Marcia Lowry, With New Secret Funding Source, Resumes Lawsuit Against New York City Foster Care

A nonprofit law firm representing a group of New York City foster youth has resumed long-running litigation against the city’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) and the state agency that oversees it.

A Better Childhood (ABC), along with its white-shoe litigation partner Cravath, Swaine & Moore, has delivered a nearly 300-page filing to a federal courthouse in lower Manhattan, with new evidence and allegations of money grabbing by nonprofit foster care agencies, frequent protocol violations, and too-frequent abuse of children, many of whom are staying too long in foster care in violation of federal law.

More >> Marcia Lowry, With New Secret Funding Source, Resumes Lawsuit Against New York City Foster Care

NYC lawmakers to ease off parents who use cannabis

New York City Council has signalled its intention to relax marijuana laws by pushing through a raft of new legislation focused around cannabis.

The authority gave the green light to two resolutions last week as part of a package of related changes to local legislation in anticipation of a global sea change in attitude toward cannabis.

More >> NYC lawmakers to ease off parents who use cannabis

Dad’s Adoption Rights Upheld in Surrogacy Case

A unanimous four-judge panel of the New York Appellate Division in Brooklyn revived a gay dad’s petition to adopt his son, reversing a “clearly erroneous” decision by Queens County Family Court Judge John M. Hunt.

Hunt stated two reasons for dismissing the adoption petition: that the child was the result of what he termed “a patently illegal surrogacy contract” and that there was no authority under New York law for a parent to adopt their own biological child.

More >> Dad’s Adoption Rights Upheld in Surrogacy Case

Couple says wrong embryos implanted by IVF clinic in "unimaginable mishap"

A recently filed lawsuit claims a New York couple gave birth to other peoples' children, after a fertility clinic impregnated them with the wrong embryos. The couple had been expecting female twins, but instead gave birth to two male babies — who they then had to give up to their biological parents.

The couple alleges CHA Fertility Clinic knew about the embryo mix-up and tried to conceal it. On the clinic's website, it claims to have "fulfilled the dreams of tens of thousands of aspiring parents" in more than 22 countries. This couple says it shattered theirs.

More >> Couple says wrong embryos implanted by IVF clinic in "unimaginable mishap"

Bill Allowing Child Visitation for Parents Whose Rights Are Terminated Set to Become Law

Family court judges in New York currently can’t allow any kind of contact between a parent and their child after parental rights have been terminated—but that’s likely to change after the state Legislature approved a bill addressing the issue last week.

More >> Bill Allowing Child Visitation for Parents Whose Rights Are Terminated Set to Become Law

Helping adopted adults learn about their past

A new law, passed last week by the New York State Assembly will allow adult adoptees to unseal their original birth certificate.

More >> Helping adopted adults learn about their past

• NY lawmakers pass adoption bill championed by Pam Hunter, ending decades of secrecy

Teen population spikes over 200 percent at troubled foster care center

The number of kids in a scandal-plagued foster care center has ballooned by over 200 percent as the city’s jail population has decreased, officials revealed at a hearing Tuesday.

“There’s a small group of young people that have very high needs and part of that is related to the incredible success we’ve had on the juvenile justice and criminal justice side,” said Administration for Children’s Services Deputy Commissioner Julie Farber at a City Council hearing.

More >> Teen population spikes over 200 percent at troubled foster care center

New York Parents With Unvaccinated Children Threatened with CPS Investigation

A new law in Albany, New York, requiring all school children, public and private, to be vaccinated by July in order to continue their education is causing confusion and panic. Parents in the Deer Park area have received a letter from Assistant Superintendent James Cummings explaining that "In the event that you do not follow this mandate we will be reaching out to Child Protective Services to alert them of your non-compliance."


More >> New York Parents With Unvaccinated Children Threatened with CPS Investigation

Teen accused of falsely reporting incident to CPS, authorities say

A Utica teen was charged with falsely reporting an incident to county Child Protective Services.

During the overnight hours between May 24-25, the 16-year-old, who was not identified due to his young age, called the CPS hotline “stating severe allegations,” said Chief Deputy Derrick O’Meara, who is also director of the county Child Advocacy Center.

More >> Teen accused of falsely reporting incident to CPS, authorities say

Changes Proposed for a System that Stigmatizes Parents Accused of Child Neglect

When parents are accused of child neglect or abuse in New York, they face an investigation by child protective workers, a potential case in family court and even the possibility of having their children removed from their care.

The process can involve many months of home visits and parents may be required, or strongly encouraged, to comply with various social services, all with the aim of ensuring that children are safe at home.

More >> Changes Proposed for a System that Stigmatizes Parents Accused of Child Neglect

New York Child Welfare Advocates Want Parents to Have Representation When Their Children Removed

Angeline Montauban had no idea what was going on the day in 2013 that workers from the city Administration for Children’s Services knocked on her door to inquire about the well-being of her 3-year-old son.

She had recently called a domestic violence hotline; ACS was checking that the environment was fit for a child. She eventually filed for an order of protection against her husband, but ACS petitioned for a removal of her son on the basis that Montauban refused to file an order of protection on behalf of her child as well.

More >> New York Child Welfare Advocates Want Parents to Have Representation When Their Children Removed

City Children's Services Unlawfully Sent Juveniles Back to Detention, State Judge Finds

In the absence of rules created following the passage of a 2012 law, city officials relied for years on internal rules for how to handle the revoking of parole for those in the juvenile justice system.

More >> City Children's Services Unlawfully Sent Juveniles Back to Detention, State Judge Finds

Mother Says She Was Separated From Newborn Baby After Testing Positive for Opiates Because of Poppy-Seed Bagel

A New York mother said that she was separated from her newborn child because she failed a drug test.

But the failure was due to eating a poppyseed bagel, she said.

More >> Mother Says She Was Separated From Newborn Baby After Testing Positive for Opiates Because of Poppy-Seed Bagel

New York mom fails drug test after eating poppy seed bagel — right before giving birth

Less than a week after baby Carter Dominguez was brought into the world, baby and mom are enjoying time at their Tonawanda, New York, home.

It’s the journey here, and it's what Elizabeth ate before she gave birth that’s made this new mom experience anything but easy.

More >> New York mom fails drug test after eating poppy seed bagel — right before giving birth

Legislation to Allow Family Contact After Termination of Parental Rights Expected to Move

State law in New York prevents family court judges from allowing any kind of contact between a parent and their child after parental rights have been terminated, but lawmakers are renewing a push to change that in the final weeks of this year’s legislative session.

More >> Legislation to Allow Family Contact After Termination of Parental Rights Expected to Move

First Department Bans Family Court Issuing of Arrest Warrants for Runaway Foster Children

The decision is careful to not criticize the Family Court or ACS, which for years has sought the arrest warrants when children it's responsible for abscond, often serially and at great risk to themselves. Instead, the panel indicates that a legislative solution is needed desperately.

More >> First Department Bans Family Court Issuing of Arrest Warrants for Runaway Foster Children

Families torn apart over pot: As N.Y. moves to legalize marijuana, it must fix agonizing disparities that take children away from black and brown mothers and fathers

I have two folders on my desk. One has articles with titles like “Pot-smoking Mamas” and “Pot for Parents,” espousing the use of marijuana by parents. These commentaries — all by parents from well-heeled backgrounds — share a carefree tone, portraying marijuana use as an upscale diversion that relieves stress, is healthier than drinking, and leads to patience and creative parenting.

The other folder — a thicker one — is full of petitions against parents in the Bronx charging them with child neglect, wholly or in part, for their past and present marijuana use. These petitions are all against black and brown parents who are low-income and who live with the terrifying risk of losing their children — for the same marijuana use that the other more well-to-do parents blithely extol.

More >> Families torn apart over pot: As N.Y. moves to legalize marijuana, it must fix agonizing disparities that take children away from black and brown mothers and fathers

ACS is often careless when handing kids to foster parents: probe

The city’s embattled child-welfare agency routinely hands over neglected and abused kids to foster parents without proof that background checks or on-site visits were ever done first, a probe has found.

A city comptroller report released to The Post revealed that the files for 89 of 110 foster homes certified for placement by the Administration for Children’s Services didn’t contain “critical records” showing they met such state regulations.

More >> ACS is often careless when handing kids to foster parents: probe

Girl's aunt loses custody request to foster parents in Family Court case

An Erie County judge allowed two foster parents to retain custody of a 4-year-old girl they've raised since birth, despite the wishes of an aunt who has never met the girl but wants to adopt her.

Family Court Judge Margaret O. Szczur on Tuesday dismissed the aunt's petition for custody, saying she didn't act soon enough.

More >> Girl's aunt loses custody request to foster parents in Family Court case

City Council Asks Why NYC Is 'Tearing Families Apart' For Marijuana Use

As New York considers legalizing marijuana, attention is also turning to how the drug plays a role in the city’s child welfare system—one that has the power to remove children from their parents and that investigates, almost exclusively, low-income families of color.

More >> City Council Asks Why NYC Is 'Tearing Families Apart' For Marijuana Use