At a regularly scheduled meeting, city council members also addressed legislation that would better inform parents about their legal rights
New York City leaders are now considering legislation that would provide counseling for children who return home from foster care, and a second bill that would ensure parents know their legal rights at the earliest possible stage of CPS intervention.
At a public hearing today, the city council spent much of its time debating how best to prevent foster care removals, and to instead support families experiencing hardship.
But briefer conversations toward the end of the meeting centered on reforms already in the works.
The bill to address post-foster care mental health is sponsored by Councilmember Pierina Ana Sanchez. It calls for the Commissioner of Health and Mental Hygiene in collaboration with the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) to provide no-cost, “culturally appropriate” mental health services to children reunified with their families after being pulled from home.
“The time that my daughter spent away from us was 10 months, but felt like an eternity,” Maria Hernandez testified at today’s hearing.
Hernandez said she saw her daughter’s personality change drastically after being in foster care — she suffered from separation anxiety and had trouble sleeping at night. Her mother implored city council members to recognize that parents also need therapy after being separated from their kids.
“It is essential for not just children but parents to have free, quality, non-invasive mental health services available when they are ready to process the family separation they went through,” she said, “because the grief that we experience is not linear and does not stop.”
Under the legislation, once a pilot program runs for a year, the commissioner of Health and Mental Hygiene must submit a report on the cost, barriers and successes of the program and whether it should be expanded. Mental health services will be free for up to a year for each child.
“It is essential for not just children but parents to have free, quality, non-invasive mental health services available when they are ready to process the family separation they went through, because the grief that we experience is not linear and does not stop.”
— PARENT MARIA HERNANDEZ
Ericka Brewington, a mother from Harlem, described the difficulties her kids had to overcome. She said both her children were “bullied” in their foster care placements, and her son, who has autism, felt neglected in his foster home.
But caring for him has not been easy, she added.
“The therapist I had called ACS on me. So how can I trust any therapist?” Brewington said. “ACS does not get to use this as another way to spy on my family.”
Other speakers at today’s meeting also discussed concerns about mandated mental health services provided through the child welfare agency, noting that it may hamper candidness.
Jesse McGleughlin, policy counsel at The Bronx Defenders, said her clients are often reluctant to share their emotional struggles with caseworkers, due to fears that their private information will be used in a case against them.
“Requiring a parent to engage in services by an agency contracting with ACS — in other words, the prosecuting agency — does not build trust between parents and service providers,” said McGleughlin, whose firm represents parents facing maltreatment cases in the family courts.
Councilmember Diana Ayala’s bill tackles a different gap in the child welfare system. It would require the child welfare agency to provide information to parents about how to access legal services at the very onset of an investigation.
Currently, the city’s child welfare agency provides publicly available information about legal resources on its website. And caseworkers are directed to inform parents at the onset of investigation about their rights to deny entry to CPS workers without a court order.
“It is not our practice to threaten families. This is part of the reason it’s so important that we are informing families about calling an attorney early on. We always need to make sure the families have access to someone who talks about their rights.”
— Jess Dannhauser, Administration for Children’s Services
The proposed bill would go further, mandating that the agency have lists of legal service providers in each neighborhood, and conduct an annual review of their performance.
At today’s meeting, Administration for Children’s Services Commissioner Jess Dannhauser pointed to his agency’s recent ‘Know Your Rights’ initiative, and explained that current practice involves caseworkers handing out cards that inform parents about their legal rights.
That policy also began as a pilot program, and was expanded citywide in May.
“It is not our practice to threaten families,” Dannhauser said. “This is part of the reason it’s so important that we are informing families about calling an attorney early on. We always need to make sure the families have access to someone who talks about their rights.”
Chair of the Committee on Children and Youth Althea Stevens doubled down with tough questions directed at the commissioner, pointing to conversations she had with some advocates and parents who complained that CPS workers often were not providing this information.
“I’m hearing that is not happening on a regular basis,” Stevens said. “Sometimes I think we get disconnected, especially if we have staff who have been there for a long time and it hasn’t been something that has been done before.”
Dannhauser acknowledged that some parents may not be initially directed to legal counsel, particularly in roughly 9% of child abuse and neglect cases, when the agency’s Instant Response Team is called in for situations involving sexual abuse or abandonment.
Both bills are currently awaiting further action, and will need a majority vote from the full city council in order to get to the Mayor’s desk.
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