Abigail Kramer

ProPublica • 4th May 2023

NYC Schools Handcuff and Haul Away Kids in Emotional Crisis

Despite a pledge to stop relying on police to deal with students who have mental health episodes, New York City schools have continued to call 911 on kids in distress thousands of times a year, an investigation by THE CITY and ProPublica found.

THE CITY • 23rd May 2023

Success Academy Calls 911 on Students in Mental Health Crisis, Writing Its Own Rules

In a panic, if she floors it, Marilyn Blanco can drive from her job at the Rikers Island jail complex to her son Ian’s school in Harlem in less than 18 minutes.

ProPublica • 17th November 2022

Public Schools Are NYC’s Main Youth Mental Health System. Where Kids Land Often Depends on What Their Parents Can Pay.

Most kids labeled as having an “emotional disability” and shunted into public special education schools are Black or Latino, and low income — while wealthier families more often access a taxpayer-funded free private education.

ProPublica • 8th June 2022

New York Let Residences for Kids With Serious Mental Health Problems Vanish. Desperate Families Call the Cops Instead.

Many residential treatment facilities for children in New York are shutting down, leaving families frustrated and scrambling to find mental health services. Some kids age out of care as they wait.

ProPublica • 31st March 2022

New York State Failed to Provide Legally Required Mental Health Care to Kids, Lawsuit Claims

Plaintiffs allege the state’s Medicaid program has caused young people with serious mental health conditions to suffer unnecessarily, ending up in hospitals and residential treatment programs because they can’t access vital services.

ProPublica • 28th March 2022

Cuomo Set Out to “Transform” Mental Health Care for Kids. Now They Can’t Get Treatment.

New York cut nearly a third of state-run psychiatric hospital beds for children, pledging to reinvest the funds in outpatient measures. There’s no evidence it worked.

Center for New York City Affairs • 31st January 2021

In Covid-Era New York, Suicidal Kids Spend Days Waiting for Hospital Beds

As the Covid-19 pandemic grinds on, hospitals around New York State report a growing crisis for children who need mental health care: Suicide attempts and other psychiatric emergencies are up, inpatient units are full, and very sick kids spend days in loud and crowded emergency rooms, waiting for beds to open up.

Center for New York City Affairs • 4th January 2021

Out of Jail and Homeless: City Struggles to Stop Covid-19’s Spread

Stefan Outlaw had just recovered from the worst of his Covid-19 symptoms when he learned that a charitable fund had paid to bail him out of the Rikers Island jail. But now he found himself in a situation that's far from uncommon for people leaving jails and prisons in New York: On the street at 2:00 a.m. with no money, no phone, and nowhere to go.

Center for New York City Affairs • 7th August 2020

Kids and Covid-19: A Mental Health Crisis Looms

Hospitals are seeing an influx of young people in dangerous psychiatric crisis. Doctors warn that many won't get the help they need.

Center for New York City Affairs • 20th April 2020

After Deaths of Juvenile Detention Staff Members, Parents Fear for Their Children's Safety

Covid-19 has torn through the City's juvenile detention centers. Frantic parents say their kids should be sent home.

Center for New York City Affairs • 20th April 2020

Child Welfare Limbo: Covid-19 Puts Family Reunifications On ‘Indefinite’ Hold

Amid the chaos caused by Covid-19, New York City parents with kids in the child welfare system have lost access to the Family Court judges normally entrusted with protecting their rights. In at least one case, the City's child welfare agency held custody of a child for more than a week without seeking permission from a judge, according to family members who were desperate to bring the child home.

Center for New York City Affairs • 20th April 2020

Backfire: When Reporting Domestic Violence Means You Get Investigated for Child Abuse

Child welfare investigators are often among the first responders to domestic violence cases. Officials say their goal is to help not just kids but adult victims, protecting them from abusers and steering them into services like therapy or shelter. But critics say that child welfare interventions often go terribly wrong, turning domestic violence victims into suspects and creating chaos for vulnerable families.

Center for New York City Affairs • 28th February 2019

Banned for 28 Years: How Child Welfare Accusations Keep Women out of the Workforce

Nearly every state keeps a database of people investigated for child abuse or neglect. On its face, the goal is unassailable: to keep abusers away from potential victims. But critics say the registries are much too long and easy to land on—especially for low-income women of color, who are subject to far more than their share of child welfare investigations.

Center for New York City Affairs • 31st January 2019

Long Hours, High Caseloads: An Ongoing Surge of Cases Weighs on Child Welfare Workers

In the poorest neighborhoods of New York City, frontline child welfare workers carry dangerously high caseloads — a fact that is obscured by the city's reporting.

Politico New York • 30th January 2019

Busts, but not a solution, from NYPD tracking of housing feuds

Massive conspiracy indictments are designed to bring down entire crews at once. But public housing residents describe the city's recent gang busts as just another version of the policing they've always had: too big, too reliant on tenuous evidence, and far too quick to brand an entire neighborhood of kids as criminals.

Center for New York City Affairs • 9th February 2019

Family Court Reform: Is there hope for 'the saddest place in New York?'

New York's family courts are notorious for delay and dysfunction. But court administrators say that if there has ever been a time for positive change, it’s now.

New York Daily News • 28th June 2014

Child-care help... for some

Nearly 50% of the city's low-income child care vouchers were used in just two Brooklyn neighborhoods — each home to politically powerful Orthodox Jewish communities.