In just three months, between July and September of this year, New York City’s beleaguered Administration For Children’s Services (ACS) botched Harlem’s Zymere Perkins and thousands of other “high priority” child-abuse investigations.
The botched investigations happened by failing to adhere to city protocol in one way or another, according to a report released Thursday by City Comptroller Scott Stringer. (Whose job it is to keep city government agencies in check.)
Stringer decided to review three months’ worth of ACS cases after Harlem 6-year-old Zymere Perkins was apparently beaten to death by his caretakers in September. An initial investigation revealed Perkins was being abused for months prior to his death by his mother and her boyfriend
Stringer decided to review three months’ worth of ACS cases after Harlem 6-year-old Zymere Perkins was apparently beaten to death by his caretakers in September. An initial investigation revealed Perkins was being abused for months prior to his death by his mother and her boyfriend.
Of the 3,700 “high priority” cases reviewed by the comptroller — aka, cases in which a child died or had been abused at least four times — here’s what he found.
- 53 cases were closed without ACS investigators meeting with the allegedly abused child.
- In 22 percent of cases, ACS investigators did not meet with the child within 24 hours of the alleged abuse.
- In 26 percent of cases, ACS investigators did not meet with the child three times, as required.
- 73 percent of cases were closed without the required number of manager’s reviews.
- 32 percent of cases were closed without the required number of supervisor’s reviews.
- In 68 percent of cases, a “risk assessment profile” was not completed within 40 days, as required.
During the time Stringer was conducting the audit, Brooklyn 3-year-old Jaden Jordan died in an eerily similar manner — at the hands of his mom’s boyfriend, after months of apparent abuse.
“Behind these percentages are vulnerable children who desperately need help,” Stringer said Thursday. “Behind these numbers, there are lives at stake. Right now, the City is failing them. We must continue to demand change. This is too important.”
“The takeaway from these numbers is simple,” he said. “Regulations are in place to save lives, but ACS is failing because it’s not following its own protocols. We need to see real, long-term change at this agency.”
ACS has been under intense scrutiny from city officials and NYC residents after the recent high-profile deaths of Perkins and Jordan.
A state investigation and an internal investigation both found that the ACS failed to protect Perkins on numerous occasions before he was beat to death by his mother’s live-in boyfriend.
A state investigation and an internal investigation both found that the ACS failed to protect Perkins on numerous occasions before he was beat to death by his mother’s live-in boyfriend. Those reports were both release the day after former ACS Commissioner Gladys Carrión resigned and decided to retire for her own “well-being.”
Via source
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