State law to slice a lifeline for New York’s abused kids

Want to report a case of child abuse? Better be prepared to give your name and phone number, too.

The state Legislature last month passed a bill that would outlaw anonymous reports to the state’s central hotline for child abuse and neglect.

The bill now awaits Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature. 

But the governor should think twice before putting her stamp of approval on this one: The claims of activists pushing this legislation don’t hold up to scrutiny — and discouraging reports of child maltreatment will put more kids in danger.

For years, advocates have claimed that anonymous reports are nothing more than a means of facilitating harassment of innocent parents.

They have insisted that embittered exes, devious landlords seeking to oust tenants, even nosy “Karens” who don’t like the way another person parents can use anonymous reports to unfairly put families in the authorities’ crosshairs.

“False reports waste time and resources that could be spent on actual cases of child abuse,” California state Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer wrote of a similar law that recently passed in the Golden State. “They compound the suffering of families that are already struggling.”

“This bill will transform people’s lives,” asserted Juval Scott of The Bronx Defenders, a public-defense nonprofit, who used Juneteenth as a pretext to claim the new rules will protect “thousands of families from the threat of family surveillance and separation.”

Scott, along with many other advocates, claims that anonymous reporting perpetuates racial bias.

As the bill language itself argues, “meritless” anonymous allegations drive “inexcusable racial disparities that disproportionately impact Black and Brown families,” subjecting them to child-welfare investigations “that can forever change a family.”

Advocates are correct that anonymous reports are less likely to be substantiated than reports from social-service workers. They are far less likely to cause children to be taken immediately into foster care.

But when you look at the long-term outcomes of anonymous calls, the picture shifts radically.

A recent paper in the journal Child Abuse and Neglect found that, according to national data, children who have been reported anonymously are more likely to be re-reported to authorities than those reported by social service workers — and also more likely to end up in foster care at a later date.

In other words, anonymous reports are not frivolous reports.

Only a very small percentage of kids who are reported for abuse and neglect ever wind up in foster care. Those who do must be investigated thoroughly by a child welfare agency — and a judge must sign off on any removal.

The study, published in March, found that kids who are reported anonymously are ultimately more likely to be removed from their families than kids who are reported by medical personnel, law enforcement, child-care workers or education personnel.

So who are these anonymous callers? It’s hard to tell, but the data indicate that anonymous reporters most closely resemble another category of people commonly known to raise alarms in child maltreatment cases: friends and neighbors.

Why would friends and neighbors want to remain anonymous? The same reason anyone reporting a crime might want to do so: They do not want to anger the perpetrators — and in some cases, they might fear for their personal safety.

Proponents of New York’s rule change say that the hotline’s reports will remain “confidential,” even if reporters are required to give their names to the state.

But many potential reporters will rightly be nervous anyway. If you hear your violent neighbor beating his kids, would you want to leave your name with authorities?

There’s no doubt that some anonymous calls to state child-abuse hotlines are fraudulent. But the same is true of any crime.

The answer to such an egregious abuse of the system is to investigate and punish anyone who uses it to make false claims — not to remove a potential lifeline for children at grave risk.

Suppressing calls to a child-abuse hotline only helps adults. Hochul should remember the real victims as she considers this ill-advised measure.

Naomi Schaefer Riley is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.