The Big Apple’s beleaguered child service agency is able to keep its records secret because of a state loophole — but fed-up city investigators are now backing a bill that would force them to loosen their grip on their closely guarded books.
Department of Investigation officials said they have been blocked from reviewing at least a dozen child neglect or abuse cases handled by the Administration for Children’s Services since 2023 that raised “red flags,” all because state law keeps the files sealed — regardless of the consequences for battered children.
Most troubling are abuse claims deemed “unfounded” by ACS with no explanation or scrutiny.
“If one of the unfounded rulings was flawed in some way, we have no insight into that whatsoever,” DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber told The Post. “We need [the state Office of Children and Family Services] to get approval, so we have to tell them what it is we want and if they ask why we want them, we have to tell them.
“That is not typically how independent oversight works,” she said. “You don’t typically want the entities that you are overseeing [to have] access into what you are investigating.”
The Post reported earlier this month that at least seven children died under the lax supervision of ACS caseworkers in the past year, with staffers encouraged to keep children in potentially abusive homes and offer troubled families services rather than launching investigations that could save young lives.
The tragic tots were as young as one month when they met horrific ends. Cases included several kids who starved to death inside homes where ACS either returned them to their parents or were allowed to remain despite allegations of mistreatment, the report found.
The soft approach by ACS is based on an initiative adopted by the agency in recent years known as CARES, or Collaborative Assessment, Response, Engagement and Support.
“There’s been a lot about this program called CARES,” Strauber said, “but as of now we don’t have access. This is yet another blind spot.
“We won’t be able to evaluate if that program is working the way it is supposed to work,” she added. “Obviously there are unique interests with the privacy of families, but in our view when there’s a risk to children there should be transparency and oversight.
“What we are really focused on is the systemic issues. We are not looking to re-traumatize these families.”
New York State Social Services Law shields ACS from outside scrutiny — even if the agency goofed by not removing a child from an abusive home or launching an investigation into the parents.
DOI officials are looking for help from Albany, and are backing a bill introduced this month by state Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Queens) that looks to remove the ACS blinders.
“Even though child fatality cases known to ACS have declined 18% within the last decade, out of an abundance of caution this bill will provide the professionals from the NYD Department of Investigation access to confidential records to assist in their investigations,” Hevesi said.
The bill would allow more scrutiny of child fatalities and incidents inside juvenile detention facilities — but it has yet to find a required sponsor in the state senate.
In a statement to The Post on Monday, a spokesperson for ACS said the agency “look[s] forward to further discussions about the bill,” and addressed the DOI push for more access.
“ACS is committed to transparency, and we appreciate the important oversight role of DOI,” they said.