Hotline Calls

Overview

In response to advocacy and scholarship showing that child protective investigations are used far too often, rarely lead to support and leave damaging effects on families, New York City and state have taken steps in recent years to limit hotline calls and ensure that professionals more often “support, not report” families.

Using previously unreleased 2023 ACS data, this brief examines where these efforts are having an effect—and where further reform and retraining is most urgent.

In the past five years, hotline calls have fallen 10% in NYC. Apart from pandemic lows in 2020-21, this is the lowest number of ACS cases in the past 20 years.

However, ACS intervention in families remains pervasive:

  • In 2023, 1 in 20 NYC families was reported for suspected neglect or abuse.
  • In 15 NYC zip codes, at least 1 in 10 families experienced an ACS case in 2023. In Brownsville, it was 1 in 7 families, and in East Harlem, it was 1 in 8. That means that, in many Black and Latino neighborhoods, multiple families on every block or in every building are visited by ACS in a year.

The vast majority of calls were not substantiated:

  • Only 22.5% of ACS cases are indicated for neglect or abuse.
  • Reports by education personnel, in particular, were rarely substantiated; out of 9,000 reports by education reporters alleging neglect-only, just 10% were substantiated.

Investigations alone impact families. Fearful of another case, parents draw back their social networks and help-seeking. That can increase isolation and limit potential support from educators, doctors and others who could help address challenges.

To curb over-reporting, state legislators have passed a bill to end anonymous reporting and introduced measures to end penalties for not reporting, targeting calls driven by fear or spite. City and state child welfare agencies also have started retraining mandated reporters – particularly school personnel reporting truancy and attendance issues – on the steps they can take to directly support families when children are not in danger.

More significant reductions in ACS cases may require reforms to the State Central Register (SCR), which receives hotline calls reporting suspected neglect and abuse. As a 2024 FPP report documented, New York’s SCR screens out far fewer hotline calls than most other states, screening out only 25% of hotline calls, compared to a national average of 50%.

Beyond child welfare policy, NYC can better address the economic shocks and hardships that expose families to child welfare involvement, channel investment to highly-impacted neighborhoods and make it much easier to access resources from public systems in a crisis.

This brief spotlights signs of progress and provides detailed information about hotline calls—by neighborhood and by reporter types and allegations—to support continued efforts citywide and within communities.

Data analysis by Caterina Pisciotta and text by Nora McCarthy. Data provided by the NYC Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) unless otherwise noted.

Notes

You can use the tables below to see the number and rate of hotline calls, the types of reporters making calls and the allegations made in every zip code in 2023.

Data for each can be downloaded as a spreadsheet—and each chart can be downloaded as an image—so that you can use this data in advocacy and planning.

A few notes:

  • See FPP's 2019 Hotline Calls brief and 2019 Racial Disparities brief for past data, as well as 5-Year Trends: NYC Child Welfare Data 2019-2024. Not all data points can be compared directly because of data differences. Please be in touch with any questions.
  • "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.
  • There’s a bunch of jargon in this brief – “indicated,” CARES, SCR. You can use this guide for explanations.
  • This brief uses the term "rate per 1,000." Most public child welfare data in NYC shows only the number of hotline calls or investigations in a community district (CD). The charts below use zip code data and present rates of hotline calls in addition to numbers. Looking at the rate of hotline calls per 1,000 children or households in a zip code allows us to accurately compare which zip codes are most impacted.
  • You can learn more here about how to understand ACS' publicly available data about hotline calls and investigations.
  • This brief does not examine race impacts; FPP will publish a separate brief examining race across child welfare involvement in 2023.

Contact info@familypolicynyc.org with any questions. Our goal is to make sure parents and youth impacted by the child welfare system, advocates, community organizations, policymakers, media and others have access to information about the child welfare system’s impact in New York City.

1 in 20 NYC Families Experienced an ACS Case in 2023

In the Bronx, which has far higher hotline call rates than other boroughs, 1 in 14 families was reported.

In the 15 zip codes with the highest rates of hotline calls, more than 1 in 10 families was reported for suspected neglect or abuse in 2023, impacting more than 11,000 children.

 

Download: Image, Data

Note: “ACS Cases” includes investigations and CARES cases. CARES is a type of investigation for lower-risk concerns. Data reflects duplicate cases except where noted.

 

Only 1 in 5 Cases Was Substantiated

The percent of substantiated cases fell to 22.5% in 2023 from 33.7% in 2019, meaning that approximately 1/3 fewer families had cases substantiated.

When an investigation is “substantiated” or “indicated,” parents are listed on the State Central Register and can be barred from employment in childcare, schools, or home care—even when allegations do not involve child safety, such as “educational neglect.” An indicated case can have serious economic consequences, particularly for women of color, who are more likely to be employed as care workers and to be investigated.

Two policy changes have reduced indications. First, in 2022, a new law raised the standard of evidence to substantiate an investigation, from “some credible evidence” to “a preponderance of evidence,” in line with nearly all other states. Second, ACS began routing far more lower-risk cases to CARES. These cases are neither substantiated nor unsubstantiated.

 

Download: 2019 Image, Data; 2023 Image, Data

What were the call rates in my zip code?

To explore: Click on each label (such as “# children” or “rate per 1,000 families” to sort the sheet by that data type from the lowest number to the highest, and click again to show highest to lowest.

5-Year Trends

Hotline Calls Have Fallen 10% in the Past 5 Years

After falling by almost one-quarter in 2020, ACS cases increased each year until 2023. However, in 2024, ACS cases dipped again by 2.7%, to about 51,500 cases. Apart from pandemic lows in 2020-21, this is the lowest number of ACS cases in the past 20 years.

During this time, the percent of reports routed to CARES—a type of investigation for lower-risk concerns—grew from 4% to 22%, or 11,277 cases in 2024.

 

Download: Image, Data

Hotline Calls Fell the Most in Areas Where ACS Involvement Is Most Common

In the 25 NYC zip codes with the highest rates of ACS involvement (including child protective cases, court supervision and foster care), ACS cases were almost twice as common as in other neighborhoods, with rates of 87.5 cases per 1,000 families compared to 44.7 per 1,000 in all other zip codes.

However, ACS cases dropped by 10% in the highest impacted zip codes compared to 4% in all other zip codes.

Indicated investigations also fell more in highly impacted zip codes—falling by 41% vs. 36%.

 

Download: Image, Data

Note: Rates are duplicate cases per 1,0000 households using 5-Year Census Data. Due to redactions in the data, there may be some over/under-estimates.

 

15 Highly Impacted Zip Codes Had Significant Reductions in Hotline Calls

1 in 12 children experienced an ACS case in these neighborhoods, such as Brownsville, East Harlem and Mott Haven. However, reductions in hotline calls between 2019 and 2023 were highest in these zip codes.

 

Download: Image, Data

ACS Cases Based on Reports by School and Hospital Personnel Have Fallen Significantly, While Reports by Police Rose

Declines in ACS cases have been driven by reductions in reports by education reporters, medical/mental health reporters, social services reporters and anonymous reporters, and in declining allegations of educational neglect, parental drug use and excessive corporal punishment, comparing 2019 to 2023. However, reports by law enforcement increased by 26%, partially offsetting these reductions.

Procedural changes by the SCR also may have reduced the number of calls by education reporters and anonymous reporters screened-in for investigation. In the pandemic, SCR staff began asking more questions of education reporters, as required by law, according to OCFS testimony. In addition, the SCR recently began requiring that anonymous callers speak with a supervisor, which may have reduced anonymous reports, according to ACS.

In the most impacted zip codes, hotline calls by social services reporters fell by 13% compared to 3% in all other zip codes. Hotline calls by medical and mental health reporters fell 14% compared to 9%.

Reductions in hotline calls by education reporters were similar across the city, falling 20% vs. 18%. Reports by police rose dramatically citywide, rising 23% in the most impacted zip codes and 27% in all other zip codes.

 

Download: Image, Data

Allegations Related to Parental Drug Use, Lack of Medical Care, Educational Neglect and Lack of Food / Clothing / Shelter Dropped Sharply

Reductions in these allegations were highest in the 25 zip codes most impacted by ACS involvement. In these zip codes, allegations of parental drug/alcohol misuse dropped by 33% compared to 25% in all other zip codes, and allegations of lack of medical care fell 30% compared to 19%.

Allegations of educational neglect fell 33% in highly impacted zip codes compared to 29% in all all other zip codes. Allegations of inadequate food, clothing and shelter fell 16% compared to 14% for all other zip codes

 

Download: Image, Data

The Role of Poverty

Hotline Calls Were Twice as Common in Neighborhoods with the Highest Levels of Child Poverty

The 25 highest-poverty zip codes have almost twice the rate of hotline calls of all other zip codes.

Research shows that exposure to child welfare involvement increases when families struggle to meet their basic needs—and that policies that protect families from economic shocks and setbacks reduce every form of system involvement.

During the pandemic, economic protections had profound effects on helping households meet their basic needs, cutting the adult poverty rate by 45% and the child poverty rate by 68% in 2021. Still, pandemic protections have slipped away. NYC has seen rising child poverty and hardship. According to NYC’s Poverty Tracker, child poverty rose starkly to 26% in 2023, up from 15% in 2021 and a pre-pandemic average of 20%.

Download: 2023 Image, Data; 2019 Image, Data

 

The Bronx, With the Highest Child Poverty Rate, Had Far Higher Hotline Call Rates Than Other Boroughs

Almost 30% of all hotline callers report Bronx families, even though they make up only 20% of families in NYC.

The child poverty rate in the Bronx was 35% in 2023 (down from 39% in 2019) compared to 26% for Brooklyn (27% in 2019), 20% for Manhattan (21% in 2019), 14% for Queens (16% in 2019) and 14% for Staten Island in 2023 (15% in 2019).

 

Download: Image, Data

Note: Allegations of educational neglect and of inadequate food, clothing and shelter are over-represented in the Bronx. The Bronx accounts for about 34% of these cases.

Reporters and Allegations in 2023

75% of Cases Alleged Neglect

In 2023, 75% of cases alleged neglect alone. Another 24% of cases involved any physical or sexual abuse allegations along with neglect, and 1% alleged physical or sexual abuse alone.

 

Download: Image, Data

Note: These are the most common allegations in hotline calls. See the table below for more comprehensive allegations data.

What were the allegations in my zip code?

You can use this table to see the allegations made in hotline calls in every zip code. Calls referred to ACS from the State Central Registry (SCR) are consolidated into either investigations or CARES cases, because multiple SCR reports may be made on the same incident (such as both police and the hospital calling). This table shows the number and percent of each allegation in both investigations and CARES cases in each zip code.

To explore: Click on each label (such as “education neglect #”) to sort the sheet by that data type from the lowest number to the highest, and click again to show highest to lowest.

Mandated Reporters Made 70% of Calls

Despite efforts to retrain education reporters–and reductions in these reports–school personnel made 1 in 5 calls to the hotline in 2023. Close to 90% of neglect-only reports by education personnel were not substantiated.

 

Download: 2023 Image, Data; 2019 Image, Data

Hotline Calls by Education Reporters and Non-Mandated Reporters Were Least Likely to Be Substantiated

Hotline calls by non-mandated reporters are far less likely to be substantiated than reports by mandated reporters. In 2023, 27% of reports by mandated reporters were substantiated vs. 13% for non-mandated reporters.

Education reporters have substantiation rates closer to non-mandated reporters, with just 14% of reports substantiated.

Who made reports in my zip code?

You can use this table to see the rate of hotline calls per 1,000 children in every zip code, and to see the percent of calls from each major reporting group.

Reforms to Reduce Calls by Mandated Reporters Would Have the Greatest Impact in These Neighborhoods

The State Legislature has not yet passed two bills that could reduce hotline calls by mandated reporters: ending penalties for not reporting and requiring informed consent before drug testing mothers and newborns in public hospitals. The “family Miranda” bill to require that ACS inform parents of their rights at the onset of a case has also not passed yet.

Reforms to the State Central Register (SCR), which receives hotline calls reporting neglect and abuse, could also reduce the number of reports that are screened in for investigation (or CARES). New York’s SCR screens out far fewer hotline calls than most other states. At a State Assembly hearing on the SCR in October 2024, the Office of Children and Families (OCFS) commissioner confirmed that the state SCR uses no standardized screening tool. OCFS has not yet committed to examining and addressing the problem.

 

Download: Image, Data

Reforms to Reduce Calls by Non-Mandated Reporters Would Have the Greatest Impact in These Neighborhoods

In June, the State Legislature passed a bill to end anonymous reporting, in order to reduce false and malicious reports, such as reports by exes or landlords that seek to weaponize the child welfare system. (All calls to the hotline are confidential.)

Community education and supportive alternatives reporting could also reduce hotline calls by neighbors, family, friends and parents themselves.

Download: Image, Data

Sign up to receive email updates and news from FPP!