A new effort is building to reform New York's system that tracks alleged acts of abuse or maltreatment of children as state data shows the majority of calls are unfounded — putting thousands of families through unnecessary investigations.

Assembly Children and Families Committee chair Andrew Hevesi plans to introduce a package of bills by the end of the year to reform the Statewide Central Register, or SCR, managed by the state Office of Children and Family Services.

The system, created in 1973, was incentivized by the federal government to get as many people to report child abuse and maltreatment as possible, including the addition of criminal and civil penalties.

But now, over-reporting is giving the state the opposite problem.

"We've got to strike the balance between you want to keep an eye out protecting kids from abuse and maltreatment, but you also don't want to expose too many families to these kinds of investigations," Hevesi told Spectrum News 1.

About 80% of the child abuse calls accepted by the state Office of Children and Family Services in 2022 were unfounded, which subjected thousands of children and their families to invasive investigations by Child Protective Services — especially in poor or minority communities.

And calls of child abuse or maltreatment in the state have increased with more than 300,000 calls accepted by the state Office of Children and Family Services last year.

The system plays a critical role in keeping children safe across the state, but Hevesi plans to update the system's outdated protocols with a legislative package next session to protect children from unnecessary investigations that can be traumatizing.

"CPS can knock on your door at any time," the assemblyman said. "When they come in, they can demand access to your kids, including strip searching the kids [and] have the kids take their clothes off to see if there's abuse. They're allowed to do that."

Hevesi, a Queens Democrat, led a public hearing alone about the issue Wednesday in Albany. All assemblymembers on the Children and Families Committee were invited to participate, but no other lawmakers attended or participated amid the busy election cycle.

Several parents Wednesday testified about the longterm negative impacts of unannounced home inspections, interviews, requests for medical and educational records and more. 

"You had parents testify today that they are now, them and their kids, are scared of a knock on the door by government," the assemblyman said. "...And this is a generational problem. And then these cases don't go away. We even let them linger on longer than we should. So there's a lot to work on here."

Calls are made by people who are required by law to report suspected cases of child abuse, and others who are not mandated reporters. Callers must demonstrate a reasonable cause to suspect that a minor has been harmed or is in imminent danger, and trained specialists decide what action is needed.

"OCFS fully acknowledges that New York's child welfare system is not perfect, and that quality controls and improvements must be continuous," Commissioner DaMia Harris-Madden said during testimony. 

Harris-Madden recently met with Hevesi and showed him the details of how New York's child welfare system works. The system is the first and often only line of defense for abused and maltreated children in New York.

"We endeavor to strike that critical balance between upholding our statutory responsibility to protect New York's most vulnerable children and not subjecting families to the unnecessary scrutiny of CPS," the commissioner said.

Hevesi sponsors legislation to change state law to require alleged child abuse calls be confidential, instead of anonymous, to cut down on unfounded complaints.

The assemblyman's office will continue to work on several other pieces of related legislation to improve the system in the coming weeks, or before session resumes in January.

He does not expect tweaking the system to cost the state much money, outside training for OCFS staff and child protective specialists, but added he'll work with the department every step of the way.

"This is not a partisan issue," Hevesi said. "We have a system that is now causing some harm, so we're going to have to put our heads together and figure out the best practices, but everybody is on the same page. We're going to try to do everything we can to protect the kids of New York state."

The state categorizes its child abuse and maltreatment calls differently than the federal government. New York is one of only six states that does not report out its calls to the National Child Abuse and Neglect data system, Hevesi said.