Pleasantville, N.Y., Struggles to Handle an Influx of Kids in Crisis
A bucolic town is seeing a showdown between leaders of a century-old children’s residence unequipped to treat acute mental health challenges and locals tired of troubled young people disturbing the peace.
Local Reporting Network
New York Charter Schools Write Their Own Rules for When to Call 911 on Students Having a Mental Health Crisis
Families say Success Academy and other publicly funded but privately run schools are allowed to punish and discriminate against students by calling in emergency services.
Local Reporting Network
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.
Local Reporting Network
The Balancing Act of Reporting on Vulnerable Kids While Protecting Their Privacy
Journalists are often expected to identify their sources, but reporting on children presents a number of dilemmas, particularly when issues of mental health are involved.
Local Reporting Network
Public Schools Are NYC’s Main Youth Mental Health System — and They’re Devastatingly Unequal
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.
Local Reporting Network
“We’re at a Crisis Point”: NY Attorney General Hearing Spotlights Child Mental Health Care Failures
After THE CITY and ProPublica exposed a dramatic drop in beds at state psychiatric hospitals, New York’s top law enforcer takes agonized testimony from patients and providers — and the parent who’d told us of her son’s monthslong wait for care.
Local Reporting Network
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.
Local Reporting Network
New York Increases Funding of Mental Health Care for Kids
The additional millions are intended to help pay for a wide range of programs, including residential treatment. Gov. Kathy Hochul claims it addresses the bed shortage that has left young people in mental health crisis waiting months for admission.
Local Reporting Network
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.
Local Reporting Network
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.
Local Reporting Network