Panel Recommends Fundamental Changes in New York City Child Welfare

PRESS RELEASE

Sets Timetable; City Progress Will Be Monitored

The Advisory Panel established by the settlement of the child welfare reform lawsuit, Marisol v. Giuliani, issued a report on the placement of children in foster care today, calling for a wide range of fundamental changes in the way the city child welfare agency, Administration for Children's Services (ACS), takes care of children.

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Calling much of the city's child welfare practices "unclear and unevenly monitored," (p.5) and finding that agency staff "too often lack the systemic supports" and "very much in need of systems that will help them know what resources are available and how well those resources correspond to the needs of children," the Panel proposed a series of "Improvement Goals" and "Action Requirements" that are intended to fundamentally alter the way the agency places and plans for children.

In its discussion, the Panel noted the unnecessary trauma often experienced by children entering placement, including being moved from one place to another, and being taken out of their homes without personal belongings, a change of clothes or familiar toys, and of parents being deprived of prompt contact with children, or even waiting days without knowing where the child has been taken or who is responsible for her. [p. 17]

"As we've said all along, ACS has repeatedly announced good plans, but has lacked the ability to implement them," said Marcia Robinson Lowry, director of Children's Rights Inc., and counsel for plaintiffs. "We believe this settlement process will provide ACS with the specific assistance it needs to finally make good on its promises, and bring benefits to children much more quickly, or will result in a return to court where we think we are likely to get court action informed precisely by the agency's failures. We are encouraged that the panel has concluded that ACS acknowledges its problems and has the capacity to address them. The key is what ACS actually produces and we fully expect that the panel will hold ACS to rigorous standards in judging whether they produce benefits for children."

Karen Freedman, Executive Director of Lawyers for Children, and co-counsel for Marisol plaintiffs said, "The expertise of this panel has been highlighted by its ability to identify the crucial areas in the placement process that continue to traumatize children and families. I am confident that the panel's determination to expedite reform will translate into rigorous scrutiny of ACS's progress in implementing the panel's recommendations for change."

The four-member Panel was created by the innovative settlement agreement approved by the court in January 1999 in the class action lawsuit, Marisol v. Giuliani. Under that agreement the Panel has full access to all ACS records and personnel, to evaluate the city's progress toward reform, to present recommendations about what additional steps the city should take, and then to report on the city's progress. The consequence of a Panel finding that, in its judgment, ACS has failed to make good faith efforts toward reform, is a return to court, with the plaintiffs seeking a judgment from the court in the area or areas affected. Under those circumstances, the Panel will testify against the city, with its findings as presumptive evidence of the lack of good faith.

One specific section of the settlement, and of the Panels' report, deals with issues that have particular legal significance because they reflect legal obligations from a long-standing lawsuit that has been dismissed and its provisions incorporated into this settlement, Wilder v. Bernstein. Recommendations based on these Wilder obligations are directly enforceable in court if the Panel finds that the city is not making good faith efforts to comply. The Panel chose to incorporate many of its most significant recommendations under Wilder, giving them added weight.

The key Panel recommendations that are now directly enforceable are:

ACS must establish policy guidelines, practice manuals and training materials setting out the criteria to be used in selecting placements for children and how to balance them, by September 30, 1999, ensure that all staff are familiar with them by November 30, 1999, and design and implement appropriate tracking mechanisms to ensure these criteria are used by January 15, 2000.

ACS must create an annual report on children coming into placement, broken down by race, ethnicity, religion, sex, age, and special needs, providing data on referrals, acceptances and admissions, by February 15, 2000, and promptly take correction action if the report demonstrates any inequality in treatment.

ACS must establish guidelines for the collecting of information about children coming into placement by September 15, 1999, must implement a plan to ensure all staff are familiar with these guidelines by December 15, 1999, and must design and implement a process to ensure that the information is being collected and utilized by January 31, 2000.

ACS must develop plans to ensure family case conferences immediately after the child is placed (from 72 hours to five days) by June 30, 199, have begun conducting these conferences citywide by December 31, 1999, and must ensure that they are held for 85% of all new foster care admissions by November 30, 2000.

ACS must thoroughly review the organization of its staffing and its organizational units, including staff locations, job descriptions and responsibilities, and physical location of staff, to address the problems concerning how children are placed, how a child's case is handled and who is responsible for the child.

ACS must plan and develop 30 day permanency family case conferences that will include necessary participants and appropriate structure and guidelines to address planning for the child by November 30, 1999, and begin to implement these conferences city-wide by April 1, 2000; and conduct these conferences for 85% of all new foster care admissions by November 30, 2000.

ACS must develop concrete guidelines on the use of kinship placements and ensure that all staff are aware of them by March 1, 2000.

In addition, the Panel has also recommended that
ACS implement the following key recommendations, which will be subject to judicial review if the Panel finds that ACS has failed to make good faith efforts to implement either these recommendations or otherwise reform the areas to which the recommendations are directed:

ACS should determine what additional placement and pre-placement resources needed by children and families, that are not currently being provided, and when and how it will provide them, by October 15, 1999, and report on its progress in providing those resources and accomplishing this plan, by July 1, 2000.

ACS should work with other government agencies to develop other sources of funding, and to use funding more flexibly in providing necessary placement and pre-placement resources for children and families.

ACS should develop and implement procedures to reduce trauma for children and families when children come into placement by November 15, 1999, and create a reporting mechanism and begin to report on the effectiveness of these new procedures by February 15, 2000.

ACS should identify key measures of performance that should be required by agencies caring for children by July 15, 1999, and by April 15, 2000, begin to report on these quality measures.
Counsel for plaintiffs in the Marisol case noted that many of these recommendations and requirements had been announced by ACS in its December, 1996, reform plan, but had still not been implemented.

ABOUT MARISOL V. GIULIANI

The federal civil rights lawsuit, Marisol v. Giuliani, filed December 13, 1995 by CRI and LFC, was certified as a class action on behalf of an estimated 100,000 New York City children who are either 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 for the Second Circuit upheld on appeal the class certification.

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.