THE NYC ADMINISTRATION FOR CHILDREN’S SERVICES (ACS) DID NOT MEET ITS BURDEN TO PROVE IT MADE DILIGENT EFFORTS TO HELP REUNITE FATHER WITH HIS CHILD IN THIS PARENTAL-RIGHTS-TERMINATION PROCEEDING (CT APP).
The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Rivera, reversing Family Court, determined the NYC Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) did not demonstrate “that it undertook ‘diligent efforts to encourage and strengthen the parental relationship’ or that such efforts would have been ‘detrimental to the best interests of the child’…” in this termination of parental rights proceeding:
The record below demonstrates that the child services agency failed to present evidence of diligent efforts to help reunite father and his child before it petitioned to terminate father’s parental rights. First, the agency failed to adequately accommodate and account for father’s linguistic needs. Father does not speak or understand English, but the agency never provided interpretive services during family visits, which were the most significant interactions between father, the child, the agency caseworker, and the child’s foster parents. The agency also failed to provide interpretation services at the child’s medical appointments or even give father advance notice of when those appointments were scheduled, precluding him from taking part in that critical aspect of his child’s care. Second, despite the child services agency’s belief that father’s lack of insight into mother’s mental health needs and their impact on parenting the child was the weightiest barrier to reunification, it failed to refer father to individual counseling or a support group so he could gain that insight. Finally, although the child services agency identified father’s living arrangements and onerous work schedule as further obstacles to reunification, it took few steps to help him secure appropriate housing or employment, which could have made it easier for father to visit his child.
In short, in this proceeding, rather than foster reunification, almost all of the child services agency’s actions—and its failures to take action—ensured that the parent-child bond disintegrated. Thus, the child services agency failed to meet its burden as a matter of law … . Matter of K.Y.Z. (W.Z.), 2025 NY Slip Op 05781, CtApp 10-21-25
Practice Point: Here Children’s Services did not provide an interpreter for father for meetings with the caseworker and foster parents, did not give father advance notice of the child’s medical appointments, made no effort to help father find less burdensome employment or better housing, and did not provide counseling to help him gain insight into mother’s mental illness. “Diligent efforts” to reunite father and child were not made by the agency.