On February 21, 2024, ECBAWM and co-counsel the Family Justice Law Center of the Urban Justice Center, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, and the NYU School of Law Family Defense Clinic filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of New York on behalf of nine plaintiffs, challenging the NYC Administration for Children Services’ (ACS) widespread use of highly coercive tactics to enter and search tens of thousands’ of families homes every year in violation of their Fourth Amendment rights.

ACS conducts invasive home searches during nearly all of the over 50,000 investigations the agency completes each year, affecting over 70,000 caretakers and 90,000 children. ACS caseworkers tell parents they have no choice but to let them in and even threaten to take children away or call the police if parents refuse entry. Once inside, ACS caseworkers routinely read labels in medicine cabinets, open dresser drawers, and even demand to see children’s near naked bodies, without regard to whether these searches have any connection to the reason for the investigation.

ACS’s unlawful use of coercive tactics to enter and search families’ homes overwhelming affects Black and Hispanic families, who represent 80% of families investigated by ACS every year. A Black child in New York has a 50% chance of being subjected to an ACS investigation by their 18th birthday.

Our clients’ stories show how ACS’s unconstitutional home search practices cause lasting harm. Parents and children alike feel powerless as strangers from ACS with government badges assert total authority over their homes and bodies.

This historic lawsuit, which seeks to end this unconstitutional practice as well as monetary damages for the plaintiffs, is being litigated by ECBAWM attorneys Katie Rosenfeld and Max Selver, as well attorneys from the Family Justice Law Center of the Urban Justice Center, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, and the NYU School of Law Family Defense Clinic.

Press:
“Child Abuse Investigators Traumatize Families, Lawsuit Charges,” NY Times
“ACS routinely violates NYC families’ rights during child welfare investigations: lawsuit,” NY Daily News
“Lawsuit Over ACS Practices,” Brian Lehrer Show
“Class-action lawsuit filed against city’s Ad­min­is­tration for Children’s Services,” New York 1
“NYC child welfare investigators coerce, traumatize families, class-action lawsuit claims,” Gothamist
“Parents Are Suing New York City Over Coercive, Traumatizing Home Searches,” Mother Jones