Expert Panel Calls for Change in How New York City Monitors and Improves the Performance of Child We

PRESS RELEASE

(New York, NY October 15, 1999) The Special Child Welfare Advisory Panel (the "Panel") appointed as a result of the settlement in the class action lawsuit, Marisol v. Giuliani, today released its third set of recommendations concerning necessary changes in the New York City's child welfare system, Administration for Children's Services (ACS). The Panel's new report addresses monitoring and improving the performance of agencies with which ACS contracts.

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Noting that these agencies are critical participants in the provision of services to children, the Panel issues a set of recommendations that should:

*Alter substantially the process by which New York City evaluates their performance;
*Impact significantly the expansion, limiting, or even termination, of agency contracts;
*Affect which children get placed in which agency programs;
*Alter the long-standing agency reimbursement system.

Protective and Preventive Services

The Panel highlighted a key systemic problem in ACS: the lack of coordination between protective services, which involves investigation and determination of charges of abuse and neglect, and preventive services, which are supposed to provide services and supervision to families and children who have not been placed in foster care. That same problem was cited two years ago in a report conducted by court-appointed experts in preparation for trial in Marisol v. Giuliani. Those experts found that in 43% of all cases reviewed, additional substantiated reports of child abuse or maltreatment were recorded after ACS protective oversight began.

In its report released today, the Panel noted that:

Unlike the practice in virtually every other jurisdiction we know of, there has been no continuing protective services involvement in New York City when higher-risk cases receive preventive services from a contract agency. There is little capacity within ACS to step in quickly if, for example, a mother stops attending a drug treatment program or simply withdraws from preventive services altogether.

The Panel stated that it "suspected" that this kind of structural problem reflects "systemic avoidance of preventive services for those higher-risk families who are most in need of help to avoid foster care." Other significant problems were noted in the use of preventive services programs and agencies to avoid foster care, to facilitate a child's safe reunification with his or her family, and to stabilize adoptions in which children are at risk of being returned to foster care.

The Panel makes a number of recommendations to ACS, asking the agency to:

*Develop a plan to improve the utilization of preventive services;
*Develop service standards, reimbursement, case management, coordination by June 1, 2000;
*Implement the plan substantially by October 1, 2000.

"The absence of preventive services to protect children left in their own homes, or to protect children returned from foster care and subject to potential abuse, like Marisol herself, has long been a significant failing in the New York City system," stated Marcia Robinson Lowry, executive director of Children's Rights, a national non-profit advocacy organization that, along with Lawyers for Children, represents the plaintiff children in the Marisol lawsuit. "Options for children who have been abused or neglected have all too often been limited to foster care or potential danger at home. These recommendations should be the beginning of the process to end this very significant problem."

Foster Care

The Panel also makes recommendations concerning ACS oversight of contract agencies that provide foster care services. Noting that ACS has developed a range of monitoring devices to assess agency practices, the Panel recommends that those monitoring devices now be adjusted to ensure that the City is measuring agencies on whether they are meeting ACS expectations. The Panel recommends that ACS introduce quality performance standards into its monitoring process and that it use these standards and the contracting process to ensure that higher rated agencies expand the number of children they care for, while agencies not performing adequately get smaller.

The Panel also recommends that ACS implement an alternative reimbursement system for foster care by July 1, 2000, that better aligns financial incentives with policy goals.

"These recommendations address fundamental problems that have hindered the city from ensuring that the $1.6 billion in public money spent annually on these contracts actually produce the highest quality services for children," Ms. Lowry stated. This issue that has been neglected for far too long. The key now will be how the City implements these recommendations, which build on many of this administration's own policy initiatives and expressed goals."

Under the Marisol settlement, the Panel will monitor the City's implementation of all of its recommendations in this report, in its two previous reports, and in a remaining report. If the city fails to make adequate progress, the Panel can issue a finding to that effect, in which case the plaintiffs will return to court for further action, with the Panel members as expert witnesses.

About Marisol v. Giuliani

The federal civil rights lawsuit, Marisol v. Giuliani, filed in December 1995 by Children's Rights and Lawyers for Children, was certified as a class action on behalf of an estimated 100,000 New York City children who are in the City's foster care system or reported as abused and neglected. The suit by plaintiffs broke new legal ground by extending the constitutional rights of all children affected by a child welfare system. Previously, courts recognized the right to constitutional protections for children in State custody, but had not extended those rights to children in danger of abuse and neglect but still living at home. The U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit upheld on appeal the class certification.

Children's Rights works throughout the United States in partnership with national and local experts, advocates and government officials to document the needs of children in the care of the interlocking systems of foster care, juvenile justice, and mental health. Children's Rights helps develop realistic solutions and, where necessary, uses the power of litigation to ensure that reform takes place.

Lawyers for Children, Inc. founded in 1984, provides free legal and social work services to children before the courts in foster care, abuse and neglect, termination of parental rights, and custody proceedings. LFC's experience in providing direct services to over 15,000 children has led to a commitment to impact litigation and innovative projects which enhance LFC's ability to advocate for and protect children in foster care.

Children's Rights works throughout the United States in partnership with national and local experts, advocates and government officials to document the needs of children in the care of child welfare systems. Children's Rights helps develop realistic solutions and, where necessary, uses the power of litigation to ensure that reform takes place.