Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
AGENCY TESTIMONY
Improvements in child safety and protection efforts
0:09:41
·
176 sec
Commissioner Dannhauser details the progress made in ACS's efforts to keep children safe, including reduced caseloads for child protection specialists and enhanced training programs. He emphasizes the agency's focus on thorough and compassionate responses to child safety concerns.
- Child protection specialist caseloads have dropped from 9.9 in April 2022 to 7.7 in April 2025, below the national standard of 12.
- ACS has implemented extended on-the-job learning periods and enhanced training for child protection specialists.
- The agency has seen an 18% decline in child fatalities in families involved with ACS over the past decade compared to the previous decade's average.
Jess Dannhauser
0:09:41
We've made important progress in our efforts to keep children safe.
0:09:44
Throughout the Adams administration, ACS has been laser focused on ensuring that the agency has enough child protection specialists to be able to be thorough, thoughtful, timely, and responsive.
0:09:54
As a result, we have seen caseloads drop from an average of 9.9 in April 2022 to just 7.7 in April 25, well below the recommended national standard of 12.
0:10:05
Our frontline child protective specialists come into contact with thousands of children and families each year.
0:10:11
Each response is conducted with the utmost compassion and care, and each child is carefully assessed by our highly trained workers.
0:10:17
If an investigation determines that a child is not safe, our frontline workers take action, working closely with law enforcement, child advocacy centers, the court system, and other stakeholders to protect the safety of the child.
0:10:30
To equip our staff for the skills they need to perform this difficult work, we have enhanced our training and added an extended period of on the job learning that allows new child protective specialists to deepen their skills, gain practical casework knowledge, and fully experience the day to day job of child protection before assuming a full caseload.
0:10:49
During this extended period new child protective specialists are assigned cases of their own through a structured process with close and intensive guidance provided by the unit supervisor, managers, and senior workers who serve as mentors.
0:11:02
Additionally, ACS continues to build career long learning into the lives of its child protected checking teams.
0:11:08
We've added training and support on maternal mental health for all of our frontline staff, and we have instituted new courses on the skillful engagement of young people and parents, where we enroll thousands of staff in training programs on the skillful assessment of child safety, effective investigative practices, and how to identify and assess substance misuse.
0:11:27
We've seen child fatalities in families involved with ACS in the last ten years decline by eighteen percent during this administration compared to the average over the prior decade.
0:11:36
As we continue to evaluate and review this work, we recently began convening a multidisciplinary panel of experts external to ACS to review fatality cases so that their outside expertise can further enhance our work.
0:11:49
Protecting children also requires us to go upstream and build trust in communities so that families seek support and get what they need before their circumstances become potentially unsafe.
0:11:59
In 2023, ACS established the ACS support line to connect families to services without a child protection response.
0:12:07
There has been a 500% increase in calls to the ACS support line for families seeking connections to prevention services in the last year.
0:12:15
We also refer them to a plethora of services outside of the child welfare system.
0:12:19
We cannot allow fear to isolate families and place children at risk.
0:12:23
This is why we have worked with schools, shelters, and hospitals to connect families to appropriate help before a crisis occurs.
0:12:29
It is also why we've been working to open 30 family enrichment centers where any family can walk in for help and connections to a supportive community.