’s Services due to an open child welfare case. The latter services have the goal of either keeping the family together, or reunifying children with their families when placement has occurred.
Preventive services provided by the city through contracts with community-based organizations are an essential source of support for many families involved in New York’s child welfare system. Sustained investments in prevention resulted in years of rising participation in these programs, with over 45,000 children served annually pre-pandemic. In more recent years there has been a decrease in preventive service enrollment, with nearly 30,000 children (13,700 families) receiving preventive services in 2023.
Prevention through Upstream Investment
Despite the decreases seen in child welfare involvement in recent years, thousands of New York City families continue to come into contact with the child welfare system annually, with close to 55,000 children being part of one or more child welfare investigations. Extensive research, including the New York State Office of Children and Family Services Family First Prevention Plan, highlights the effectiveness of investing in services that stabilize families outside of the child welfare system. By addressing the root causes of neglect, such as food insecurity and housing instability, we can decrease child welfare involvement and create a more stable and nurturing environment for our city’s children.
The pandemic elevated the importance of these “primary prevention” services, as COVID-19 had health and socio-economic repercussions that devastated families and exacerbated previously existing inequities. Prior to the pandemic, countless New York City families struggled to put food on the table, pay rent, and access the child care or the behavioral health care they desperately needed. Too often, these challenges resulted in families coming in to contact with the child welfare system, with a disproportionate impact on children and families of color. The pandemic heightened these needs and heightened the risk of child welfare involvement.
Research literature finds a strong connection between economic conditions and contact with child protection, drawing attention to issues beyond incomes and including differences in wealth, cost of living, family size, and other factors.iv Additionally, barriers that communities experience because of economic hardship are compounded with the housing crisis, unemployment, household structure and other factors of social disadvantage, as elevated in a recent study commissioned by New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services.v Also well-documented is the historical and structural racism underlying the child welfare system, and the deep racial disparities primarily affecting Black and Latiné communities, as underscored in recent research by the Family Policy Project.vi
Unfortunately, far too many families in New York continue to face overwhelming barriers to supporting their wellbeing. CCC’s Keeping Track of New York City’s Children revealed one million households were enrolled in SNAP, 30% of NYC renters pay at least half of their income towards rent and 46,600 children lived in shelter. The child poverty rate in NYC stands at 25%, and 11.3% households in New York State experienced food insecurity between 2020 and 2022. More than 80% of families with a child under 12 cannot afford child care or afterschool costs.
When families’ basic needs are met, children experience greater stability and experience less involvement in systems like the child welfare system. We therefore urge the City administration and City Council to continue to champion both primary and general preventive service approaches such as investments in child care vouchers and ECE reforms; housing vouchers; benefits access; immigration legal defense; anti-hunger; and countless other services that increase security for families.
Recommendations
To better serve families, we must prioritize flexibility in preventative services, economic and housing stability, education equity, and access to behavioral health resources. There are numerous proposals in circulation that would move the City closer to these goals.
Greater Flexibility within Prevention and Legislative Processes to Support Families
- Examine opportunities for greater funding and contract flexibility among child welfare preventive service providers to support the presence of benefit access specialists essential to facilitating access to a wide range of public benefits – cash assistance, food stamps, child care, housing supports, tax relief etc.
- Increase utilization of expanded IV-E funding for investments in the preventive service workforce, to facilitate greater connection to critical services that support families.
- Pass Family Miranda (Int 0096-2024) to require ACS to provide a multilingual disclosure form to parents or guardians during a child protective investigation
- Pass Reporting Reform (Int 0008-2024) to require ACS to report the main allegations that led to its receipt of a report or the opening of a case for investigation of child abuse or neglect.
Economic and Housing Stability
- Increase staffing levels across ACS, HRA, DSS, HPD to ensure expedited access to and timely reapplication for essential benefits such as child care vouchers, cash assistance, food stamps, Medicaid, and housing supports.
- Fund and implement CityFHEPS eligibility expansion, which would remove shelter stay and housing court history requirements, prevent entrance into and expedite exits from shelter.
Early Education and Education Equity
- Ensure the City’s stands up community rooted, consumer-centered approach to ECE application and enrollment processes, in tandem with shoring up fiscal stability through on-time payments, and workforce support10
- Support year-round funding and access to youth services (afterschool, summer programming) prioritizing inclusive programming that ensures participation of children with disabilities, engaged in prevention, foster care, and/or living in temporary housing among other student peers
- Prioritize addressing the transportation needs of special populations of students (youth with disabilities, in prevention, foster care, and living in temporary housing).
- Prioritize protecting and expanding investments in community schools and college and career readiness supports.
- Expand opportunities for year-round and summer employment through SYEP and Work Learn Grow, with emphasis on inclusive programming reaching children and youth often left out of these opportunities
- Expand opportunities for parents through employment, literacy, and training programs to sustain economic security for families
Protect and Expand Access to Third Spaces
- Strengthen resources available to libraries and parks to ensure they remain safe and creative third spaces for youth.
- Ensure investments in community programming expands the capacity of essential service providers to remain open with expanded hours evenings, weekends, and holidays.
Improve Access to Wellness and Healthcare Support
- Baseline funding for the Mental Health Continuum11
- Provide wraparound funding for school-based mental health clinics and prioritize expansion of clinics at the elementary school level
- Maintain and expand funding for the City Council’s Mental Health Initiatives, many of which provide flexible, targeted funding for children’s services.
Legislation
We appreciate the Council’s concern and care for families experiencing and investigation and see these bills as steps in the right direction.
- We support Int. 0009-2024 by Councilmember Ayala, which would require ACS to provide information about where to access legal services for parents or guardians after an indicated report during an ACS investigation, specifically immediately after ACS makes contact for the first time with such parents or guardians. However, we also urge the Council to pass the Family Miranda bill (Int 0096-2024/Ung), which would guarantee that ACS caseworkers inform parents of their rights in writing at the onset of an investigation. Understanding their rights is essential for parents during this process.
- CCC also supports the intent of Int. 0652-2024, sponsored by Councilmember Sanchez, which would require the Commissioner of Health and Mental Hygiene to establish and operate a pilot program to provide mental health services at no cost to children who have been returned to their home following a removal by the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). This bill would also require the Commissioner to consult with the Commissioner of ACS to provide culturally appropriate outreach on the availability of services provided through such program and to post on City webpages information on how to access such services.
However, it is important to acknowledge that New York City currently struggles to provide child-welfare involved children with the mental health services they are already entitled to, including those services available due to an open ACS case and through Medicaid. Far too many families sit on waitlists to access behavioral health services, including outpatient services. In fact, a new study from the Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids campaign indicates that more than 4 in 5 children who need Medicaid outpatient services are not receiving them in NYC. We therefore urge City Council to ensure that any behavioral health proposal include adequate funding to support necessary services, and more broadly, we urge City leaders to identify strategies and funding to enhance capacity, workforce supports, and access to behavioral health care for child welfare involved children.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony.
