A new law next year will require callers to New York’s child abuse and neglect hotline to leave their name and contact information, ending a practice of “anonymous reporting” that advocates said was ripe for harassment.
Though lodging malicious reports of child maltreatment were already illegal, anonymity has made it virtually impossible to hold bad actors accountable for abusing the system. But prior efforts to end the practice hit a snag out of fear it could deter necessary reports.
The legislation, signed by Gov. Hochul in the final days of this year, aims to strike a balance: While banning anonymous reporting, it also prohibits the state from releasing identifying information about a confidential reporter.
“In my decades working in the field, we see folks abuse this system routinely,” said Christine Gottlieb, an assistant law professor at New York University and the director of its family defense clinic. “Sometimes it’s landlords, sometimes it’s neighbors who have some sort of grievance, sometimes it’s an ex-partner of the adult. It really can be anyone, and that was the problem: Anyone could pick up the phone and trigger this.”
“This legislation is a significant change because it will decrease the number of malicious, false reports that lead to extremely invasive investigations that are very distressing to children and parents unnecessarily,” Gottlieb added.
In New York City, one in 24 child welfare cases is called in by an anonymous reporter, but such calls are rarely found credible, according to the New York City Family Policy Project. Just 6.7% of cases based on anonymous calls were substantiated in 2023, compared to 22.5% of all cases, the think tank found. Those cases often involve Black and Brown low-income families, and may be traumatizing — involving home visits or even strip searches of children.
The reforms, advocates say, will spare families such an experience, while freeing up resources to focus on credible allegations of child abuse instead of frivolous reports.
“We support limitations on anonymous reports to curb malicious reporting, with appropriate carve-outs that keep children safe should the [hotline] operator believe a child is in imminent risk or the child is the caller,” said Marisa Kaufman, a spokeswoman for the Administration for Children’s Services. “We look forward to seeing the chapter amendments and to a future without anonymous, malicious reports.”
The bill was sponsored by State Sen. Jabari Brisport (D-Brooklyn) and Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Queens), and passed both houses of the state Legislature with a majority of support. It was amended by Gov. Hochul — whose office did not return a request for comment — to allow for anonymous reporting by minors themselves.
With the governor’s signature, New York will become the third state — after Texas and California — to ban or discourage anonymous reporting. The law will go into effect next summer, after hotline operators receive training in how to answer questions about confidentiality protections and when to transfer callers to a supervisor.
Joyce McMillan, a parent advocate who for years has been pushing for an end to anonymous reporting, celebrated the measure’s signing into law, which she said will help “stop the overzealous behavior toward families — that just destroys them.”
“I’m happy the governor saw the importance of this bill at the end of the day,” McMillan said, “and chose to do what was right.”
