Attorneys for Children (AFC) providers released a white paper today detailing the devastating impact that years of underfunding and high workloads have had on AFC providers - organizations that represent children in child abuse and neglect cases, and other life-changing family court proceedings - and how this imperils children’s access to justice.

The AFC providers also called on Albany lawmakers to appropriate $60 million in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget to right-size AFC programs.

The white paper, entitled “Legal Representation of Children in New York State: The Crisis of Chronic Underfunding and High Workloads for Attorneys For the Child in Family Court” was authored by The Legal Aid Society, the Legal Aid Society of Suffolk County, Lawyers For Children, the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo, Citizens Concerned for Children, Children’s Rights Society, Sullivan Trail Legal Society, Inc., Children’s Law Center, the Legal Aid Society of Rockland County, the Legal Aid Society of Rochester and Brooklyn Defender Services.

Read the AFC providers press release here.

Read the white paper here.