The NY Times reports that Mayor Bloomberg's big budget cuts will severely effect an Administration for Children's Services program focused on preventing abuse and helping families in trouble. Bloomberg wants to cut $12 million "and because the state matches city money for the agency, by nearly 2 to 1, the total reduction would amount to more than $35 million."
The preventive services program got a push after the death of Nixzmary Brown, who was repeatedly brutally beaten by her stepfather while ACS was monitoring the family. Advocates say the program has saved money because it costs less than foster care ($10,000 vs. $36,000). An independent advocacy group found that over three years, "the services had been vital to preventing abuse, neglect and foster care placements" and the cuts will affect many neighborhoods with high rates of abuse: "In Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where Nixzmary Brown lived, more than half of the reported cases of abuse or neglect in 2009 were substantiated by the agency. The neighborhood would lose about a quarter of its preventive services under the mayor’s plan."
ACS Commissioner John Mattingly told the Times, "Naturally, Children’s Services would prefer not to reduce the city’s preventive service capacity. Unfortunately, the city’s current budget situation has required us to make reductions across all of the types of services we provide."
