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THE ACS MENTAL HEALTH EVALUATION

ACS has different schemes in order to entrap parents. One of their favorite tactics is to allege that the parent has mental health issues and demand that they do a mental health evaluation. They demand that the parents go to the ACS office and do a CSAC assessment. "There are many diagnoses that get used liberally to describe stress and poverty," says Jessica Marcus, a supervising attorney with the Brooklyn Family Defense Project of Legal Services NYC. "Somebody is angry and they are classified as hostile. Well, who wouldn't be angry or hostile if somebody had removed their child from them or threatened to remove their child? It's a way of basically taking someone's poverty and powerlessness and treating it like it's a diagnosis and a disease, when it's really a natural response to a difficult situation."  This is the problem. If a parent is upset at ACS, they will claim the parent has anger management problems. You you need a mental ...

THE NEW YORK TIMES CALLS ACS " THE NEW JANE CROW" FOR HOW THEY TREAT POOR MOTHERS

Foster Care as Punishment: The New Reality of ‘Jane Crow’ By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD and JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG JULY 21, 2017 Continue reading the main story Share This Page Photo Maisha Joefield briefly lost custody of a child who wandered away while she was taking a bath. Credit Kevin Hagen for The New York Times Maisha Joefield thought she was getting by pretty well as a young single mother in Brooklyn, splurging on her daughter, Deja, even though money was tight. When Deja was a baby, she bought her Luvs instead of generic diapers when she could. When her daughter got a little older, Ms. Joefield outfitted the bedroom in their apartment with a princess bed for Deja, whi...

DON'T BOTHER CALLING THE ACS WORKER'S SUPERVISOR

We are often asked by our clients, if it would be helpful if they called the ACS worker's supervisor and report their abuse. The answer after 17 years of practice , is a tragic, NO. ACS workers in general are abusive, arrogant and demand compliance from parents. They have been trained this way by their supervisors. The tactics that ACS workers use against parents have been learned as part of the ACS training and are part of the ACS culture. The culture at ACS, is simple and clear. No matter what issues the child has, blame the parents. One of their most shocking cases that we had was a child who had a severe DNA issue which caused him to be severely obese. The ACS worker was quick to blame the parents for overfeeding.  They did nit even want to see the medical records. The supervisors are also there to play the role of good cop/bad cop when ACS has meetings with parents. The supervisor will come in the room and accuse the parents of child abuse and they will see how the parent ...