Separating Child Poverty from Child Neglect

By Crystal Charles, Senior Policy Manager

Every year in New York, over 140,000 reports are made to the Statewide Central Register for child protective services. The vast majority of these reports (76%) are determined unfounded—only after an invasive, often traumatic investigation has been conducted. Even cases that are determined founded are mostly neglect-only (not abuse), which is often confused with poverty. Almost half of the families that are separated nationwide (47%) had trouble paying for basic necessities.[1] New York’s child welfare system’s racial bias is evident in the severe disproportionality present in who is reported to the Statewide Central Register, who is separated, and who ends up spending their childhood in institutions—for example, Black children are five times as likely and Latino children are twice as likely as white children to be in foster care placement.[2]

Separating a family already experiencing poverty and its impacts (i.e. housing instability, mental health challenges) compounds the trauma the family is experiencing, which can persist for generations. In order to break this vicious cycle, there are some key solutions New York can implement:

• Revise mandated reporting law(s)
• Narrow the definition of neglect [4]
• Unify family-serving state agencies in prioritizing providing families with economic and concrete supports [5]
• Require caseworkers to inform families of their rights at first contact
• Change reporting to confidential instead of anonymous
• Ensure new parents are informed of their rights before they and/or their babies are drug tested

To learn more about the work to end child poverty in New York, see this post from New York Can End Child Poverty.

Sources

1. Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality and Mental Health America. 2020. Reimagining Behavioral Health: A New Vision for Whole-Family, Whole-Community Behavioral Health. https://www.georgetownpoverty.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Georgetown-Behavioral-Health-03022020-online.pdf
2. Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy. 2024. Fostering Transparency and Accountability in New York’s Child Welfare System. https://scaany.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Fostering-Transparency-and-Accountability-in-New-Yorks-Child-Welfare-System.pdf
3. New York Civil Liberties Union. 2023. ‘Never Designed to Help’: How New York’s ‘Child Welfare’ System Preys on Families. https://www.nyclu.org/commentary/never-designed-help-how-new-yorks-child-welfare-system-preys-families
4. Child Trends. 2022. In Defining Maltreatment, Nearly Half of States Do Not Specifically Exempt Families’ Financial Inability to Provide. https://www.childtrends.org/publications/in-defining-maltreatment-nearly-half-of-states-do-not-specifically-exempt-families-financial-inability-to-provide
5. Chapin Hall. 2023. Report: National Survey Assesses Use of Economic and Concrete Supports to Prevent Child Welfare System Involvement. https://www.chapinhall.org/research/economic-concrete-supports-survey/