Fundamental Flaws of ACS: A Case Worker’s Perspective
Last year around this time, I was having a talk with my mom over the phone. I was unemployed and was aggressively looking for a job. As an international student, I had a time restriction to find a job to stay in the country. My mom asked- ‘I see you are looking for a job, do you know what exactly you want to do?’ I replied to her instantly ‘I want to work with immigrants and refugees to help bridge the resource gap.’ Before moving to New York City, I was determined to work with immigrants and refugees and be a resource for them. I was not sure what kind of resource I would be but I had the drive to work with a diverse community and use my multilingual skills.
My search led me to assist survivors of domestic violence and low-income families. While working as a case planner, case manager, and advocate for these communities, I worked with single mothers, single fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. While interning with the Domestic Violence Project at the Urban Justice Center, one of the questions I had to ask was if clients had an “ACS case.” ACS stands for Administration for Children Services, the government agency that is supposed to “support and stabilize families at risk of a crisis through preventive services, and provide foster care services for children who are not able to safely remain at home.” I was not fully aware of ACS and the work they did until I started working as a preventive case planner in July 2020.
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Before working as a case planner, I believed in the concept that government agencies like ACS were uplifting the best interest of the family, both financially and emotionally. I was responsible for conducting two home visits for each family once a month and providing preventive services to the clients who had a prior ACS case. On my first home visit in the Bronx, I was both excited and nervous. I gave myself a little pep talk before meeting my first client. “Shrij, you got this. You will help the family connect with community services and build a friendly relationship with your client.” While my spirits were high, little did I know what my client actually felt about me making visits to their house. After introducing myself to my first client, I asked her if she knew why I was coming to her house. She looked at me anxiously and said ‘to make sure we have our ends met and our children are safe.’ In other words, to police her and her family. She and her family made an extra effort to comply with the services recommended by ACS. I experienced a similar pattern of behavior towards me by other clients as well. After conducting multiple home visits, they would start to disclose their true interactions with ACS.
‘‘I was being misunderstood by ACS. My English is limited and they never take that into account.’
‘I was being told that I might face consequences for not complying with ACS services.’
‘We are afraid if we don’t comply with the service then they will take our children away.’
My perception of the Child Welfare System of the US started to change.
When I recommended service to one of my clients, he asked me if the service was mandated by the court. Being not fully sure, I called an ACS worker and was told, ‘your job is to convince clients to comply with services, not to discuss whether it is mandated by the court or not.’ After that conversation, I sat in the corner of the subway station and went through my job description. Nowhere in my job description was it mentioned that I was not allowed to give the correct information to my client. But then why did I decide to do this job? Up until that point, I thought that I was helping these families but I realized that I was part of the problem.
The problem is that these communities are coerced into complying with these services instead of being restored. In the end, I realized that I was doing nothing but parroting the ACS script and convincing my clients to comply with the recommended services. Did I try to find out what my clients were seeking help with? Yes, most of them were seeking financial assistance for housing and child care for their children. Most of my clients lost their jobs due to the pandemic and they were in need of financial assistance. One of my clients had to move to upstate New York because she could not afford to pay rent and utilities in the city. On one occasion, I called an ACS worker and informed her that the client was in need of financial assistance to pay her rent arrears. However, I did not receive any help or resources to refer the client for housing. Every case I had was different from one another but ACS had a script and they referred similar services to all the clients. Is that how will we provide a stable environment to children?
These contradicting ideas, as exhibited by the home visits I made, gave me an insight into the fight of immigrants and refugees with the Child Welfare System. The punitive ideology remains in the child welfare system. This system has always favored punishing the families instead of providing resources to navigate through their individual challenges. It baffles me how government officials and policymakers have never addressed the need to reform the child welfare system. Funding city agencies like ACS is never going to bring any changes. Instead of the traditional child welfare system, government officials and policymakers should invest in local communities, providing resources to immigrant and refugee families to navigate their way through life. For instance, providing education services, employment opportunities, and child care without the coercive pressure that ACS has. Giving individual families and local communities self-determination, so they may control their own lives, will lead to greater positive outcomes.
