NYC Takes Hundreds Of Kids From Parents In 'Emergencies': Report

NEW YORK — New York City's child welfare agency has increasingly used a provision in state law to unilaterally separate hundreds of kids from their parents, according to a new report.

State law allows the Administration for Children's Services to take kids out of dangerous homes without family court approval when there's "imminent danger to the child’s life or health," WNYC reported Wednesday.

Though it's supposed to be reserved for "emergency" situations, the city invoked the power to take custody of 1,966 kids with no court order in 2017 — or 48% of all the children who were taken from their parents that year, according to WNYC.

That reflected an increase from 2014, when emergency removals accounted for 34% of roughly 4,000 cases, the story says.

There are also reportedly massive racial disparities in how the power is used. Some 87% of kids removed from homes under the emergency provision last year were black and Latino, while just 5% were white and 2% were Asian, WNYC reported.

"There is no doubt that we do need a state mechanism in place to ensure that children who are in that situation are kept safe," Emma Ketteringham of The Bronx Defenders told WNYC. "But what we have seen in the last couple of years is an increase in the exercise of the emergency removal power in cases where it is later determined not to be warranted."

Read the full WNYC report here.