Child Welfare Agency Has No Right to Target Abused Parents, Court Rules

New York City’s practice of requiring child welfare investigations of parents who are victims of domestic violence is illegal, a state appellate court ruled on Wednesday.

The decision came in an appeal filed by a Brooklyn woman who said her ex-boyfriend beat and slapped her and pulled out her dreadlocks in front of their infant daughter. The woman is identified in court documents as Sharneka W.

In a 2023 Family Court case, a judge issued an order of protection barring Ms. W.’s ex-boyfriend from the home. But he also told her that though she had not been “accused of anything,” she would have to consent to “announced and unannounced visits” from city child welfare investigators in order to keep custody of her daughter. The investigators could interrogate her, search her apartment and physically examine the child for signs of abuse.

Such supervision orders are requested by child welfare agencies and granted by judges thousands of times a year in New York State, according to advocates for families.

But on Wednesday, a four-judge panel of the appellate division of State Supreme Court ruled that nothing in the state’s Family Court law gave a judge the right to place Ms. W. under the supervision of the Administration for Children’s Services, the city’s child welfare agency.

The panel cited the fundamental principle that the government must not intrude on people’s rights to care for their children except when necessary for the children’s safety.