Helayne Seidman
I want to set the record straight.
Recent tragedies have drawn scrutiny of the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, and rightly so.
Accountability and responsibility are part of the job that we accept and embrace.
There is no greater mission than keeping children safe.
At ACS, our team lays it on the line in communities every day to do just that.
We have to make tough judgment calls.
We do this in good faith, always putting protection of children first.
New Yorkers entrust us with a profound responsibility, and with that comes an obligation to listen and respond to criticism.
Let me be crystal clear: The loss of any child is an unacceptable tragedy.
We are constantly working to improve and will not stop until we get it right every time.
We will not be distracted from that mission by press reports that ignore the achievements we have made to protect children and the contributions of many dedicated frontline public servants.
Nothing is more important than protecting children.
And anyone who truly cares for children wants them protected in every way; from harm in their homes and from unnecessary separation from loved ones.
It is a complex endeavor with the highest stakes for children and families.
We endeavor to get it right every time. Here’s how:
First, we have added more frontline child protective specialists so that we can reduce caseloads, provide more individual oversight and promptly respond.
Because of these investments, we have dropped caseloads from an average of 9.7 in March 2022 to 7.5 in March 2025 — well below the national standard of 12 families per case worker.
Our frontline workers come into contact with over 100,000 children per year.
That is 100,000 children who we check in on and protect each year.
Second, our specialists are trained to take immediate action.
If an investigation determines that a child is not safe, we respond with urgency 24/7 — working closely with law enforcement, medical professionals, child advocacy centers, the court system and other stakeholders to remove the child from harm’s way.
We removed more than 3,000 children from dangerous situations last year — more removals than at any point in the past five years — which, while not a measure by which we judge our success, is an indicator of how proactive we have been in contrast to recent misimpressions.
And when families need a helping hand — like services for a medically fragile child, or access to food, mental health services or counseling — ACS will do everything necessary to put those services in place so that most children can remain safely at home.
Third, we have improved training for new staff, including an eight-month onboarding process.
Our workers now have training in perinatal mood and anxiety disorders that can be dangerous but also treatable.
We have expanded intensive in-home services to help ensure safety as we do a thorough assessment.
We have expanded coaching supports for staff on active cases, and we have strengthened case-specific collaboration between frontline workers and our 120 investigative consultants, who are former NYPD detectives with decades of experience.
So lost in recent press accounts are the many children’s lives we have saved and continue to save every day.
Fourth, we have implemented new policies to ensure we can gain access to homes to be able to carefully assess children who may be at risk.
We leave no stone unturned, connecting with those in the community who know the child and can give us greater insight so that we can make the best safety decisions possible.
We put children first, and always will.
We are not where we strive to be — a city where no child experiences harm.
It bears mention that our administration’s strategies have led to an 18% decline in child fatalities in families known to ACS, compared to the prior decade.
But that is not enough: We will not rest until every child is safe.
We must do more. When a fatality occurs, we do thorough investigations to make sure those responsible are held accountable and appropriate corrective action is taken.
We also engage outside experts in those cases to ensure accountability and transparency.
We recently convened a new Multidisciplinary Review Panel external to ACS to review fatality cases so outside experts can improve our work and ensure accountability.
And we want the public to know that in addition to the state’s child abuse hotline, we’ve opened a new preventive support line at 212-676-7667.
There is no quit in this agency. When it comes to protecting children, we will never rest.
Because children are our future.
And their safety will always be our highest priority.
Jess Dannhauser is commissioner of New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services.