Please join us at the Coalition with our partners at CHAMPS in urging New York’s leaders to establish and fund an independent Office of the Child Welfare Advocate (A.6269-A) 

An independent Office of the Child Welfare Advocate would help families understand how to exercise their rights, provide much-needed information and connection to services, and clarify policies and options available to children and families who get caught up in the byzantine child welfare system. In establishing this office, New York would join the 36 other states with similar offices to offer a much-needed resource for New York youth and families touched by child welfare, and help build a more family-centered, equitable child welfare system.

An Office of the Child Welfare Advocate would seek to strengthen systems of support for New York’s children and families who come in contact with the child welfare system. In New York’s child welfare system, children of color, especially Black children, are disproportionately represented, their families disproportionately investigated by child protective services. Young people of color are disproportionately removed from their families and placed in foster care. New York has taken steps in recent years toward a more racially just child welfare system, including adopting a policy of blind removal and a kin-first firewall in 2020. These are important reforms, but disparities persist.

A summary of the duties of the Office:

• Serve as a trusted, independent resource for youth, biological families, kinship caregivers, and foster parents, provide them with information, referrals and assistance in resolving conflicts related to child welfare.
• Track issues raised across the state, identify trends, and make recommendations to the Legislature to resolve systemic issues in New York’s child welfare system.
• Produce quarterly and annual reports to the Legislature and the public. Navigating the child welfare system can be overwhelming, scary, and lonely. This is true for youth, biological families, kinship caregivers, and foster parents. 

Children and families need a trusted, independent resource to provide much-needed information and referral to services, help them to exercise their rights, and make it easier to understand the options available.  Our shared goal is for every child in New York to grow up within a loving family. Providing an advocate for children and families as they interact with the child welfare system is an important part of that goal.   The Office of the Child Welfare Advocate would support youth, biological families, kinship caregivers, and foster parents — providing them with information, referrals, and assistance in resolving conflicts related to child welfare.  

An Office of the Child Welfare Advocate is an important step toward building a more family-centered, equitable child welfare system. ng an Office of the Child Welfare Advocate, NYS will enable more families to stay together.