Lauren Shapiro, Managing Director of the Family Defense Practice, co-authored an op-ed calling on New York lawmakers to pass critical reforms to protect Black families from systemic harm. The piece highlights how ACS and the family policing system disproportionately target Black parents, conflating poverty with neglect and funneling children into a system that destabilizes families. The authors urge lawmakers to take meaningful action this Black History Month by passing legislation that informs families of their rights, prevents coercive medical practices, and protects against false anonymous reports to the State Central Register.

“ACS is a policing agency that uses coercive and manipulative tactics rooted in systemic racism to investigate families and remove children from their homes.”

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“The same inaccurate portrayal of Black life and family bonds as being weaker and less important persists to a devastating degree today. As it stands now, the family policing system, from ACS to service providers and the courts itself, conflates poverty with neglect, which puts Black families at a distinct disadvantage because they continue to face systemic racism in the labor market.”

Read the full op-ed in City Limits.