ARTICLE TAG

Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York

3/16/2020

Child Welfare, Adoption Conference Schedule Impacted by Coronavirus Closures

March through May is generally one of the peak times to hold a child welfare conference. But the coronavirus pandemic that has cancelled schools, sporting events and even closed restaurants and non-essential businesses, has also put a halt to those events.

2/27/2020

A 20-Year Fostering Reflection From One Foster and Adoptive Mom

In 2000, we became foster parents with the arrival of a 5-week-old baby girl whom we adopted nearly three years later. I began taking notes that first year trying to make sense of the experience and later turned that into a book, “Another Mother: Co-Parenting with the Foster Care System.” 

Pat O'Brien foster adoptive parent new york affcny

2/18/2020

Q&A: Pat O’Brien on Leaving a Place He Founded, Suing The State, and What Comes Next for New York Foster Parents

An innovator in the field of adoption has taken the reins at one of the largest advocacy groups for foster and adoptive parents in New York. The Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York (AFFCNY) announced Pat O’Brien as executive director in December.

11/19/2019

New York Set Adoptees’ Birth Certificates Free Last Week, Advocates See Path for Other States

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) ended decades of secrecy around adoptions in New York on Thursday, signing a landmark reform bill to allow adult adoptees unrestricted access to their original birth certificates.

New york savino ellen jaffee cuomo wallace kinship relatives children family

11/5/2019

New York Boosts Support For Relatives Caring for Neglected Kids

In 2013, a volunteer for an upstate New York legal aid office met with a couple  planning to take in two girls — the daughters of the wife’s sister, who was struggling with drug addiction.

8/15/2019

Prominent New York Foster and Adoptive Parent Advocate Steps Down

The executive director of the largest and most politically engaged foster and adoptive parent organization in New York announced he’s leaving after four and a half years in the role. “I am writing to share with you that I am winding down my work at the Coalition and will be pursuing my commitment to families and children in another capacity,” wrote Richard Heyl de Ortiz of the Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York (AFFCNY), in a Tuesday e-mail addressed to colleagues and friends.

    rights new york cuomo parent contact

    6/21/2019

    Bill to Expand Contact for Parents Who Lose Rights To Kids Awaits Cuomo’s Signature in New York

    New York State lawmakers approved legislation this week that would allow judges to order contact between parents and children, after the court severs the parent’s rights due to child abuse or neglect.

    7/10/2018

    “Letters to the Editor, Live” Convenes Child Welfare Stakeholders to Discuss Media Coverage

    The Imprint recently hosted its first event in New York City, soliciting live “letters to the editor” to spark conversation about what’s missing from media coverage of child welfare. Family defense lawyers, reporters, adoptive parents, caseworkers and former foster youth shared their insights during the June 27 panel, which was moderated by The Imprint’s northeast editor Michael Fitzgerald and held at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

    12/21/2017

    New York Struggles to Meet Federal Mandates on School Transportation for Foster Youth

    Danielle DeMaison woke before sunrise one foggy morning last April and loaded her two daughters into her 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe. Even though the cornstalk-lined roads around her little hamlet of Sanborn on the western edge of New York state were mostly empty, it took DeMaison four hours to get her biological and foster daughters to their separate schools.