Overview
Community District: Brooklyn 07
Zip Codes: 11202, 11232
All data is from 2019. Analysis by Cat Pisciotta. Data provided by the NYC Administration for Children’s Services unless otherwise noted.
How were Sunset Park families impacted by child welfare?
Sunset Park has one of the highest preventive enrollment rates in the city. At the Center for Family Life in Sunset Park, 70-80% of families in preventive services are voluntarily walk-ins, while 78% of families citywide entered preventive through an ACS investigation in 2019, according to Child Welfare Watch.
More than 1,000 children were investigated in one year
In the 11232 zip code, more than 1 in 20 children were investigated in 2019.
For every 100 families investigated across both zip codes, there were 3 families with children who entered foster care.
Download: 11229 Image, 11232 Image, Data
An extremely high percent of investigations in Sunset Park were “indicated”
The 11232 zip code had the highest indication rate in the city in 2019. Only 6 zip codes had higher indication rates than 11220.
An “indicated” investigation can prevent parents from being employed in schools, childcare and other fields.
Download: Percent Image, Percent Data, Top 10 Image, Top 10 Data
In 2021, New York State raised the standard of evidence to indicate an investigation and indication rates fell citywide. In the Sunset Park Community District, the percent of indications fell to 44% in 2021, but that remains one of the highest rates. “Top 10” chart excludes zip codes wtih less than 20 investigations in 2019.
Education reporters made a very high proportion of calls
The 11220 zip code ranked 13th citywide for the percent of calls from education reporters, which include school personnel and childcare providers.
Sunset Park’s mix of high education calls and high indication rates is surprising because, in NYC, only 29% of calls by education reporters were indicated in 2019.
Indication rates by reporter type for 2019 is available from NYC NCANDS data provided to FPP. Note that zip codes with fewer than 20 investigations are excluded.
Who is impacted by ACS in Sunset Park?
In both zip codes, Latino families were over-represented in court-ordered supervision compared to the child population. White, Asian and Black families had very different experiences in each zip code.
In other demographics – parent ages, child ages and family size – both zip codes were fairly typical for NYC.
Download: 11220 Image, 11220 Data, 11232 Image, 11232 Data
Foster care numbers were 20 children entering in 11220 and 10 children entering in 11232 in 2019. Analysis excludes “other” or “unknown” race for comparability. “Other” is n=43 for INV, n=9 for PREV, n=3 for COS, and “unknown” race is n=6 for COS for zip 11220. “Other” is n=8 for INV, n=5 for PREV, and “unknown” race is n-3 for COS for zip 11232.
Sunset Park’s 11220 zip code had lower child welfare impacts than other zip codes with a similar child poverty rate
The correlation between child poverty and investigations and/or foster care is significant in NYC.
Download: Scatter plot 1 Image, Scatter plot 1 Data, Scatter plot 2 Image, Scatter plot 2 Data
The correlation rate between child poverty and investigations was .595 and between child poverty and foster care placements was .57 in 2019.
