We are an activist and an attorney for family rights in Harlem who every day witness the pain that New York’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) inflicts on Black, Latine, and low-income families, particularly when it comes to the agency’s policies about family separation.
One of us (Tanesha) was removed from her mother at birth and placed in foster care. By the time she was 11, an abusive adoptive parent dropped her off at a police precinct, saying she was done. Tanesha spent the rest of her teenage years in a series of institutional group homes, where she was molested and raped. She managed to escape, and today is a proud Black mother of three, a community organizer, and a founder of the nonprofit Parents Supporting Parents, which was recently featured in this newspaper for their laptop giveaways to Harlem youth.
The other (Zainab), is managing attorney at Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem’s Family Defense Practice and also a mom. She’s worked with parents who have lost their rights, including young parents who themselves were severed from their parents through a court proceeding.
All of these clients, and Tanesha, have tragically missed out on important relationships with their biological families due to the current state of the law. They suffer from generational trauma that gets passed along to the next generation, who are also denied an opportunity to know their origins and history. In the recent words of one young person who was adopted out of foster care and whose biological mother died before they could meet again, “Other people’s decisions left a void in my life.”
That’s why we, along with a coalition of public defenders, affected parents and children, and others, are urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign the Preserving Family Bonds Act, a measure founded on the principle that children deserve more love in their lives, not less.
The Preserving Family Bonds Act (PFB; A5394, Joyner/S6720, Brisport) allows a judge to order contact between a child and their parent after the termination of parental rights only when this is in the child’s best interests. Ironically, in vetoing a version of the PFB in 2021, Hochul said she was acting “in the child’s best interests.”
Let’s talk about what actually is in a child’s best interests. Current New York law operates under the fiction that terminating a parent’s legal rights also ends the emotional relationship between a parent and a child. Because New York law does not allow a court to order continuing contact, termination of parental rights can make it impossible for children to stay connected to their parents, communities, and culture. As Tanesha puts it, “You never get over not knowing your people.” She’s tried repeatedly to find her birth mother but keeps hitting a brick wall.
Then there are the words of one of the bill’s sponsors, Assemblymember Latoya Joyner, who was adopted herself: “People want to know their identity,” she told Gothamist in 2021. “Knowing our past is so crucial for us in developing our future selves. This bill is going to open that pathway, and not target Black and brown parents who end up in this web of a system that at times destroys families.”
Let’s not forget that this practice of family separation has historic roots in slavery and genocide—and these roots still show today. As the Amsterdam News and the New York Times reported last year, ACS disproportionately investigates, separates, and traumatizes Black, Latine, and low-income families. Even ACS’s own employees call the system racist. And no wonder, given that:
- 1 Black child in 2 will experience an investigation.
- 1 Black child in 10 will be separated from their parents.
- Black children make up 14% of the general child population, but 23% of children in the foster system, where they generally receive fewer services than white children.
What’s too often misunderstood is that most children in the foster system were not separated from their parents because of abuse, but because poverty is mistaken for neglect. When a child is in the foster system, the parent and child almost always have regular, ongoing visitation and contact. This is because frequent, high-quality visits are understood to be highly beneficial for children in the system.
Another common misconception is that the foster system saves children who would not otherwise have a family. Not true: Most children in the system have a strong desire to return home and a family who is fighting to make that happen.
Experts agree that separating children from their parents is incredibly harmful. Those in the system fare much better when they are able to maintain familial bonds. Yet, after a year—or more—of visits with their families, the involuntary termination of their parents’ rights can abruptly deny children the right to contact, speak to, and see their parents.
The current law also forces biological parents into the untenable position of either fighting the termination of their rights (which, if they lose, becomes permanent) or giving up their rights in exchange for an opportunity to negotiate minimal, court-ordered visits with their child. The experience is so devastating and severe that it has been called the “death penalty” of child welfare.
By allowing children the opportunity to maintain contact with their families, this bill will help children reconcile pieces of their identity, including language, food, and religion, and promote the exchange of critical family and medical health information. Making these connections is vital to a young person’ ability to develop a sense of self and well-being.
We have until the end of the year to convince the governor that Preserving Family Bonds truly is in the best interests of the child. We urge New Yorkers to take action in favor of the bill and in support of the many children who are adopted out of the foster system and are yearning to make contact with their families.
Zainab Akbar is managing attorney of the Family Defense Practice at Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem.
Tanesha Grant is a system-impacted community organizer in Harlem and founder of the nonprofit Parents Supporting Parents who has lived experience as a child in the child welfare system.