Matter of Lawyers for Children v. New York State Off. of Children & Family Servs.

── Matter of Lawyers for Children v. New York State Off. of Children & Family Servs. ── Court: New York Court of Appeals Date: May 21, 2026 Category: General <div>Matter of Lawyers for Children v New York State Off. of Children &amp; Family Servs. - 2026 NY Slip Op 03218 <div> skip to main content </div> <div> <p>It appears you are using Adblock. Please disable Adblock to best experience our website.</p> </div> <div> <header> <div> <img src="/reporter/images/nys-logo-white.svg" alt=""> </div> <div> <span title="Law Reporting Bureau Home Page">Law Reporting <br>Bureau <span></span></span> <span>Thomas J.K. Smith, State Reporter</span> <nav> Court Decisions Resources About </nav> </div> <div> <img src="/reporter/images/lrb-seal.png" alt=""> </div> </header> </div> <nav> <ol> <li>Home</li> <li>All Court Decisions</li> <li>Decisions</li> </ol> </nav> <div> <div> <h1>Matter of Lawyers for Children v New York State Off. of Children &amp; Family Servs.</h1> <p>2026 NY Slip Op 03218</p> <p>May 21, 2026</p> <p>Court of Appeals</p> <p>Cannataro, J.</p> <p>Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.</p> <p>This decision is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.</p> </div> <div> <p>In the Matter of Lawyers For Children, et al., Appellants,</p> <p>v</p> <p>New York State Office of Children and Family Services et al., Respondents.</p> </div> <p>Decided on May 21, 2026</p> <p>No. 37</p> <div> <p>William C. Silverman, for appellants. </p> <p>Beezly J. Kiernan, for respondents. </p> <p>Merril Sobie, Columbia Law School Family Defense Clinic et al., Safe Families for Children Alliance, amici curiae.</p> </div> <p>Cannataro, J. </p> <span>[*1]</span> <p>The New York State Office of Children and Family Services ("OCFS") administratively created the Host Family Home program to function as an alternative to the state's statutory voluntary foster care regime. We hold that OCFS lacked the authority to do so, and therefore reverse.</p> <h2>I.</h2> <p>OCFS is charged with enforcing the child welfare laws and supervising the foster care system in New York (<i>see generally </i>Social Services Law §§ 17, 20). As part of its duties, OCFS administers the voluntary foster care system, pursuant to a statutory scheme which allows parents to temporarily place their child in the custody of an "authorized agency" without forfeiting their parental rights (<i>id. </i>§ 384-a). The authorized agency is then permitted to "place out" or "board out" the child with a foster family during the term of the placement (<i>id. </i>§§ 371, 374). Parents are generally entitled to reassume custody of their children at their discretion within 10-20 days of their request, even before the term of the placement has run (absent a court order preventing the recovery) (<i>see id. </i>§ 384-a [2] [a]).</p> <p>Before permitting parents to place a child in temporary foster care, OCFS is required to offer appropriate "preventive services," which are intended to help resolve the familial impairment or disruption so that the child need not be separated from the family home (<i>see </i>Social Services Law §§ 398 [1] [a], 409, 409-a [1] [a] [i]). One of the preventive services OCFS may offer is "respite care," or "the temporary care and supervision of a child to relieve parents . . . where immediate relief is needed to maintain or restore family functioning" (<i>id.</i> § 409-a [5] [f]). By <span>[*2]</span>regulation, OCFS can only offer respite care for up to 30 days at a time (with no exceptions), or up to seven weeks per year (absent extraordinary circumstances) (<i>see </i>18 NYCRR 435.5). In addition, OCFS must investigate whether any known family or friends could take care of the child before authorizing placement and must place siblings in the same foster home unless joint placement would not be in their