A mom in the hospital ready to give birth has no one to keep her 3-year-old child. A parent delays elective surgery because they have no one to watch their kids for the recovery period. A mom of a 5-year-old needs a mental health break after her parents passed away. A grandma raising 3-year-old twins is hospitalized with pneumonia and needs someone to take care of the twins. A dad of six kids has one child that needs a bone marrow transplant and wants to be able to stay some nights with his hospitalized child.
These parents have nowhere to turn. They don’t have family or friends to call for help. They don’t have the resources to pay for overnight child care. What should these parents do?
New York’s state Office of Children and Family Services has passed regulations that provide a free community-based response for these parents. It is called “hosting.”
Hosting allows thoroughly vetted community members to voluntarily provide short term child care in their home for parents who have no other options. These community members and their homes are highly screened to ensure that hosted children are safe and well cared for. The volunteer community members receive no payment or stipend for providing this service. They are simply good neighbors who want to support fellow NYC families.
A group of law firms that represent children have sued in Rensselaer County, claiming that these regulations are unnecessary based on the argument that parents already have a viable option in New York: to voluntarily place their children in foster care. The law firms are advocating that children need legal representation and oversight from the courts simply because their families do not have viable child care options.
I challenge the law firms to find even one child who would prefer foster care over staying in a community member’s home. A home the parent has chosen where their parent can visit them at any time. A home where their parent can pick them up at any time. Find one child that would rather talk to a lawyer than have their parent make a child care decision on their behalf. A parent who makes all decisions on their behalf because they love them and know what’s best for them.
A child doesn’t need legal representation or court involvement in these scenarios. They need child care. They need a community to surround them with support while their mom gives birth or while their dad has surgery. They need connections to community members who care. Community members who are voluntarily giving their time and homes to other community members because they don’t want children unnecessarily caught up in the child welfare system.
Safe Families is an organization that is ready to recruit community members to provide free overnight child care for families with no other options. This lawsuit, which has a hearing today, is blocking our ability to provide such resources to families. The scenarios at the beginning are not hypothetical. They are all calls that Safe Families NYC has received over the last year. Hear directly from parents who have requested hosting from Safe Families NYC.
- So they are saying I am a bad parent if I am going through something in my life?
- This is discriminating against the rights of parents in New York City. We have the right to choose to help ourselves, we have the right to fix our lives, we have the right to choose who will help us in times of need. We have the right to be a great parent without people poking in our business and without the system telling us that we are not good enough! We have the right to be a parent!
- I hope that they see us as a person, as a human being that loves their children and if I have to go to the emergency room or take care of my health without the Administration for Children’s Services or the system getting involved that would be the best help I can get!
- So they are saying we can’t get help without the system getting involved? Do they know how hard your life would be when the system gets involved?
We continue to receive calls from parents requesting hosting. New York, what are we supposed to tell these parents? To voluntarily place their child in foster care? No one would inflict that harm on a child. And aside from these hosting regulations, there are no other options.
New York, help us bring community resources to families. We hope you’ll join us in the mission to surround families with community support.
Galt is the NYC director of Safe Families for Children.
