Watching the Numbers 2026

Watching the Numbers

Our annual Watching the Numbers report monitors trends in the child protective system, and our latest edition includes six years of data ending with City Fiscal Year 2025. The data provides an overview of how New York City’s child protective system is operating, and tells a story about reforms and the durability of the system.

The system remains smaller than it was in the bad old days of decades past. During the Covid-19 lockdown, the number of families in contact with the system contracted, which demonstrated that child safety did not rely on previously high levels of investigations and supervision. Some of these downward trends have been sustained; others have increased over time. For many of these indicators, however, the shifts are modest and mask the continuing hardships experienced by families. For example:

  • The number of families taken to Family Court and placed under Court-ordered supervision decreased in FY25, continuing a generally steady decrease over the six-year term.
  • The total foster care population continued on a downward slope to 6,414 children in foster care in FY25. Yet the number of children admitted to foster care increased to 3,072 in CY24 -- rising above 3,000 for the first time since 2019.
  • The use of emergency removals by the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) continues to hover around 1,400 per year. It is the subject of a new class action lawsuit charging that the agency abuses its emergency powers, disproportionately targeting Black and Latinx families and removing children without a court order.
  • The number of abuse and neglect reports has bounced around but has been consistently higher than during the pandemic, even as fewer than 30 percent of these reports are eventually substantiated.
  • Older children, those ages 10-17, represent a larger percentage of children entering foster care in recent years. ACS attributes this rise to young people with behavioral health challenges.
  • Sibling separation remains high, with nearly 40 percent of siblings separated in foster care.
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