{"id":8065,"date":"2026-09-04T11:07:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T11:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=8065"},"modified":"2026-09-04T11:07:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T11:07:24","slug":"mamdanis-equity-crusade-blinds-us-to-child-abuse-endangering-nycs-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=8065","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani’s ‘equity’ crusade blinds us to child abuse \u2014 endangering NYC’s kids"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Give New York City\u2019s Administration for Children\u2019s Services credit for consistency.<\/p>\n

Read more Rethink the H-1B visa program \u2014 and stop shutting Americans out of jobs to win Gen Z<\/a><\/p>\n

For years it has insisted that \u201csystemic racism\u201d is the real problem plaguing the agency \u2014 and with Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s newly released citywide Racial Equity Plan, ACS is doubling down.<\/p>\n

Too bad its leaders have no evidence for their diagnosis \u2014 and that the remedies they recommend will only put more children, of all races, in grave danger.<\/p>\n

According to the plan, issued Tuesday, \u201cracism and biases\u201d against black and Hispanic families \u201cinfluence the reports made to the Statewide Central Register, with racial disparities established at the earliest stages of child welfare contact.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do we know? Well, because last year black and Hispanic families \u201crepresented 36.1% and 46.2% of SCR intakes, respectively \u2014 compared with 6.3% of white and 3.6% of Asian\u201d children.<\/p>\n

But the fact that black kids are reported at higher rates is not prima facie evidence of racism: Black children are more than twice as likely nationwide to be the victims of maltreatment as their white peers and 12 times as likely as Asian children.<\/p>\n

Nationwide, black children die as a result of abuse and neglect at more than three times the rate of white children.<\/p>\n

In other words, one would expect families to be reported<\/em> for abuse and neglect at higher rates if they actually are<\/em> abusing and neglecting (not to mention killing) their children at higher rates.<\/p>\n

In response to these disparities, ACS proposes to make race and ethnicity a central focus of its function, by classifying cases finely and releasing more data disaggregated by race.<\/p>\n

The one piece of information it doesn\u2019t<\/em> intend to disaggregate by race is data on child victims of abuse and neglect.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the agency\u2019s extensive list of \u201cRacial Equity Goals\u201d includes not a single mention of lowering child maltreatment rates.<\/p>\n

Reducing racial inequity trumps reducing abuse and neglect every time.<\/p>\n

The plan says: \u201cThere are many instances where a family is reported to the state unnecessarily . . . as a child is not in danger of maltreatment, and the family would be better served by supportive services or concrete resources rather than a child protection response.\u201d<\/p>\n

How many instances? It gives no answer \u2014 but the agency is nevertheless committed to reducing these reports.<\/p>\n

ACS will promote \u201ca citywide culture shift among mandated reporters\u201d \u2014 teachers, nurses, cops and others \u2014 \u201cfrom \u2018when in doubt, call the SCR\u2019 to \u2018you can support a family without having to report a family,\u2019 when a child is not in danger of maltreatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more US Open influencers kicked out after posting credentials to \u2018show how hot\u2019 they are<\/a><\/p>\n

But as the spate of tragic deaths in families known to ACS has shown, the agency seems to have no idea when a child is in danger of maltreatment.<\/p>\n

By 2034, ACS pledges also to \u201censure that more than 30% of cases are diverted to the CARES program,\u201d its \u201cnon-investigatory\u201d child-protection pathway.<\/p>\n

It calls CARES \u201ca core strategy for combating racial disparity and promoting social justice . . . by shifting low-to-moderate risk cases away from a traditional investigation to a collaborative and less intrusive response for families.\u201d<\/p>\n

But again, it\u2019s not clear that ACS knows which cases are low-risk.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, by telling teachers and others not to report problems like chronic absenteeism, or kids coming to school hungry or without being bathed, ACS is blinding itself to kids in danger.<\/p>\n

These are often signs of serious dysfunction in a family, commonly resulting from addiction or untreated mental illness<\/p>\n

By suppressing reports, ACS cannot make proper decisions about when a family needs intervention.<\/p>\n

Instead, ACS plans to give families more \u201cconcrete supports.\u201d<\/p>\n

They want to open more Family Enrichment Centers, for instance, stocked with resources like laundry facilities.<\/p>\n

Yet parents engaged in chronic abuse or neglect of their children are unlikely to voluntarily walk into an FEC \u2014 and free washing machines won\u2019t stop their behavior.<\/p>\n

Finally, ACS\u2019s goals for the city\u2019s juvenile-justice population, of which it\u2019s also in charge, are equally wrongheaded.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

The agency promises to strengthen \u201crestorative justice\u201d practices in secure detention facilities \u2014 that is, have perpetrators sit down with the victims of their crimes to talk it out, instead of imposing real consequences.<\/p>\n

Again, the purpose of this ACS plan is to reduce racial disparities in punishment; that\u2019s why the agency nowhere acknowledges that restorative-justice techniques are ineffective in reducing recidivism.<\/p>\n

Indeed, over the last half-decade when these tactics have been employed, juvenile recidivism in the city is either up or stable.<\/p>\n

Read more ICE just made NY safer \u2014 despite Hochul and Mamdani\u2019s best efforts to stop it<\/a><\/p>\n

ACS has been plagued by woke and ineffective policies for years now.<\/p>\n

Now it has a mayor who is equally committed to them.<\/p>\n

Naomi Schaefer Riley is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NYC’s child protection agency insists that \u201csystemic racism,\u201d not child abuse, is the real problem \u2014 and thanks to Mayor Zohran Mamdani ACS is doubling down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-naomi-schaefer-riley","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nMamdani's 'equity' crusade blinds us to child abuse \u2014 endangering NYC's kids - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=8065\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mamdani's 'equity' crusade blinds us to child abuse \u2014 endangering NYC's kids - 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