Attorneys say Onondaga County is falling short on children’s services

Onondaga County families are still waiting for help that state law says they should already be getting, family-law attorneys told lawmakers as they pressed for more preventive services, more foster homes and lighter caseloads for overworked caseworkers.

The Health and Human Services Committee opened the discussion May 13 in the Legislative Chambers at the County Courthouse in Syracuse, then continued it May 14 at the Salt City Market Community Room on South Salina Street. County officials later said the chambers hearing drew a full gallery, with testimony from attorneys, advocates, doctors, educators and residents.

Attorney Bryn Lovejoy-Grinnell said New York law requires counties to do more than hand families a list of places to call. Under Social Services Law Section 409-A, officials must provide preventive services when a child is at risk of foster care placement and those services are likely to keep the child safely with family. In practice, Lovejoy-Grinnell said, that can mean parent aides, help with errands, parenting support and assistance with housing stability, but she said she has not seen those supports in many recent cases.

Robin Zimpel, another Syracuse attorney, said parent aides have disappeared from the system and parents often do not know about rent help that the law allows, including subsidies of up to $725 a month for as long as three years. Annette Scott, who works with abused and neglected children, said Onondaga County needs more foster homes so children are not sent far from home or left in institutions for years. Lovejoy-Grinnell said that kind of breakdown can create generational trauma.

The county’s own budget documents show it had already started adding staff and money to the child welfare system. The 2025 budget added 10 caseworker positions and 5 caseworker assistant positions in Child Welfare, along with about $900,000 for supervised visitation and preventive services. County officials said in a 2024 budget review that higher foster care rates and more case counts were driving up costs and overtime.

State child welfare rules put the burden squarely on county agencies. The New York State Office of Children and Family Services says county child protective services units must investigate abuse and maltreatment reports, protect children from further harm and provide rehabilitative services to children and families. OCFS also lists a preventive-services partnership between the county Department of Children and Family Services and The Salvation Army Syracuse Area Services, along with a domestic-violence collaboration involving Vera House.

The county’s own service listings point parents toward available help, but one referral link was dead when the issue reached lawmakers. That gap, attorneys said, is exactly where children and families are falling through the cracks: not in theory, but in the time it takes for a struggling parent to find a real person, a real opening and a service that arrives before a child is removed from home.