“The Wound is Still Fresh:” New Report Exposes ACS’s Systemic Discrimination Against Black and Latine Families in the Bronx, as Revealed by Dozens of Families Themselves 

The Bronx, NY – Today, The Bronx Defenders released a report detailing how New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) destroys Black and Latine families in the Bronx through its dangerous reliance on racist practices, with the severest life-altering consequences for the very children it claims to protect.  

Through in-depth stories from dozens of Black and Latine families, this report highlights, for the first time, the brutal impact of ACS’s racism against children, their parents, and their families, and the lengths ACS will go to ignore its own policies, court orders, and the law. 

ACS has long been aware of its harmful and systemically racist practices, yet it has consistently ignored calls for reform – and indeed its own recommendations – to lessen these disparities. Instead, it has tried to hide information about its racially biased practices and failed to publish plans meant to address its racial inequity in a timely manner.  

Worse, ACS’s racist practices have done grave and lasting damage to children leading to brutal physical and psychological harm. The report chronicles children being so traumatized as to lose the ability to regulate their bowel movements, suffer bed wetting and sleep disturbances, struggle in school, and scarred by intense fears of abandonment and loss of self-worth.  

ACS claims to “protect and promote the safety and well-being of New York City’s children and families,” but in reality, its systemic racial discrimination and abuse against Black and Latine families destroys their physical and emotional safety, ruining the lives of the very children it purports to safeguard.  

“For too long, ACS has terrorized Black and Latine families with impunity, leaving parents and children permanently scarred in its wake,” said Anne Venhuizen, Supervising Attorney in the Impact Litigation Practice at The Bronx Defenders. “The stories in this report lay bare the cruelty and deep-seated racism baked into ACS practices. New York City must take responsibility and break its deadly dependency on the systemic, racist policing of Black and Latine families.” 

Despite paying lip service to calls for reform, ACS’s actions continue to show how it doesn’t care about the extreme harm and suffering it is causing to the families it targets. Indeed, BxD’s report identifies four major ways in which ACS continues to racially target and harm Black and Latine families in the Bronx:  

• Overly harsh treatment of Black and Latine families, including unjustly prosecuting and separating those families for issues outside of their control;  

• Unfairly rushing to judgement, including frequent incidences of ACS making snap judgements about Black and Latine families, failing to conduct proper investigations, and even relying on unqualified medical providers;  

• Relying on racial tropes, such a weaponizing racial stereotypes and manufacturing unfair accusations against Black and Latine families and;  

• Violating laws meant to protect families from unlawful state interference. In flouting these laws, ACS violates Black and Latine families’ basic human rights. 

In another example, Brittany, a Black mother, received a devastating call that her youngest daughter had nearly drowned while in the care of her daughter’s father. Brittany, out of town at the time, rushed back to New York to be at her daughter’s hospital bedside during this ordeal. She agreed to all recommended treatments and diagnostic tests for her daughter, but ACS still pursued a case against her. ACS separated Brittany from her daughter and her four other children for an entire year. Rather than support a traumatized, frightened family, ACS prosecuted Brittany at trial. Brittany’s testimony was ultimately so compelling, ACS dropped its case against Brittany and returned her children, but the damage was done – Brittany and her family will never be the same again. 

“ACS retraumatized me while I was dealing with my child’s serious medical condition,” Brittany said. “They never supported me, and they never really cared about my kids. They tried to break me, just as they have tried to break thousands of other parents before me. Their treatment of families like mine is unfair, harmful, and doesn’t keep people safe.”  

In another example, Teresa, a Latine mother of two, was subjected to an invasive, rude, and unjustified investigation by ACS, following a false and anonymous report. The report was quickly disproven, but ACS refused to stop their harassment against Teresa and her family. ACS shifted its focus to the cleanliness of Teresa’s home.  

The agency asked Teresa to send her children to live with their aunt while she cleaned her house, which Teresa did. Teresa also complied with all of ACS’s demands, including deep-cleaning her home, renting a storage unit she could barely afford for her belongings, and even submitting to a drug test — despite there being no history, nor concerns, for substance abuse. She endured mistreatment and shifting demands from ACS for three months. It was only after Teresa sought legal help that ACS agreed to unite her with her family. She has since described her treatment as “the worst experience of my life.” 

“ACS preyed on my vulnerabilities,” Teresa said. “I did not know my rights and they took advantage of me. Nothing I did was never enough. To this day my daughter and I are still scared whenever anyone knocks on the door.” 

ACS does not make children and their families safer. Its legacy of racism and racial discrimination has rendered it incapable of meaningful reform. New York City must listen to the needs of Black and Latine families, respect their common humanity, and provide real funding and support for parents, children, and communities. 

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About The Bronx Defenders  

The Bronx Defenders is a public defender nonprofit that has developed a groundbreaking model of holistic representation, providing systems-impacted individuals with teams of lawyers, social workers, and advocates dedicated to addressing their unique circumstances, thereby transforming how low-income people in the Bronx are represented in the legal system.