The Administration for Children's Services

Five Years Following its Creation:
Many Gains Realized, Challenges Ahead

For much of its history since it was initially established as the Bureau of Child Welfare the city's public child welfare agency has been a beleaguered organization. Hated and feared by families living in communities in which it held the greatest presence because of an informal child removal policy believed to prevail among front line workers of "when in doubt snatch them out." Its ability to effectively enact an essential mission of safeguarding the well being of children undermined because of staff turnover rates that remained at astronomically high levels, and those who remained had limited skills for working with families with highly complex problems and needs. Reeling from a seeming never-ending onslaught of crisis situations driven by series of class action law suits that made it nearly impossible to carry out routine functions of day to day operations. Accused of becoming a system that was virtual closed to the outside world and for having adopted a bunker mentality as self protection from severe criticism from every quarter making all efforts of reform virtually impossible. And always looming above was the ever present threat of court receivership. The situation was not only bleak, but given the politics involved, few held out little hope that change was possible.

Since the Mayor created by executive order the Administration for Children Services as a new and autonomous agency and appointed Nicholas Scopetta to head it, a more hopeful picture has begun to emerge and changes are taking place. Standing as an autonomous agency, a status that most believe should be permanent, has freed the Agency from bureaucratic encumberments that came with being administratively located in the Human Resources Administration. The driving force behind changes has been the Agency's reform plan now moving into its second stage of implementation. The plan has been supported by the work of the Marisol Panel, a joint venture between the City and the Annie Casey Foundation, and instrumental in achieving a major objective of negotiating a settlement of a nearly thirty-year class action law suit alleging racial discrimination against black children.

Over the last eight years since the City's reform plan was introduced, many systemic changes have been put in place. These include new ways of doing business with contract agencies, requiring them to decentralize all aspects of operations including administrative offices and develop a physical presence in communities served. A new model for foster care services that tie contract agencies to specific community districts and keeps children who must be placed into foster care in familiar community surroundings to cushion the traumas of separation. Families have a greater presence in decision making in determining what kind of services and help they need to keep their children out of care and to have them quickly returned home. Salary and work environment improvements make it more possible to recruit and retain qualified staff. And new partnerships with the metropolitan schools of social work will go a long way in helping to build a skilled and competent work force over time, and elevate the field of child welfare to the status it once held for attracting new professionals. And this issue of Currents is perhaps an indication of a new willingness on the part of the Agency to open its doors to public view.

The work is far from finished. However, there is a broad consensus among New York City social workers that the Agency is headed in the right direction. This issue of Currents highlights some of the changes that been instituted. The articles describe the change process beginning with principles underlying the reform plan, and how these principles are operationalized in all program components. The Agency is best known for child protective services and foster care, but other programs are highlighted that are administratively located in ACS including case management services for pregnant and parenting teens, programs of the Agency for Child Development, including day care and Head Start the model early child hood education program that has always enjoyed strong public support. Child Support Enforcement, and specialized programs serving families impacted by substance abuse, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, and child sexual victimization.

Although this issue focuses on social work in the public sector, in keeping with the City's long tradition of public private partnerships in the delivery of health and human services, whether in the private or public sector agencies, social workers have worked together to achieve the ideal of a system that supports families before children have been hurt, and make it possible for all children to grow and thrive in their own homes and communities. And while we focus on social work, which remains the anchor profession in the field of child welfare, new practice demands will require strong interdisciplinary and cross systems collaborations to effectively serve families with complex problems requiring expertise of many professional disciplines and who are jointly served by many systems.

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