The Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) in New York City is facing a serious staffing crisis. Nearly 30% of ACS employees have been on the job for less than a year, according to recent reports.
It’s not the low pay or high caseloads that’s driving people away. Instead, the problem lies in a system where child protection workers feel powerless to protect the very children they are hired to help.
A Job No One Wants to Do Anymore
Working in child protection has never been easy. Caseworkers see heartbreaking and horrific cases — children who are beaten, starved, or neglected. But despite these risks, many professionals take the job to make a difference.
Today, however, many feel trapped in a broken system. Instead of being allowed to rescue children from dangerous homes, workers say they are pressured to keep families together — even when it’s clearly unsafe for the children.
“Woke” Policies Over Child Safety?
Employees report that current training focuses more on keeping the family unit intact than removing children from harmful situations. Some claim they’re told not to upset supervisors and are encouraged to recommend counseling instead of official investigations — even in severe cases of abuse or neglect.
More and more cases are being redirected to CARES (Collaborative Assessment, Response, Engagement and Support) — a soft-touch approach meant to avoid formal child welfare actions. But critics say this method leaves many at-risk children in unsafe homes.
Only 44% of ACS cases result in actual services, and even those are often limited to parenting classes or anger management, which critics argue do little to help families facing mental illness or substance abuse — issues affecting up to 90% of families in the system.
Tragic Cases Withheld From the Public
One of the most disturbing examples is the case of Lisa Cotton, a mother with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, who had an active ACS case. She and her 8-year-old disabled son, Nazir, were found dead in their home. Nazir needed a feeding tube to survive.
Relatives say Cotton was already struggling to care for her 4-year-old daughter, Promise, when Nazir was returned to her care from a rehab center. Clearly, this family needed urgent intervention — yet ACS didn’t remove the children.
Commissioner Jess Dannhauser refuses to reveal ACS’s involvement in such cases, citing state laws. However, New York law does allow disclosure if the commissioner believes it’s in the public’s best interest. Critics now ask — is this secrecy protecting children or protecting the agency?
Staff Burnout and Frustration
Those working on the frontlines say the real reason for high turnover is simple — they aren’t allowed to do their jobs. Workers feel helpless as they repeatedly deal with the same families, report the same issues, and are told to offer more services rather than take action.
There’s a growing feeling that child protection has been overshadowed by ideology. Investigating families, especially Black and Brown ones, is now labeled by some as racist or colonialist, making caseworkers feel like they’re walking on eggshells every time they do their job.
One internal ACS survey even labeled the agency a “predatory system” that unfairly targets minority families. But the hard truth remains: Black children are three times more likely to die from abuse and neglect than white children, and more than 2,000 children die from abuse every year in the U.S.
A Need for Transparency and Reform
Dannhauser recently announced a plan to form a “multidisciplinary panel” to review high-profile cases. But there are no clear details about who will be on it or whether the public will ever know the results.
Until there’s more transparency, both lawmakers and the public will continue to be left in the dark — and children will continue to fall through the cracks.