Dale Margolin Cecka (’04), Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Family Violence Litigation Clinic at Albany Law School, authored a guest essay for Newsday calling out the New York State Assembly’s failure to pass proposed legislation which would replace anonymous reporting to Child Protective Services with a system of strict confidentiality, after similar measures were adopted in Texas and California (“NYS Should Not Allow Anonymous Reporting of Child Abuse,” Jul. 1). “According to an April report, abolishment of anonymous reporting in Texas led to an 18% reduction in child fatalities. The lesson: If we allow CPS to focus on meritorious cases instead of overwhelming them with anonymous calls that are statistically unlikely to be actionable, they do their jobs better. Requiring CPS to obtain the caller’s name, address, and information before taking steps that can be potentially traumatizing to a family is an absolute must.”
