The practice of “test and report,” along with family regulation system involvement, creates cycles of foster system involvement and intergenerational trauma in our communities and spans generations.
Our familial bonds are sacred and worth fighting for. “Black and Brown people have the right to healthy, happy, and safe families that remain together. It’s time for New York to stop policing families and start supporting them instead.”
And we see the devastating consequences when our clients are not informed about their rights during investigations by family regulation system agencies. As public defenders representing low-income parents in the Bronx, we’ve seen first-hand how families are entangled in the family regulation system by anonymous, unaccountable tips, referrals by well intentioned people who don’t understand how the system actually works, or a ‘test and report’ system that subjects pregnant people, new parents and their newborns to non-consensual drug testing. “The family regulation system needlessly separates children from their parents and subjects families to traumatic surveillance. “It is time for Albany to reckon with the system that purports to keep children safe, but actually does great harm to Black, brown and marginalized families,” said Emma Ketteringham, Managing Director of the Family Defense Practice at The Bronx Defenders. In New York, Black children make up only 15% of the children in the state but 40% of the children in the family regulation system, whereas white children make up 48% of the children across the state but only 25% of the children in the family regulation system. These bills are a part of a larger effort in New York to shrink the pathways through which families are funneled into the family regulation system, which has historically been and continues to be used to surveill and target Black and brown families. S5484-A / A6792, requiring caseworkers investigating child maltreatment to notify parents and caretakers of their rights.
S5572 (2020 bill number, 2021 number pending) which would require all callers to provide identifying information when reporting allegations of child maltreatment. S4821 / A4285, to prohibit non-consensual drug and alcohol testing and screening of pregnant and prenatal people and newborns. The advocates are calling for the passage of three bills before the end of the 2021 legislative session: These advocates include parents impacted by the family regulation system, individuals from JMacforFamilies, Movement for Family Power, the Parent Legislative Action Network, The Bronx Defenders, New York Drug Policy Alliance, the Harm Reduction Coalition, birth workers, legal scholars, and health care providers. They voiced their demands during a press conference (passcode: %7E5nJ&7) in which the impacted parents, healthcare providers, birth workers, legal advocates, and activists were joined by the co-sponsors of the legislation leading the fight in Albany to transform the family regulation system. (NEW YORK, NY) – Impacted parents and advocates from across New York State today called on lawmakers in Albany to pass three critical bills that they say will help counter the racial-based surveillance inherent in the family regulation system, and empower Black and brown families.
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