Recently, the NYC Family Policy Project released new data and Legal Services NYC released a report that make it as clear as day that New York State must enact the Anti-Harassment in Reporting Bill. This bill, sponsored by Senator Jabari Brisport and Assembly Member Andrew Hevesi, would end the state’s practice of accepting anonymous complaints of child maltreatment and replace it with a system for confidential reporting. This important reform would reduce the unsubstantiated complaints, needless investigation and chronic misuse that arise from the deeply problematic current system.
The Family Policy Project’s data shows that in 2023, over 4,000 children were subjected to child maltreatment investigations in New York City based on anonymous reports, yet a mere 6.7% of those reports were substantiated. (Substantiated means that an investigator found it more likely than not that a child was maltreated). By comparison the substantiation rate city-wide for all child treatment investigations was 22.5%.
The practice of anonymous reporting is rife with abuse and is a primary driver in overreporting and over-investigation of children. Currently, anyone can make a report of suspected abuse or neglect to the Statewide Central Register (SCR) without identifying themself.
As a result, it is regularly misused by parents’ ex-partners, landlords and neighbors, among others, for the purpose of harassment. Anecdotally, we often hear reports of domestic violence survivors having numerous reports made by their abusers. The Legal Services report found that domestic violence survivors were overrepresented, subjected to 28% of all investigations.
New York City’s commissioner of the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), Jess Dannhauser, has called out the problem of overreporting, asserting that some investigations are “unnecessary,” and that, “too many families of color in NYC have reports called into the state and are then subject to an unnecessary child protection investigation.” Once a report is sent to his agency from the SCR, it is required to investigate, including interviewing each child in the family.
Investigations are unequivocally harmful for children, and while some investigations are necessary, unnecessary ones must be minimized to the greatest extent possible. When investigating a family, ACS workers search homes, often in the middle of the night, interrogate friends and family, and show up at children’s schools unannounced. Irrespective of the allegations, ACS questions every subject child and may strip search them, which the American Bar Association said should be prohibited “except in exceptional circumstances.”
Not only does over-investigation harm the children involved, it also makes the system worse. In the words of Commissioner Dannhauser, “unnecessary” investigations distract from his agency’s “effort to protect children truly in danger.”
The Anti-Harassment in Reporting bill would protect children by establishing confidential rather than anonymous reporting. Under the proposed bill, a caller would be required to provide their name and contact information; that information would be shared only with the investigator or during discovery in a court case if an investigation were substantiated and an abuse or neglect case were filed.
Requiring the name and contact information of the caller would deter individuals from falsely reporting and help the Statewide Central Register to identify individuals abusing the system. Given the data confirming how low the substantiation rate is for anonymous reporting, this bill would establish a fair balance between the need to protect children and the negative consequences of anonymous reporting.
