Gotbaum: Give Child Welfare Officials Access to Domestic Violence Registry
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
If city child welfare officials could gain access to the state’s domestic violence registry, the thousands of children placed in foster or adoptive households each year would be less likely to die at the hands of their caretakers, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum said yesterday.
“Research tells us that where there is domestic violence there is very often child abuse,” Ms. Gotbaum said. “It should go without saying that placing a child in a foster or adoptive home where there is a history of domestic violence is to put a child’s life in jeopardy. Yet state law today denies ACS the ability to thoroughly screen for domestic violence when considering foster and adoptive parent applications.”
A series of missteps by the city’s child welfare agency may have played a role in the unrelated fatalities of at least five children during a three-month period that prompted citywide outrage and fueled an investigation into the inner workings of the agency.
Prior to placing a child in a home, the child welfare agency conducts criminal background checks, including investigating prior domestic violence convictions, but officials are unable to ascertain if potential parents were charged with domestic violence if the charges were dismissed, if the defendant pleaded down to a violation, or if an order of protection was issued.
In a city where there are more than 1,000 reports related to abuse of foster children each year, Ms. Gotbaum said the Administration for Children’s Services should be able to view the state’s Domestic Violence Registry prior to placing a child in a home. Assemblyman William Scarborough, a Democrat of Queens, agreed to introduce legislation to grant such access, Ms. Gotbaum said. Only law enforcement and court officials can access the registry.
The commissioner of children’s services, John Mattingly, said he supports Ms. Gotbaum’s push for greater access. He noted that the Domestic Violence Registry also would “provide children’s services with information regarding domestic violence involving birth parents, other adults residing in the family’s home, and foster parents.”
