On behalf of nine named plaintiffs and a proposed class of tens of thousands of parents and other caretakers, the Family Justice Law Center, filed a major, first-of-its-kind class action lawsuit against New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) for having a pervasive and unnecessary practice of using highly coercive tactics to illegally search tens of thousands of families’ homes every year.  

For ACS to enter and search a family’s home, the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires ACS to have a court order or obtain voluntary consent, unless there is an emergency that would justify the search without a court order or consent. This lawsuit shows that ACS maintains an agency-wide illegal practice of coercing and threatening families so it can invasively search their homes—and even strip-search their children—without a court order and in the absence of any emergency.  

ACS caseworkers search families’ homes during nearly every one of the more than 50,000 investigations the agency conducts each year, affecting more than 90,000 children and 70,000 caretakers. 

ACS conducts over 99.5% of these home searches without a court order, although there is a clear process to get a court order if ACS thinks a home search is needed. Rather than follow that legal process, ACS uses highly coercive tactics to illegally enter and search families’ homes. ACS caseworkers lie to parents and withhold information from them about their rights, threaten to involve the police when police are clearly not needed, and even directly threaten to take parents’ children away from their care. ACS uses these coercive tactics even when no emergency exists because it is easier for them than following the legal process and they are not held accountable for violating it. The lack of accountability has led to an agency culture that encourages abuses of government authority.    

The trauma inflicted by these unconstitutional searches predominantly and disproportionately falls on Black and Hispanic families. More than 80% of the families that ACS investigates are Black or Hispanic. A Black child in New York City has a 50% chance of being subjected to an investigation by ACS during their childhood. 

ACS maintains a widespread practice of using highly coercive tactics to conduct home searches even though only a small percentage of ACS investigations result in determinations that the children need protection. ACS closes more than 70% of investigations as “unfounded.” Less than 7% of investigations lead ACS to bring charges against parents in Family Court. And many of the cases that ACS does file fail to withstand judicial scrutiny and are dismissed by courts.  

ACS investigations inflict tremendous harm on children, parents, and family relationships. These harms are unnecessary—children are just as safe when ACS conducts fewer home searches and follows lawful procedures when it searches homes. As numerous reports have shown – and ACS has acknowledged – a reduction in the number of home searches during the first years of COVID did not increase child abuse.