A state watchdog is calling out shortcomings at New York’s Office of Children and Family Services — concerns that range from a lack of thorough child fatality reviews to limited record-keeping of rejected calls at the state-run child protection hotline.
“We suggested increased monitoring, because this is such an important area — children who are potentially being abused,” said Deputy Comptroller Tina Kim, who works in the Division of State Government Accountability at the New York State Comptroller’s Office. “We want to make sure that basically everything that can be done, is done.”
The Comptroller’s report released last month adds to mounting scrutiny of the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment, which was also the focus of an hourslong public hearing in the state Capitol earlier this month.
The Comptroller’s office acknowledged improvements the state child welfare agency has made since its initial recommendations early last year. The agency has updated its hotline practices to better account for why certain calls did not result in a report to Child Protective Services, and provided training in documentation to all new employees.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the state Office of Children and Family Services, Karen Male, said the agency is “committed to careful execution” of the Comptroller’s recommendations and is “actively working” to improve case file documentation across the state.
Other critiques of the hotline
The Comptroller’s report lands amid growing calls for reform at the early stages of the child welfare system, when allegations of abuse and neglect are first reported by mandated reporters and the general public to the state-run hotline.
At an Oct. 9 Assembly hearing at the Capitol in Albany, state officials were criticized for poor screening practices and passing along too many unfounded reports for county CPS workers to investigate. Those investigations — particularly when they turn up no sign of maltreatment — can be terrifying for parents and children alike, advocates and family members said. Others testified about overly rigid mandated reporting laws, and racial disparities that rope too many families of color into the foster care system.
Cherriese Bufis-Scott, a mother from Rochester, told lawmakers and public officials about the dozens of unfounded investigations she was subjected to over four years, each time stemming from anonymous calls to the hotline that she said were phoned in as a form of harassment.
“To listen to lies every other week and have your children questioned in fear of removal is an additional form of trauma every single call,” Bufis-Scott said.
The Assembly hearing followed the release of a NYC Family Project report in March that set off new alarms.
The report showed that half of all hotline calls nationwide are “screened out,” or determined to fall short of requiring CPS follow-up. But in New York State, 75% of calls are referred to local child welfare agencies for a home investigation. Of those calls — nearly 80% in New York City alone — most turn out to be unfounded or false, according to data compiled by the project’s co-founder, Nora McCarthy.
Keeping better track of claims of abuse
The Comptroller’s audits focus on a different issue. The reports released in January 2023 and again last month focus on problems with logging calls that do not result in CPS investigations, and how the agency can ensure that authentic claims of child abuse and neglect are not overlooked.
Since last year, the state child welfare agency reports it has created five additional “closure codes,” which detail why a complaint of maltreatment at the hotline did not result in a report. The information includes specific reasons the case was closed, such as the subject of a report who is at least 18 years old, out of state, or not in any “imminent danger.”
But the Office of the State Comptroller said there are other shortcomings, and recommends that the state keep call records in the system for a longer period of time.
“The limited time OCFS maintains call records — only 75 days — restricts the ability to thoroughly investigate non-report calls, which may contain crucial details that could impact the safety of a child,” Deputy Comptroller Kim said.
The September audit includes a contrary response from the Office of Children and Family Services. Child welfare agency officials “believe the current retention period is adequate and will not be adjusting it,” the Comptroller report stated.
Making some progress
The audit also examined how well reports of child fatalities across the state are documented. It described the ongoing need for standardized practices across the state and a new case review form, changes the state child welfare agency launched in February and aims to complete by year’s end. The audit also criticized inconsistent practices and recommended a centralized, statewide system.
Emily Putnam-Hornstein, a social work professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill who specializes in analysis of large child welfare databases, has researched child fatality reports across the nation for her Lives Cut Short project.
“The state is doing better than many, but there’s room for improvement,” she said. “Transparency can help our system do better with children and families.”
But Putnam-Hornstein praised New York for being one of the few states that releases longer and more detailed summaries of child deaths, and for including a family’s previous history with the child welfare system in its fatality reports. Not all reports are released to the public, however.
She also emphasized the importance of documenting death cases as soon as possible. Officials in New York and some other states often wait to release summaries until after a fatality investigation has been completed, and they’ve determined the report would have no “detrimental effects.” In contrast, Rhode Island and Nevada issue public notifications for near-fatalities and fatalities soon after the incident, which makes it easier to identify patterns.
“If all those deaths are reported two years from now, when criminal prosecution is completed,” said Putnam-Hornstein, “you can’t go back and say, ‘What was going on during that six-month period’ with the same intentionality of understanding and potentially fixing problems that may have existed.”