Tag: ACS
Emma Ketteringham Presented Testimony at Hearing on Family Involvement in the Child Welfare and Family Court Systems
Assembly Standing Committee on Children and Families Assembly Task Force on Women’s Issues November 21, 2019 Hearing on Family Involvement in the Child Welfare and Family Court Systems Written Testimony of The Bronx Defenders By Emma S. Ketteringham, Managing Director, Family Defense Practice Muriel Bell, Policy Advocate, Family Defense Practice Miriam Mack, Policy Counsel, Family […]
Jessica Prince Presented Testimony at Hearing re: Progessive Caucus ACS Bills
New York City Council Committee on General Welfare October 31, 2019 Written Testimony of The Bronx Defenders By Emma S. Ketteringham, Managing Director, Family Defense Practice Jessica Prince, Policy Counsel, Family Defense Practice Thank you for the opportunity to testify in support of New York City Council’s Child Welfare Package. The stakes could not be […]
Cuny Law Review: Accidents Happen: Exposing Fallacies in Child Protection Abuse Cases and Reuniting Families Through Aggressive Litigation
“In New York City, much needed-critical attention has been paid to the racial disproportionality and overreach of the city’s child welfare system, the Administration for Children’s Services (“ACS”), and its conflation of poverty with neglect. The vast majority of child protection cases brought in New York City allege child neglect rather than abuse. This article […]
Doin’ the Work: Defending Families Facing Child Removal – Asia Piña, MSW
“In this episode, I talk with Asia Piña, who is an Early Defense Social Worker for the Family Defense Practice at Bronx Defenders, in the Bronx, New York. Asia explains how she works with a team of social workers, parent advocates, and attorneys to best defend parents who are being charged with abuse and neglect […]
The Hill: Removing children from their parents doesn’t just happen at the border
“In 2017, 10 percent of children were removed for inadequate housing, a number comparable or exceeding removal rates for physical or sexual abuse respectively. In fact, since 2009, removals based on inadequate housing having been steadily increasing. According to Emma Ketteringham, managing director of the family defense practice at Bronx Defenders in New York, Child Protective Services […]
The City: No Green Space In Sight At Bronx Youth Detention Center
“Justice watchdogs said the youths at the facility don’t have time to waste in getting access to the full expanse of open space, which before the construction project included a garden and even chickens. Robyn Goldberg of the Bronx Defenders remembers her clients participating in the gardening program at Horizon before renovations began — and […]
Urban Matters: When Child Welfare Intrusion Makes Reproductive Freedom and Illusion
Our Fallon Speaker, Family Defense attorney, and Erin Cloud co-wrote an op-ed advocating for rethinking prevention and childcare advocacy. “Change must happen now. We can start by rejecting the notion that maternal “risk” can be predicted by poverty or Child Protective Services data. In both the child protective and criminal legal systems, there is a […]
The New Republic: The Crime of Parenting While Poor
“The whole existence of ACS lets us pretend that we’re protecting children.” Emma Ketteringham, our managing director of the Family Defense Practice, comments on how parents of color living in poverty are more likely to be overpoliced and criminalized just for parenting. Statistics show that parents living in poverty are unfairly scrutinized by the Administration […]
Rise Magazine: Uplifting Every Voice
“When you are powerless in a system that is tearing your family apart, you hold on to any little ray of hope. My hope and strength came from my boys and the deep and instinctual knowledge that I, as their mother, could not and would not allow strangers to obliterate the years of nurture and […]
Medium: When Protection Hurts
“I frequently recall one child who was asked to draw himself as a superhero. I asked him what his power would be. ‘When I grow up, my superpower is going to be to keep families together,’ he said. ‘So no kid has to go through what I am going through right now.’” As an attorney […]