Parents who kept kids at home for fear of Covid are reported for neglect

New York families have been caught in a web of child protective services that disproportionately affects poor families of color

Paullette Healy can tick off the ways her family's life has been disrupted over the last three months: her younger child's nightmares, the hours she has poured into collecting evidence to prove she's a fit parent and an arduous legal process that still looms to clear her name.

From early November through 1 January, the Brooklyn family was under investigation by the administration for children's services, or ACS, the New York City agency tasked with looking into suspected cases of child abuse and neglect. Healy had been reported for educational neglect" for not sending her two children to school amid Covid fears, though she says her kids kept up with their work remotely.