Elisa W. v. City of New York Plaintiffs: 19 foster children, aged 3 through 16, representing the class of over 11,000 New York City foster children Public Advocate: Letitia James About the NYC Foster Care System New York City’s foster children are more likely to be harmed while in foster care than children almost anywhere else in the country. Each year, approximately 1,000 New York City children leave the foster care system without a permanent family or connection to an adult upon whom they can depend. Many of them wind up homeless. In New York City, children in foster care spend twice as much time in state custody as children in the rest of New York State and over double the amount of time in state custody as children in the rest of the nation. It takes longer to return New York City children in foster care to their parents than in the rest of New York State and the rest of the nation. Federal data shows that New York City performs worse on this measure than all bu