In October, 4-year-old Germeik Modlin was found malnourished and hypothermic in his family's Harlem apartment with burns to his skin and died hours later in New York City. was shocked.
This was just the latest in a long line of children dying despite parental investigations by child welfare officials.
Here, an anonymous child protection expert from ACS talks to police and public safety expert Hannah E. Myers about how the organization's CARES program is promoting social justice by combating racial disparities. told how they were putting their children at risk.:
I joined the New York City Department of Children's Services as a child protection specialist to protect vulnerable children. Many children require such protection and my caseloads routinely exceed 10 cases involving 20 or more children.
These cases range from neglect to severe abuse. I have seen the horrors of toddlers who are blind and have irreparable brain damage from Shaken Baby Syndrome.
In October, I was sadly not surprised when four-year-old Jarmeik Modlin became the sixth child in the city to die from malnutrition within three months.
Despite this harsh reality, ACS and city leadership have acted on a misguided sense of compassion and social justice to deprioritize child welfare investigations.
Perhaps because minority families are disproportionately targeted in investigations, ACS Director Jess Dannhauser has vowed to reduce the number of minority families and instead make 70% of cases a They will be redirected to a family-led non-investigative unit called “Assessment, Response, Engagement and Support.”
disastrous results
problem? CARES targets “less safe, lower risk” cases, but determining risk without research is just speculation. Under current guidelines, cases involving drug addiction or abuse are also eligible for CARES.
Before CARES, trained professionals investigated all reports of child abuse or suspected maltreatment.
Currently, desk workers in the claims department determine whether a case is “low risk” based solely on written reports.
Those cases are then funneled into the Family Assessment and Response Unit, where professionals like myself, trained as investigators rather than social workers, are expected to work with adults suspected of abuse or neglect. are.
My role is limited to providing referrals and resources, and I have no authority to mandate their use. Families often ignore them and I lack the training to provide meaningful support.
result? Families are set up to fail and children are put at risk. For example, a drug-addicted parent cannot consistently “lead” a welfare case. But CARES expects the process to be led by mothers, who often find it frustrating to “catch a case,” even the mother of the alleged abuser. This approach is a failure for both the child and the family.
The results are dire.
In 2015, a case involving a child under the age of 7 and a drug-addicted parent prompted an investigation. Currently, these cases are eligible for CARES.
When I expressed my concerns, I was told that active drug use was not enough. There must be evidence of harm to the child.
But without research, how can harm be properly assessed?
System-wide failure
Consider the case of 5-year-old Denille Timberlake, who died on July 14th. His father, a methadone user with a long history of ACS, took him to the hospital foaming at the mouth, according to the NYPD.
It is unclear whether this is a CARES case, but it highlights the dangers of leaving children with drug-addicted parents.
ACS has embraced abstract ideals over facts and logic, trading the safety of children for racial justice. This intellectualized aversion allows vulnerable children to remain untreated in homes plagued by mental illness and addiction.
Courts have also become squeamish.
Last year, City Family Court Judge Eric Pitcher returned baby Ella Vitalis to her abusive parents despite overwhelming evidence of abuse, including a broken ankle, fractured skull and bite marks. did. Three weeks later, Ella died from a brain hemorrhage. The preliminary cause of death was ruled a homicide by the coroner, according to the child death report.
This is not an isolated failure. It is a systematic move towards inefficiency. CARES proponents praise its ability to promote “right understanding,” but many families do not improve.
Instead, it cycles through the ACS repeatedly.
again and again
Tools such as the Mood Meter, a chart used to identify emotions through emojis, and the Wally Worm, a knitted and rubber toy aimed at encouraging children to talk about fear, have deep roots. Can't deal with the problem. When people who report abuse are told their case will be assigned to CARES, they often beg for an investigation, and for good reason.
High recidivism rates prove their concerns are valid. On August 14, 10-year-old Brian Santiago was found starving to death next to his mother after a fatal overdose.
Brian was a medically fragile special needs child who was repeatedly investigated by ACS. He was once removed from his mother's care, but finally returned despite complaints of neglect, drug use, and “stunting.” Eventually, he died of dehydration and starvation, abandoned by the system that was supposed to protect him.
This “hope and pray” approach, in which we hope that abusive parents will suddenly change, is more suited to churches than to child welfare investigations.
CARES denies research and replaces fact-based analysis with ineffective and unsustainable interventions. It creates a dangerous lack of urgency and thoroughness, leaving children to suffer preventable tragedies.
Contrast CARES with Operation We Will Find You, a 10-week initiative by the U.S. Marshals Service. From May to June of this year, 200 missing children, including fugitives and abductees, were rescued. This shows that child welfare efforts can produce tangible, positive outcomes. ACS should follow their example.
our most vulnerable
ACS says it receives about 1,000 reports of potential abuse each week, and claims only 22% of cases were assigned to CARES from January to October this year.
The agency also said all child protection professionals, including CARES administrators, “have undergone similar rigorous training.” ACS further asserts that “white families are just as likely to be tracked by CARES as non-white families” and that all decisions are based on the nature of the incident, not race or ethnicity. are.
For our most vulnerable, ACS must put away its squeamishness and return to evidence-based child protection. Social experiments like CARES have not been able to ensure safety. Jermeik, Ella, Brian, and Denier probably would still be alive today if they had not been taken from their dangerous home and returned.
Our children deserve better.
