By Crystal Charles, Senior Policy Manager, Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy
One of the most disruptive and traumatic impacts of poverty is how families’ financial misfortune is often compounded by involvement in the child welfare system. Symptoms of poverty—i.e. lack of access to a washer and dryer, food insecurity, unsafe housing, lack of heat in the winter—are often categorized as neglect during a child protective services investigation. Too often, rather than assisting families with the challenges of poverty, those investigations result in family separation.
The presence of poverty alone does not mean a child is unsafe, unloved, or that a parent lacks the capacity to care for his or her child. [1]
As a result of historic and systemic racism and discrimination, poverty is disproportionately experienced by Black and Latino communities;[2] this disproportionality is mirrored in the child welfare system, where Black and Latino children are disproportionately reported to the Statewide Central Register, separated from their families,[3] and spend their childhood in institutions, left to reenter society and achieve independence without permanent familial relationships.
These disparities in New York’s child welfare system persist, despite impressive progress to reduce the number of children that are unnecessarily separated from their families. Fortunately, there is a wealth of research pointing to solutions that reduce child poverty, unnecessary child welfare involvement, and child abuse and neglect:[4]
- Supportive housing programs (including vouchers) and housing subsidies
- Child care subsidies
- Medicaid expansion
- Increasing access to TANF
- Expanding the child tax credit[5]
To learn more about child welfare reform in New York, see Schuyler Center’s new blog post.
Sources
- Milner, J. & Kelly, D. 2020. It’s Time to Stop Confusing Poverty with Neglect. The Imprint. https://imprintnews.org/child-welfare-2/time-for-child-welfare-system-to-stop-confusing-poverty-with-neglect/40222
- Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy. 2024. A State Commitment to Reducing Child Poverty. https://scaany.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/A-State-Commitment-to-Reducing-Child-Poverty.pdf
- Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy. 2024. Fostering Transparency and Accountability in New York’s Child Welfare System. https://scaany.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Fostering-Transparency-and-Accountability-in-New-Yorks-Child-Welfare-System.pdf
- Chapin Hall. 2021. System Transformation to Support Child & Family Well-Being: The Central Role of Economic & Concrete Supports. https://www.chapinhall.org/wp-content/uploads/Economic-and-Concrete-Supports.pdf
- Center for the Study of Social Policy. 2022. Systemically Neglected: How Racism Structures Public Systems to Produce Child Neglect. https://cssp.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Systemically-Neglected-How-Racism-Structures-Public-Systems-to-Produce-Child-Neglect.pdf