Child welfare in New York City: Rebellion on the horizon?

THE CITY's outstanding examination of
"mandatory reporting" (And in case anyone doubts
that "child welfare" agencies like New York's 
Administration for Children's Services are 
"family police" - take a look at that car.)

This week the New York City online news site THE CITY published one of the best dissections I’ve ever read concerning the enormous harm of “mandatory reporting” laws. Those are the laws that require workers in scores of professions to report their slightest suspicion of “abuse” or “neglect” to family police agencies.  I included excerpts from THE CITY’s story in our weekly news round-up. 

Now, however, I want to focus on one part of the story that may be of particular interest to advocates in New York City.  It concerns an organization called Safe Horizon which, as the story points out 

runs both the city’s domestic abuse hotline and its child advocacy centers, where children who may be victims of sexual and severe physical abuse are interviewed by detectives, pediatricians and child protective investigators. 

The domestic abuse hotline is separate from the child abuse hotline which is run by New York State. Child advocacy centers can do a lot of good. But they, and their trade association, also often do a lot of harm.  Here’s a case in point.  Another example: Their role at the epicenter of promoting the pandemic of fear concerning child abuse and COVID-19. 

In light of the track record of some of these centers in general and the history of Safe Horizon in particular. what might be a bit of a rebellion on the part of the rank-and-file is striking. 

First some context: 

Of all those who suffer from mandatory reporting laws, those who suffer most might be survivors of domestic violence and their children. The trauma inflicted on children by needless investigation and removal is even worse in such cases than in others. That’s why it’s actually illegal in New York to tear a child from a mother whose only “crime” is to have “allowed” the child to see her being beaten. 

Of course, just because it’s illegal doesn’t mean it’s stopped. And another lawsuit is challenging the other ways in which the city harasses domestic violence survivors.  

Most tragically, all this stops survivors from coming forward – because of the sadly reasonable fear that seeking help will lead to their children being taken. (When we get to the history section, we’ll have a case in point.) So at a bare minimum, people who work with survivors should be allowed to exercise their professional judgment in determining when to report and when not to report. Incredibly, Safe Horizon seems to have no confidence in its own staff to do just that.  And that brings us to … 

… something that sounds like a rebellion 

As THE CITY reports: 

At [a New York State Assembly] hearing on mandated reporting in 2023, Megha Sardana, a representative from Safe Horizon … testified that she and many of her colleagues experience the mandate to report as a barrier to trust that  “prevents us from really providing that support and access to healing for families.” 

“We have staff who describe the wounds that they experience as mandated reporters as moral injury and that they carry these stories with them for years and even decades later and are haunted by the calls that they have made to the [State Central Register],” she added. 

During the question-and-answer period, Sardana felt so strongly that she went rogue, veering from Safe Horizon’s official policies to state: “If I’m answering as an individual rather than as a representative of Safe Horizon, I don’t think mandated reporting can be reformed. I believe that it should be abolished.” 

She added that other Safe Horizon employees had discussed asking for an exemption from mandated reporting from the state for people working with domestic violence victims — a request that top Safe Horizon leadership made clear in an interview with THE CITY they were not making at this time. [Emphasis added.] 

To understand Safe Hrizon’s apparent distrust of its own staff, we need to delve into … 

… the history 

I first became aware of Safe Horizon in early 2006. I was in New York City a few months after the death of Nixzmary Brown, a tragedy that set off a huge, media-fueled foster-care panic. In fact, you couldn’t not be aware of Safe Horizon then. In the wake of Nixznary’s death, they plastered the city’s busses and subways with ads like this one, featuring Mariska Hargitay, star of Law and Order SVU. 

A major way Safe Horizon suggested turning your outrage and grief into action was by donating to Safe Horizon. At the time their website had four different “donate” links (including the Hargitay image) before you got halfway down the homepage. 

Click on Hargitay’s image and, along with the pitch for money, you got to this claim: 

More than 50,000 cases of abuse and neglect are reported each year in New York City. 

In fact, the 50,000 figure was the number of calls alleging some form of “abuse and neglect” referred from the state hotline to the city family police agency for investigation.  The overwhelming majority were false, and the overwhelming majority of the rest were “neglect” which often means poverty. 

Safe Horizon is not much more subtle today – referring to seven million children who “come to the attention” of family police agencies nationwide – a figure that is, in fact, the total number of calls received by child abuse “hotlines.” Of that seven million roughly two percent turn out to be cases in which a caseworker checked a box on the form indicating it was at least slightly more likely than not that physical or sexual abuse occurred. 

The scare number is followed by a list of “Signs of Child Abuse” that includes almost every possible negative change in a child’s behavior.  The website describes these as “common” signs of abuse. There is not even the usual boilerplate note of caution that these could be  “signs” of anything other than child abuse. 

The Fairstein Factor 

Linda Fairstein

In addition to Hargitay, back in 2006, the Safe Horizon website featured an endorsement from Linda Fairstein, who called Safe Horizon 

the organization that does more than any other to help New Yorkers feel safe in their homes and in the community. 

Does that name seem vaguely familiar? Perhaps it's because Fairstein was the prosecutor in the notorious case of the Exonerated Five. Fairstein remained on the board of Safe Horizon for 17 years after the five were exonerated and her own role came under scrutiny.  Although the Safe Horizon website includes a list of board members “emeriti,” Fairstein isn’t included. 

And how does this all play out in the lives of domestic violence survivors? Remember that domestic violence hotline? Mother Jones describes what happened after Angeline Montauban called it: 

While her partner and their 2-year-old son slept, Montauban retreated to the bathroom with her cellphone. She dialed the number of Safe Horizon, a domestic abuse hotline whose services include counseling and relocation assistance she had seen advertised in subway stations for years. Montauban had just experienced violence at the hands of her partner that made her fear for her life. Trying to stay as quiet as possible, she was looking for help to break a cycle of toxic behavior. Maybe Safe Horizon could refer them to couples therapy or find transitional housing for her and her son as they worked things out. 

It didn’t work out that way. Montauban was turned in to the family police. She waged a five-year fight to get her son back from foster care. As Mother Jones reported, “She never regretted anything more in her life than making that call to Safe Horizon.” 

Perhaps had Safe Horizon workers been allowed to exercise their professional judgment concerning whether or not to report it would have been different. But they can’t – and it seems their own management doesn’t trust them enough to seek to change that. 

No wonder a senior staffer at Safe Horizon “went rogue.” Perhaps more will follow.