Overview
From 2016-19, court-ordered supervision cases surged in New York City, spiking by 50% in 2017 after the high-profile death of Zymere Perkins in September 2016.
This brief uses previously unreleased 2019 data on zip code-level impacts as a snapshot to examine the neighborhoods and families that bore the impact of this unacknowledged expansion of the child welfare system.
Perkins’ death was covered in NYC newspapers 242 times within six months – including 97 mentions in the Daily News and 75 in the New York Post. Extreme outlier cases fuel social outrage that “significantly and directly influence child welfare worker decisions to: accept a referral of alleged maltreatment for investigation, substantiate reports of maltreatment, and place children out-of-home” according to a 2017 study across all 50 states and the District of Columbia over 22 years.
In this environment, the city child welfare agency, ACS, used court supervision filings as a strategy to limit its risk exposure, and judges approved it.
In the three years following Perkins’ death, almost 12,000 more children and their families faced court monitoring than would have been typical, with the burden falling on Black and Latino families.
Court-ordered supervision can subject families to months or even years of monthly and unannounced visits from ACS—including domestic violence survivors who have never been charged with abuse or neglect. Families feel the persistent threat that they could be separated. Parents have called it an “endless investigation.”
Publicly, ACS touted the low number of children in foster care and its “anti-racism,” while its use of this intrusive and threatening monitoring tactic hit all-time highs.
ACS filings did not drop back down until the family court began limiting these cases in the pandemic.
It’s crucial to recognize how sensationalized media coverage drives decision-making that should be solely about safety. It’s also important to keep an eye on the expansion of surveillance tactics like court supervision. A focus only on foster care impacts can obfuscate the full scale and toll of family policing.
Data analysis by Caterina Pisciotta and text by Nora McCarthy. All child welfare data provided by the NYC Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) unless otherwise noted. Ryan Brown contributed to data analysis. Special thanks to Kelley Fong and Frank Edwards.
Court-Ordered Supervision Jumped 50% in 2017 and Remained Elevated for Three Years
It’s well-established that high-profile media coverage of child deaths drives “foster care panics”—months and years when hotline calls jump and child welfare agencies and judges make politically safer decisions that can devastate families.
In 2017, after Perkins’ death, investigations rose 8% above the average 2012-15, and foster care entries jumped by 17% from 2016 to 2017. But court supervision skyrocketed to impact 11,000 children.
In 2020, during the pandemic, the family court limited court supervision to “exclusion” cases, where an offending parent is barred from the home. With that limit still in place, court supervision dropped to a low of 4,536 children in 2022.
Court-ordered supervision data was not reliably tracked until 2006.
The Number of Families Under Some Form of Court Oversight Reached Levels Not Seen Since the 1990s
In 2017 alone, more than 15,000 families entered into some form of court oversight (court-ordered supervision or foster care).
Investigations were also higher in 2017 than in 1997.
A 2021 study found that 44% of Black children and 43% of Latino children in NYC will experience an investigation by age 18.
Court-ordered supervision was not reliably tracked before 2006. However, Child Welfare Watch reported the following numbers of families under supervision in June of these years: 2002: 2,470, 2003: 2,506, 2004: 2,289, 2005: 1,947. Foster care data from 1995-2004 is from OCFS. Foster care data from 2005-2022 is ACS data. (On average, over this span, the difference between OCFS and ACS data is about 200 cases, with OCFS reporting more.)
Wave of Media Coverage of ACS Preceded Court Supervision Surge
Homicides of children “known to the system” continue to dominate new coverage even though they are rare in NYC and have not changed in frequency in the past 10 years.
Research shows that dynamics of “zero tolerance” and “infinite jeopardy” driven by sensational media coverage and political grandstanding lead to a climate of fear, danger and dread and an environment of blame that influences decision-making.
Data is from Lexis Nexis. Thank you Richard Wexler at the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform (NCCPR). See also: The Social Outrage Routinization Process in Child Protective Services (CPS) System: A Case Study; The Vicious Cycle: Recurrent Interactions Among the Media, Politicians, the Public, and Child Welfare Services Organizations; Scandals, Lawsuits, and Politics: Child Welfare Policy in the U.S. States; along with Social outrage and organizational behavior: A national study of child protective service decisions.
The Burden of Court Supervision Fell on Black and Latino Families
The burden of this risk-averse decision-making fell on Black and Latino families.
Black children make up 26% of NYC children but were 42% of children entering court-ordered supervision in 2019. Latino children make up 36% of NYC children but were 48% of children entering court-ordered supervision in 2019.
White is white, non-Hispanic/Latino. Latino is Latin of any race. Black or Asian/PI includes anyone who identified as Black or Asian/PI, regardless of whether they also identified Hispanic/Latino or not. As a result, there is some slight overlap. This has likely resulted in an estimated overstatement of Black and Asian values by around 2 to 3 percentage points. Data excludes “other race” and unknown/missing race for comparability. We acknowledge that Latine, Latin American, or other terms may be preferred.
Latino Children Were Especially Over-Represented in Court Supervision in 13 Neighborhoods
In these neighborhoods, mostly in Queens and Staten Island, Latino families had high levels of court-ordered supervision compared to investigation rates.
While ACS is required to investigate all families referred by the state child abuse and neglect hotline, disparities in court-ordered supervision reflect ACS decisions.
This chart includes only those zips with a disparity of 20 or more percentage points, and excludes 14 zip codes where court-ordered supervision entries were less than 10.
Black Children Were Especially Over-Represented in Court Supervision in 6 Neighborhoods
In these neighborhoods, Black families had high levels of court-ordered supervision compared to investigation rates.
This chart includes only those zips with a disparity of 20 or more percentage points, and excludes 14 zip codes where court-ordered supervision entries were less than 10.
ACS Involvement Is Far More Pervasive in Majority Black/Latino Neighborhoods Than Those That Are Majority White/Asian
It’s a common refrain that in Black neighborhoods, everyone knows someone impacted by ACS, while in white neighborhoods, no one does. Comparing the 55 NYC zip codes that are more than 75% Black/Latino to the 54 that are more than 75% White/Asian, the difference in ACS’ presence is clear.
Download: Rate Image, Rate Image, Volume Image, Volume Data
Census data comes from 2015-2019 American Community Survey 5 year estimates. Median analyses showed very similar results. Both court-supervision and foster care data refer to the number of children entering during the year.
1/3 of Families Entering Court Supervision Came from Just 15 of NYC’s 200+ Zip Codes
Court supervision, like other child welfare impacts, is highly concentrated in just a few NYC neighborhoods. In contrast, more than 100 zip codes had 15 or fewer families entering court-ordered supervision in 2019.
10466-Eastchester BX also had a large number of families entering, but is not included here because 10453-Morris Heights BX had slightly more children entering. Total number of NYC children entering court supervision: 8,230. Total number of NYC families entering court supervision: 3,943.
11 Neighborhoods Bore the Brunt of All Forms of Child Welfare Involvement
While preventive services are technically voluntary, more than 80% of referrals are typically made by child protective services.
Numbers after the zip code designate the child welfare stage(s) for which that zip was in the “top 20.” 1=preventive entries, 2=court supervision entries, 3=foster care entries, 4=investigations. (Investigations, not pictured here, are mostly consistent). 10036-Clinton MN and 11207-Broadway Junction/East New York BK were in the top 20 for Investigations but not for any other category.
These 25 Neighborhoods Were Home to Nearly 50% of All NYC Children Entering Some Form of Court Oversight (Court-Ordered Supervision or Foster Care)
“Time under threat and stress changes a family,” a parent testified to City Council in 2018. The high burden of court supervision in Black and Latino neighborhoods offers greater context to growing organizing by NYC parents decrying surveillance of their communities and families.
