CFR Presented with a $7,500 Grant
“Funding from the New York Bar Foundation enables CFR to provide free legal and social work services to vulnerable families whose children are at risk of foster care.”
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News
Protecting children in the age of COVID: ACS must change its approach
“As this virus continues to threaten our communities, decisionmakers at the ACS must approach the families it has separated with the same urgency and common sense that advocates are demanding of our criminal legal system.”
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Law in the Time of COVID-19
“The COVID-19 pandemic has already wrecked greater havoc in poor neighborhoods of color, where pre-existing conditions exacerbate the disease’s spread. Crowded housing and homelessness, less access to health care and insurance, and underlying health conditions are all factors that worsen the chances of remaining healthy.”
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Top Federal Child Welfare Officials: Family is a Compelling Reason
“The interruptions and delays that have already taken place in our efforts to serve children and families during the initial weeks of the public health crisis do not grant any of us permission to forgo making reasonable efforts to keep families together or reunite them as fast as safely possible.”
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NY Limits Access to Parents’ Names on Child Abuse And Neglect Registry
“When I was younger I wanted to be a guidance counselor for middle school students, but I couldn’t go in because I knew I had this history,” said Hope Lyzette Newton, Parent Advocate at CFR, who once had her name on the register.
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COVID-19 Creates Deep Uncertainty in NYC’s Child-Welfare System
“Even clients who were having unsupervised day visits or overnight visits have seen their contact changed in pretty significant ways.”
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Backfire: When Reporting Domestic Violence Means You Get Investigated for Child Abuse
"Lawyers who represent parents in New York City Family Courts often argue that ACS practices would not be tolerated in communities with money or political influence...It’s a one-size-fits-all, bullying approach."
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Poor and at risk of losing their kids: Moms and dads under ACS investigation deserve more legal help
“Poor New Yorkers of color aren’t receiving the same access to justice that wealthy families do, and the city agency charged with supporting families, the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), wants it to stay that way.”
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Hope Newton to City Council: “All parents NEED legal counsel at the very beginning of an investigation”
“If ACS has the right to come into my home and remove children, I should have the right to legal counsel to guide e through the process during the investigate phase of the case. As someone who successfully cleared their name through the State Central Registry, I know it would have changed the outcome.”
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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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