NYC children’s-protective-services chief defends – Latest News
I wish to set the document straight.
Recent tragedies have drawn scrutiny of the town’s Administration for Children’s Services, and rightly so.
Accountability and duty are half of the job that we settle for and embrace.
There is no better mission than preserving kids secure.
At ACS, our crew lays it on the road in communities each day to just do that.
We should make powerful judgment calls.
We do that in good religion, at all times placing safety of kids first.
New Yorkers entrust us with a profound duty, and with that comes an obligation to pay attention and reply to criticism.
Let me be crystal clear: The loss of any baby is an unacceptable tragedy.
We are consistently working to improve and can not stop till we get it proper each time.
We won’t be distracted from that mission by press stories that ignore the achievements we have now made to guard kids and the contributions of many devoted frontline public servants.
Nothing is more important than defending kids.
And anybody who actually cares for kids needs them protected in each approach; from hurt of their houses and from pointless separation from family members.
It is a complicated endeavor with the best stakes for kids and households.
We endeavor to get it proper each time. Here’s how:
First, we have now added more frontline baby protecting specialists in order that we are able to scale back caseloads, present more particular person oversight and promptly reply.
Because of these investments, we have now dropped caseloads from an average of 9.7 in March 2022 to 7.5 in March 2025 — nicely under the national commonplace of 12 households per case employee.
Our frontline employees come into contact with over 100,000 kids per 12 months.
That is 100,000 kids who we verify in on and shield every year.
Second, our specialists are educated to take quick motion.
If an investigation determines that a baby just isn’t secure, we reply with urgency 24/7 — working intently with law enforcement, medical professionals, baby advocacy facilities, the courtroom system and different stakeholders to take away the kid from hurt’s approach.
We eliminated more than 3,000 kids from harmful conditions final 12 months — more removals than at any level up to now 5 years — which, whereas not a measure by which we choose our success, is an indicator of how proactive we have now been in distinction to current misimpressions.
And when households need a serving to hand — like providers for a medically fragile baby, or entry to food, mental health providers or counseling — ACS will do every part essential to put these providers in place so that almost all kids can stay safely at home.
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Third, we have now improved coaching for new workers, together with an eight-month onboarding course of.
Our employees now have coaching in perinatal temper and nervousness problems that may be harmful but in addition treatable.
We have expanded intensive in-home providers to help guarantee security as we do a thorough evaluation.
We have expanded teaching helps for employees on energetic circumstances, and we have now strengthened case-specific collaboration between frontline employees and our 120 investigative consultants, who’re former NYPD detectives with many years of expertise.
So misplaced in current press accounts are the various kids’s lives we have saved and proceed to avoid wasting each day.
Fourth, we have now carried out new insurance policies to guarantee we are able to gain entry to houses to have the ability to rigorously assess kids who could also be at risk.
We depart no stone unturned, connecting with these locally who know the kid and can provide us better insight in order that we can make the best security choices attainable.
We put kids first, and at all times will.
We usually are not the place we try to be — a metropolis the place no baby experiences hurt.
It bears point out that our administration’s methods have led to an 18% decline in baby fatalities in households recognized to ACS, in contrast to the prior decade.
But that isn’t enough: We won’t relaxation till each baby is secure.
We should do more. When a fatality happens, we do thorough investigations to make sure these accountable are held accountable and acceptable corrective motion is taken.
We additionally have interaction outdoors consultants in these circumstances to make sure accountability and transparency.
We just lately convened a new Multidisciplinary Review Panel exterior to ACS to review fatality circumstances so outdoors consultants can improve our work and guarantee accountability.
And we would like the public to know that along with the state’s baby abuse hotline, we’ve opened a new preventive help line at 212-676-7667.
There is no give up on this company. When it involves defending kids, we’ll by no means relaxation.
Because kids are our future.
And their security will at all times be our highest precedence.
Jess Dannhauser is commissioner of New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services.
