New York officials are being told about the dangers of CPS hotline practices

At an hours-long public hearing today in the state capitol, dozens of New Yorkers testified about problems in the way child abuse and neglect allegations are reported and investigated, drawing attention to racial disparities and too many unsubstantiated reports that are triggering troubling CPS investigations.

Hannah Mercuris, senior policy adviser at the Center for Family Representation, criticized the state child welfare agency for a “deliberate lack of transparency.” She questioned why some reports of child abuse received by the state’s Central Child Abuse and Maltreatment Registry (SCR) are considered priority calls that warrant an unannounced home visit – and others are summarily dismissed.

“Demanding that the SCR be transparent, consistent and critical to prevent unnecessary investigations is the least New York families deserve,” Mercuris said. Current practices, she added, result in too many families being “repeatedly subjected to unnecessary and relentless investigations.”

State and local officials also testified before Rep. Andrew Hevesi, chairman of the Committee on Children and Families.

Jess Dannhauser, commissioner of the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), praised the state’s “critical role in keeping children safe.” But he also pointed out the stark racial disparities and the often unnecessarily high number of calls that hotline screeners receive.

He said his city department investigated more than 40,000 reports that came from the state hotline this year, triggering disproportionate investigations in communities of color. Black children in New York City are nearly seven times more likely to be involved in a child protection investigation than white children. Latino children are nearly five times more likely.

“ACS responds to thousands of reports each year, most of which do not indicate abuse or mistreatment,” Dannhauser said.

“Our staff responds to a variety of calls, many of which detail the most egregious reports of abuse and neglect. They are the ones who experience the secondary trauma of learning that a child may have been abused or hearing the fear a caller might feel about what they saw or heard.”

– DaMia Harris-Madden, New York City Office of Children and Family Services

Calls that are answered or “reported” are referred to local child welfare agencies for a typically unannounced home visit. But at today’s hearing, Dannhauser said, “We’re seeing a lot of calls being taken that really don’t require investigation – and we believe that this gap could be closed through local discretion.”

Rep. Hevesi led the hearing in Albany, where advocates, advocates and parents presented their concerns in person and via a videoconferencing platform.

Hevesi directed at times emotional testimony that focused on the critical early stages of the child welfare system. Hotline staff first determine whether a child is at risk and a report of abuse appears justified. They also decide which calls are referred to local authorities for investigation.

According to a report released in March by the NYC Family Policy Project, half of all hotline calls nationwide are “blown out” or determined to not require a CPS visit. But in New York State, 75% of calls are referred to local child protection agencies for investigation. Most of those calls — nearly 80% in New York City alone — turned out to be unfounded or false, according to city data cited in the report.

A key focus of today’s hearing was the elimination of anonymous reporting. Several parents said they were forced to report to CPS despite repeated false reports – often from abusive ex-partners.

When Marina Umanskaya tried to leave her abusive partner, she said he specifically told her he would “use ACS to get revenge.” She told deputies that he next informed a pediatrician that Umanskaya had abused her daughter, which the doctor assigned as a reporter automatically reported to the hotline.

“This system no longer protects these children,” Umanskaya testified. “Instead, it mostly breaks up families and ruins our lives. In our society, especially among parents, ACS is often viewed as a tool for revenge.”

Cherriese Bufis-Scott, a mother from Rochester, said she left her abusive partner and ended up in the residential care system with her children. While she was still homeless, Bufis-Scott testified that her child’s school received false calls accusing her of trafficking her daughter for sex. Subsequent investigations by authorities took years and compounded the trauma of leaving her abusive ex.

“There’s already a fear when you leave,” Bufis-Scott said, “the fear that you won’t make it, the fear that you’ll still be attacked or hurt – that your children will be harmed.”

Deana Tietjen, deputy executive director of the nonprofit Children’s Law Center (CLC), said she often sees parents “using the state hotline and CPS as a weapon” to gain an advantage in custody proceedings.

“CLC’s attorneys and social workers have observed countless individuals – mostly litigants in our cases – making false calls to the SCR in a misguided attempt to obtain an emotional custody and visitation process.”

State and local officials spoke favorably at the hearing, suggesting solutions that include banning anonymous reports to the hotline and relaxing requirements for mandated reporters.

“We don’t want to re-traumatize families, especially when there could be a breakdown in communication,” said DaMia Harris-Madden, commissioner of the state Office of Children and Family Services. “We just want to make sure we do the right thing by the families.”

Harris-Madden agreed to consider certain changes: allowing local authorities directly reject the recommendations of state hotline officials, and Improve collaboration among decision makers about which cases require the most CPS staff time.

She praised the hotline staff’s “commitment to the safety and well-being of our children and families” despite the demanding nature of their work.

“Our staff responds to a variety of calls, many of which detail the most egregious reports of abuse and neglect,” Harris-Madden said. “They are the ones who experience the secondary trauma of learning that a child may have been abused or hearing the fear a caller might have because of what they saw or heard.”

She was joined by Gail Geohagen-Pratt, deputy commissioner of the state child welfare agency, in pointing to recent positive changes the agency has made. Now callers in urgent need of shelter or food assistance are directed to a separate line to connect them to resources rather than face the possible deportation of their children.

The Education Department has also helped train hotline workers to ask more questions about schools’ responsibilities in reported cases of “educational neglect,” involving parents who fail to ensure their children attend classes.

Further corrections were suggested at the hearing. This includes introducing a secondary level of verification and eliminating criminal penalties for mandated reporters who choose not to call the state registry.

Lawmakers are considering corresponding changes to the law that parental rights activists have been pushing for for years. They are focused on requiring hospitals to obtain informed consent from pregnant and parenting mothers before subjecting them to drug testing and reporting them to CPS, and requiring temporary workers to provide screened parents with the equivalent of Miranda rights.

At today’s hearing, state officials appeared hesitant when asked whether anonymous reporting should be banned because it could curb unwarranted investigations.

“I completely agree that the SCR should not become a weapon and should not be used to take revenge on anyone,” Geohagen-Pratt said. However, she continued to describe reports of callers refusing to reveal their identities because they feared harm from the family they reported.

Opponents of the anonymous reporting law also said such a law could discourage children from reporting abuse in their families.

Kathryn Krase, a former social worker and head of a firm that trains contracted reporters for various organizations, said too often the judgment of mostly inexperienced hotline workers takes precedence over the views of “licensed professionals with significant connections to the communities they serve.”

Krase added that “current policies and practices force tens of thousands of professional reporters each year to engage in unnecessary harm to families.” She suggested rewriting state protocols “to empower the reporter to do his or her own to utilize professional skills and related resources when a report is not required.”