Last winter, Governor Andrew Cuomo engaged Kroll Associates—a premier white-collar investigative firm, renowned for high-stakes snooping in the corporate world—to suggest how to fix the city’s broken child-welfare system. The consultants produced a 31-page report of practical recommendations, including hiring more caseworkers to reduce caseloads, hiring investigators with law-enforcement backgrounds to perform criminal background checks on parents, and increasing the number of ACS staff authorized to see these criminal-history records. Kroll suggested that investigators with law-enforcement backgrounds accompany caseworkers to at-risk homes, and recommended better coordination between the ACS and the Department of Education, as well as other agencies. The consultants also urged the ACS to reduce the “response time” of caseworkers when learning of imminent danger in the home.
We are often asked by parents; how do I file a complaint against the abusive ACS worker. The first thing we advise is not to file an complaints with anyone at ACS. ACS supervisors are there to protect their paychecks and their jobs. They will usually stone wall the parent into giving up. The goal of the ACS supervisors is to ensure that the parents follow the demands of ACS. Also, we do not suggest filing a complaint with any local political office. ACS is so dysfunctional that they are immune to any political pressure of any kind. Mayor Deblasio has failed to correct the problems at ACS and the agency is simply on cruise control with no one in control. The most effective way to file a complaint against an ACS worker is to file suit in federal court. This will get the workers attention and take them out of their comfort zone. We urge parents to obtain an attorney as fast as possible and begin the process of a lawsuit. The federal courts are a neutral place for parents to bring
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