Overview
In NYC, education personnel made 1 in 5 calls of suspected child abuse and neglect to the state hotline in 2023 but their calls were far less likely to be substantiated than reports by other mandated reporters. In addition, nearly 99% of calls by education reporters did not result in foster care entry.
In New York City public schools, absenteeism and truancy are a significant problem, with 33 percent of children classified as chronically absent in 2024-25. That number grew sharply in the pandemic, from 26 percent during the 2018-19 school year to 40 percent in 2021-22, but remains high. The rate for high school students is even higher. However, lacking the kind of intensive outreach required of the child welfare system, school personnel report high numbers of families for absences.
Since 2018, legislators, advocates and the city and state child welfare agencies have sought to curb education reporters’ over-reliance on a child protective response to family needs.
- In 2023, almost 8,400 of education reporter cases alleged only neglect – and just 11% of these neglect-only cases were substantiated.
- 3,400 education reporter cases alleged only education neglect — and just 8.5% were substantiated. Foster care entry was extremely rare in educational neglect-only cases, resulting in only .27% of these cases, compared to 4.25% of all ACS cases.
Since 2023, ACS has trained more than 13,000 educators that they can “support, not report” families when children are not in danger, and school calls fell 19% between 2023 and 2025. Even so, education personnel called the hotline more than 10,000 times in 2025.
This report uses previously unreleased 2023 ACS data to offer new information about these calls and the neighborhoods and families bearing the impact of this over-reporting.
About 40% of NYC education reports include allegations of “educational neglect,” called in for chronic absences. While some chronic absenteeism is driven by parents’ untreated mental health or substance use, many cases involve teen school refusal and truancy, or, with younger children, poverty-related stressors like housing instability, transportation, childcare gaps and lack of cold-weather clothing. Post-pandemic, chronic school absenteeism has risen significantly in NYC as well as in New York State and nationwide, particularly in schools with lower-income students.
In 2019, a new state law began requiring the state hotline to reject reports of “educational neglect” from school personnel unless they had worked with parents to address absences before making the call. In 2022, ACS also began training mandated reporters in schools—as well as in hospitals, shelters and other settings—that, under current laws, they can more often directly support families rather than call the hotline. In addition, the state agency, OCFS, revamped its training for all mandated reporters statewide to encourage direct support.
A 2024 American Federation of Teachers (AFT) report suggests removing educators from state laws on mandatory reporting. Specifically, it calls on policymakers to “decriminalize absenteeism” and “make paired investments in support,” such as wraparound supports for families, as well as “eliminate threats of punishment” for not reporting.
Currently, the New York state legislature is considering a bill that would eliminate criminal and civil penalties for not making a report. Another legislative remedy would be to eliminate "educational neglect" as a reportable allegation. In about half of states, including California, Illinois and Texas, school absences cannot be reported as neglect. Issues of school attendance are handled by the schools through outreach (or, more concerningly, with threats of parental jail time), not treated as a neglect issue warranting an investigation.
Rise and the Narrowing the Front Door Work Group have advanced additional recommendations to reduce over-reporting by schools, including reducing disparities in early intervention services and ensuring that children are evaluated and supported with learning needs.
This brief offers information on the people and places who would be most impacted by efforts to reduce education reporting.
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.
How to Use This Brief
All of these charts can be downloaded--and the data can be downloaded as a spreadsheet—and so can each chart—so that you can use this data in advocacy and community education.
A few notes:
- "Education Reporter Cases" refers to all ACS investigations + CARES cases resulting from calls by educational personnel to the State Central Register. School social workers are not coded as education reporters; they are coded as "social service personnel."
- This brief uses "ACS cases" as a shorthand to mean all ACS investigations + CARES cases. CARES is slightly different from a traditional investigation. In 2023, 20% of all ACS cases were CARES cases and 80% were traditional investigations.
- "Hotline calls" throughout this brief refers specifically to calls to the State Central Registry that are referred to ACS. Reports of the same incident from multiple callers are consolidated into a single report.
- "Inadequate guardianship" is not included as an allegation in cases described as "educational neglect-only" because inadequate guardianship is very loosely defined (see p77 here) and alleged in about 70% of education reports and 85% of all ACS cases.
- There’s a bunch of other jargon in this brief – "substantiated," "allegations," "court supervision," SCR, etc. You can use this guide for explanations.
You can contact info@familypolicynyc.org with any questions.
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Looking for support? For legal advocacy, access free legal support for parents concerned about ACS involvement or contact the Advocates for Children helpline for education issues. School personnel and families looking for resources can use hitesite.org, visit AccessNYC or MyCity.gov, or try the ACS support line at (212) 676-7667.
Hotline Calls by Education Reporters Were Far Less Likely to Be Substantiated Than Other Reports
Only 13.8% of ACS cases reported by educational personnel are substantiated compared to 25.2% of reports by all other reporters. Approximately 86% of education reports are either unfounded in an investigation or tracked to CARES, compared to 75% of reports by all other callers.
About 35% of education reporter cases are tracked to CARES. Even when education reports are investigated, they are 43% less likely to substantiated than all other mandated reporter calls, with 21% of education reports substantiated in an investigation compared to 37% of calls by all other mandated reporters.
Almost 75% of Education Reports Alleged Neglect Only, and Just 11% of These Were Substantiated
In all ACS neglect-only cases (not just those reported by educational personnel), 21% were substantiated.
Out of 3,088 education reporter cases that included allegations of physical or sexual abuse, 19.4% were substantiated. In all ACS cases including allegations of physical or sexual abuse, 27% were substantiated.
Physical Abuse Allegations Were Common in Education Reports
Abuse allegations are somewhat common in education reports. For example, 17% of cases with an education reporter have allegations of “lacerations/bruises/welts.” Comparing the allegations of education reporters with other reporters citywide, education reporters are about two times more likely to make “excessive corporal punishment” and “lack of medical care” allegations, and about 1.5 times more likely to make “lacerations/bruises/welts” allegations.
Approximately 19% of education reports that include physical or sexual abuse are substantiated, compared to 27% for all reporters.
Note: Cases can have more than one allegation.
Children Rarely Entered Foster Care Based on Education Reports
In all ACS cases alleging only neglect, children entered foster care 3.86% of the time, while in neglect-only cases called in by education reporters, children entered foster care in .85% of cases.
That means that, out of almost 8,200 neglect-only cases called in by education reporters, only 70 resulted in a child entering foster care.
In all ACS cases (called in by any reporter), children entered foster care in 4.25% of cases, while in all education reporter cases, children entered foster care in 1.39% of cases.
Education Reports Have Fallen 28% in the Past 10 Years But Remain High
In the pandemic, the drop in education reports accounted for half of the significant drop in hotline calls in NYC. In 2020, education reports fell by 44% compared to 2019, while all hotline calls fell by 23%. Since then, education reports have risen but remain below pre-pandemic levels.
50% of Children Involved in Education Reports Were Latino and 32% Were Black
Latino children make up 42.2% of the NYC public school students but 50% of education reports.
Black children make up only 19.5% of NYC public school students but 32% of education reports. Black children make up 39% of reports by all other reporters, an even more sizable over-representation.
Note: Public school demographic data can be accessed here
Almost One-Third of Education Reports Involved Teenagers 14-17 Years Old
Many of these cases involve truancy and school refusal, not parental neglect.
About 3,400 Education Reports Alleged Only “Educational Neglect”– and Only 8.5% Were Substantiated
“Educational neglect” is the most common allegation among cases with education reporters (other than “inadequate guardianship” at 72%), with 40.5% of cases including an educational neglect allegation.
In 2023, almost 3,400 reports alleged only educational neglect, and just 8.5% of these reports were substantiated.
Even in cases that included other allegations in addition to educational neglect, which amounted to 1,260 cases, just 16% were substantiated.
Educational neglect is also reported by non-education reporters. Another 1,441 cases called in by other reporters alleged educational neglect only. Another 1,166 cases called in by other reporters alleged educational neglect plus other allegations. Some of these reports are likely from school social workers, who are coded as “social service personnel,” not education reporters by the SCR.
Out of Approximately 3,400 Investigations Alleging Only “Educational Neglect,” Children Entered Foster Care in Just 9 Cases
That means that .27% of cases alleging educational neglect only resulted in foster care, compared to 4.25% of all ACS cases.
Out of about 1,260 cases including educational neglect and other allegations, 25 resulted in foster care, or 1.98%, while children were removed in 4.25% of all ACS cases.
These zip codes had the highest volume and rates of education reporter cases