News

February 17, 2023

NYC Parents Rally Against Mandated Reporting Policies for Educators

Teyora Graves-Ferrell, a parent advocate at CFR, is quoted in this piece about a rally calling for New York State to eliminate mandatory reporting practices in "child welfare."

December 29, 2022

Family Miranda law gains traction, advocates call out racist ACS practices

Ari Chiarella, a social work supervisor and co-director of CFR's Queens family defense practice, and Teyora Graves, a parent advocate supervisor at CFR, were interviewed for this Amsterdam News piece on Family Miranda and an internal ACS audit that revealed racially-biased practices.

December 12, 2022

Opinion: Stop tearing America’s families apart

CFR Executive Director Michele Cortese—along with leaders from the Bronx Defenders, Neighborhood Defender Service, and Brooklyn Defender Services—wrote an op-ed for the Daily News about the harms of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA).

December 2, 2022

NYC children’s agency buries report that details racial bias in its ranks

Ysmerlyn Murshed, a social work supervisor at CFR, and Teyora Graves, a parent advocate supervisor at CFR, were interviewed for a Gothamist piece about an ACS internal audit that revealed that workers themselves feel the agency’s mandate to ensure the welfare of the city’s children is severely undermined by systemic racial bias.

November 29, 2022

Report: ACS Knows It Has Pervasive Racial Bias

The New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) has a racial bias problem, and it is one that is so obvious that the organization was outed by one of its own reports. Included is a quote from Michele Cortese, Executive Director of the Center for Family Representation.

November 23, 2022

Public Defenseless Podcast: The Need for Holistic Family Representation

In this episode, Hunter Parnell speaks with CFR's Parent Advocate Supervisor Teyora Graves-Ferrell, Social Work Supervisor Ysmerlyn Murshed, and Senior Staff Attorney Vasili Stotis.

October 10, 2022

Letter to the Editor: Pandemic Spending Kept Families Together

"Dismantling the pandemic safety net will plunge at-risk families back into financial distress. We fear that child welfare involvement will return to prepandemic levels because poverty is often mistaken for neglect," Center for Family Representation Executive Director Michele Cortese said.

June 20, 2022

Staffing Shortages Could Impact Lowest-Income Citizens’ Right to Legal Counsel

"This chronic underfunding of our work not only impacts our staff but also has a disproportionately negative impact on low-income families and communities of color," Center for Family Representation Executive Director Michele Cortese said.

April 4, 2022

CFR Presented with a $6,937 Grant

“Funding from the New York Bar Foundation enables CFR to provide free legal and social work services to vulnerable families to address issues that disrupt their stable housing and public benefits, impacting their ability to keep their families together.”

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Common Terms We Use

Learn more about the common terms we use at CFR and why we choose to use certain language like the family policing system instead of the child welfare system in order to accurately reflect the reality that thousands of Black and Brown families experience every day.

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Common Terms We Use

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