Black parents in N.Y. need to know their rights
As we commemorate Black History Month, we must acknowledge that the separation of Black families has long been a part of American history. Approximately half of all enslaved people were separated from their families or lived in constant fear of separation.
Today’s families targeted by New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) — a policing agency that has the authority to investigate parents and remove children from their homes — also live in the fear of the devastating emotional consequences of the ever present threat of family separation.
While for nearly six decades, police have been legally obligated to advise those they arrest of their Miranda rights, including the right to remain silent, no such legal requirement exists for ACS. Every year, ACS conducts invasive home searches of more than 50,000 households. The vast majority — more than 90% — of those households are Black, Latine, or people of color and are disproportionately located in neighborhoods with the highest poverty rates.
Most families examined by ACS are completely unaware of their existing rights, such as the right to deny home entry to a caseworker without a court order or to consult with a lawyer. Capitalizing on parents’ lack of information about their rights, ACS caseworkers are able to search refrigerators, medicine cabinets, and other private areas of a family’s home, examine children’s unclothed bodies, and threaten parents with the police or child removal if they refuse to cooperate.
Every day, we work with parents who have experienced this coercion and manipulation. These tactics are rooted in systemic racism: a draft report commissioned by ACS showed that parents, advocates, and staff alike feel that the agency “actively destabilizes Black and Brown families and makes them feel unsafe.”
We are proud to be part of the movement of advocates, impacted parents, and legal and social work professionals advocating for the passage of the Family Miranda Rights Act, which would require ACS caseworkers to inform parents of their existing rights — both verbally and in writing — at the start of every investigation. This includes the right to know what parents are being accused of, the right to deny entry into their home without a warrant, and the right to speak with an attorney.
Family Miranda is a vital step to reducing the harm that families experience during ACS investigations and curbing the white supremacist practice of family separation that has historically been used as a tool of racialized violence.
It is important that parents have access to an attorney at the onset of an investigation even if they cannot afford one. Since 2018, the City Council has provided funding for our offices to represent parents during these investigations and prior to any legal prosecution. In our experience, early access to counsel enables parents to make the best decisions for their families.
Recently, ACS has rolled out a new program providing certain parents with some of their legal rights via written palm cards. However, as impacted parents and advocates have pointed out, pieces of important information are buried, threateningly-worded, or left out altogether.
There is also no guarantee that parents, some of whom have disabilities or limited literacy skills, will be able to process the dense list of information on the cards during one of the most stressful moments of their lives — which is why the Family Miranda Rights Act provides for written and oral notice.
Moreover, ACS’s new program puts the agency in the position of picking and choosing who is informed of their rights and when, which will only make poor and Black or Latine parents even more vulnerable to the abuse of discretion by government workers. The Family Miranda Rights Act, which ACS has publicly opposed, ensures that all parents are provided this information at the first point of contact with ACS.
A powerful government agency like ACS may believe in its own benevolence. Knowledge of one’s rights should also not depend on the particular policies of one commissioner or one caseworker. While our approach to child well-being must be wholly reimagined to support families rather separate them, we urge the Legislature to take one step towards empowering parents by passing the Family Miranda Act, which will mandate ACS to do the right thing: inform every parent of all of their rights, verbally and in writing, at the start of an investigation.
To learn more about your rights if ACS contacts you, visit YourFamilyYourRights.org.
Coles is executive director of the Center for Family Representation. Shapiro is managing director of the Family Defense Practice, Brooklyn Defender Services. Ketteringham is managing director of the Family Defense Practice at The Bronx Defenders. Akbar is managing attorney of the Family Defense Practice, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem.