Foster Care System
According to reports, the New York City family court system is completely overwhelmed with no help in sight. With massive budget cuts coming down from both Governor Patterson and Mayor Bloomberg ($1.2 billion and $1 billion by 2010, respectively), help isn’t likely to come soon. The overloaded court system is working as fast as possible, but many children are languishing in foster care for years waiting for their case to be heard in court.
"You have a certain exigency to cases involving children," Judge Ann Pfau, chief administrative judge for New York state courts. "You want to be able to resolve problems as quickly as possible, you just want stability for the child. Six months in criminal court case is different from six months in a family court case. Six months is a very long time for a child. We think about it all the time."
There are 47 judges assigned to Family Court in New York City, and about 146 statewide who handle more than 750,000 filings each year. In New York City, judges regularly have more than 2,000 cases pending, and can hear more than 50 cases per day.
Studies shows that 14 additional judges need to be added in New York City alone to lower the caseload, but with the budget cuts that is not likely to come. There are 17,000 children in the New York City foster care system, and they spend about an average of five years in foster care.
