Continuing to Protect New York City's Children
By Mayor Rudy Giuliani

One of the most important responsibilities of government is to protect children from harm. Over the course of my term, we have fully accepted this responsibility, instituting reforms that have improved the safety of children in our city. This week, I would like to share with you some of the most recent steps we've taken to build on our successes and further improve the safety of children in New York.

In 1995, following the tragic death of 6-year-old Elisa Izquierdo, our administration embarked upon the complete reform and restructuring of the City's child welfare system. The creation of the Administration for Children's Services (ACS) was the first time in New York City's history that an independent agency was dedicated solely to services for children and families, with its own budget, management structure, and a Commissioner held directly accountable for the success or failure of the agency. Our bold experiment has proven a success, and I'm pleased to be able to say that it has become a model for the rest of the country.

ACS has achieved a record 20,075 adoptions during the past six years, while reducing the City's foster care population to today's level of 31,000. ACS has also accomplished an equally impressive reduction in a caseworker's caseload from 28 in 1996 to about 13 currently.

Now that ACS has accomplished its original reform goals, it is time to move into the next phase of reform. A plan announced least week in a City Hall press conference outlines the steps we're going to take to ensure that the progress we have made to date is secure and that further reform is pursued.

ACS's new plan of action is organized around four major areas: further developing and expanding neighborhood-based services; strengthening the availability, quality, and affordability of child care services; improving the achievement of permanency for children, and a more intense engagement of families; and developing systems of continuous quality improvement in all ACS services.

The new plan builds on the remarkable record of reform which ACS has achieved in improving the delivery of services to the children who are most in need. I ask New Yorkers to join with me in urging the City Council to pass legislation, Intro. 770, to make ACS a permanent charter agency so that this successful innovation can continue to protect our city's children well into the future.

The City is also working to raise awareness of a State law that is designed to protect abandoned newborns. The Abandoned Infant Protection Act protects individuals from criminal prosecution for abandoning a newborn child as long as the baby is unharmed, and in a safe place - ideally a hospital or firehouse.

After the bill was enacted last July, I established a subcommittee of the Mayor's Child Abuse Task Force to coordinate infant protection policies and public outreach among the numerous City agencies that have an interest in this issue, including the five District Attorneys.

The Abandoned Infant Protection Act is a sensible law that reduces the likelihood that fear of criminal prosecution would drive an individual to endanger a baby through abandonment - or worse. Numerous City agencies are now working hard to ensure that all New Yorkers are made aware of this important law.

Schools should be the last place where children are at risk from violence or abuse. That's why last week the City proposed legislation to protect children by requiring school staff to immediately report crimes involving the health and safety of a child to the Police Department and the principal. The bill enlists the NYPD to investigate suspected criminal incidents and drastically reduces the chances that cases will be lost in a vast bureaucracy.

The bill would also provide Board of Education personnel with immunity from any civil liability arising from filing a report in good faith. However, anyone who knowingly fails to file a report would be guilty of a misdemeanor, subject to a possible one-year jail sentence and/or a fine of up to $1,000.

This bill is designed to send a clear signal that if you have information about a crime that's connected to a school, you must report it to the appropriate authorities. I would like to thank Schools Chancellor Harold Levy, City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, and Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik for their support and their willingness to go to whatever lengths necessary to make our schools safe.

All New Yorkers want the children of our city to be safe from harm. These proactive measures will help us move even closer to that goal.