New York City’s foster care system has a new head honcho. Ronald Richter was most recently a Queens Family Court judge, and before that an ACS deputy commissioner and a Legal Aid Society lawyer. In September 2011, he took over from John Mattingly to lead the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). It’s a huge job. Not only is Richter responsible for 14,000 foster children; he also runs the city’s juvenile justice system and early childhood education programs. Represent interviewed Commissioner Richter at his downtown office to find out what he’s got in store for older youth in care.

Q: What changes are you planning to make to help teens in the foster care system?

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A: A lot of the cases that are coming into the division of child protection involve families struggling with issues that concern their teens. We have to figure out a better way to help our frontline child protection specialists provide better tools to those families so that those teenagers do not come into our agency in the first place. We need to help families figure out how to work with their teenagers at home.

There was one part of the teenage population that I felt immediately I needed to do something about: [teen moms]. As a judge I found these cases to be the hardest, when I had to consider the removal of a baby from a mother who was in care herself. It’s very important to me to figure out how we can help teen moms in care reduce the likelihood that they actually abuse or neglect their kids—and also reduce the likelihood that they’re going to have more kids until they can really take good care of the kid that they already have. We’re trying to figure out programs to help us do that.

Q: Do you have any plans to improve training for foster parents, or to deal with abusive foster parents?

A: I spent 14 years as a lawyer for children here in New York, and I have met extraordinary foster parents. People who really give of themselves to try to do right by kids who temporarily can’t live with their families.

Having said that, I am aware that there are kids who are really treated poorly in foster care. I [know] a gay young man who is now in college who talks about being in several homes where he felt very unwelcome, where he felt that the foster parents [were] fostering for financial reasons, and where there had been mistreatment.

We always need to look at foster parent training to improve it. There has been a review of all of our training academy’s work in an effort to try to figure out what we’re doing right and what we’re not doing right.

Q: Several Represent writers have seen first-hand a serious lack of communication between foster parents and agencies. For example, one writer was placed when he was 14 with a foster parent who was expecting a 5- to 8-year-old child. What will you do to improve communication between foster parents and agencies?

A: I had the opportunity to meet Joette Katz, the commissioner of the Connecticut system, who said that one of the most important and least costly ways to help reduce re-placements is to ensure that you’re providing really basic but critical information about kids to foster parents. Information like, “Is the young person afraid of cats and does the foster home have cats?” or “Does the foster parent know that the child’s grandmother died two weeks ago?” These are things that you might not think about, but they can be dramatically important.

In New York, we’ve moved to a Family Team Conferencing model, which I applaud. At the same time, we’re [sometimes stuck] waiting for a Family Team Conference to happen in order for very important information to be transferred. Since I’ve come here, we have worked on how we can ensure that critical information is communicated to the foster parent [even if the foster parent and the natural family aren’t able to meet]. That way, as soon as the youth arrives, that foster parent knows important stuff about him or her.

We’ve also had all of our foster care agencies in to learn about what are called evidence-based models of foster care that are being used around the country. It’s a relatively new phenomenon, but these models of foster care have been shown to accomplish things like reduced movements, reunifications, and achieving permanency in short time frames.

image by YC-Art Dept

For the case planners (also called caseworkers or social workers) who are doing the work, this is really hard work, so if there is more of a prescribed way of doing it that they know has demonstrated results, we owe it to them to bring that model to them.

Q: Can you describe how an evidence-based model would be used?

A: In Multi-Dimensional Treatment for Foster Care (MTFC) [which is an evidence-based model similar to one currently being used in the juvenile justice system], the foster parent gets trained as well as the social worker who is facilitating, so you’re certified as a MTFC foster parent. It’s an advanced type of therapeutic foster home. It’s a very intensive model, and generally the birth parents are also involved in the treatment.

Q: Sometimes kids are moved suddenly without any explanation about where they’re going or who they’ll be living with. What can you do to improve communication with teens about their placements?

A: That’s an incredibly frightening experience for young people, and frustrating. We depend on the frontline staff to help kids through that transition. We’ve made efforts to try to ensure that children’s lawyers have information on where they are at a given point in time. I am certain that it’s not perfect because a lot of our kids don’t have easy access to telephones or easy access to a person who can immediately provide them with a satisfying answer.

My goal is to have provider agencies employ case planners who can clearly explain to young people why a move is taking place and what their next location will be like. Also [case planners should] help them figure out how they can call their lawyer if it’s an emergency move, and if it’s not an emergency move, how they can call their lawyer to talk in anticipation of the move. That’s how it’s supposed to work.

Q: There used to be a branch of ACS that was exclusively focused on teens in care, called the Office of Youth Development. That was shut down six years ago. Will you consider reinstating it?

A: The office as it existed never accomplished the strategic plan that was created for it. Under various leaders, one of whom I had a lot to do with picking, it was not effective. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider recreating something.

[However,] it’s much more important to get our provider agencies to improve how they are providing effective assistance to youth who are transitioning out of foster care so that they can achieve stable adulthood. Some of our provider agencies are doing a great job. Many have been very creative and have worked hard to do much better than they were doing five years ago with this age bracket.

[But] it’s been a difficult time. Housing, getting a job, and school are all a challenge in New York. It’s not as though the general population is having a great time, either! But I don’t know if the only answer is an ACS office of youth development.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to say to teens in care?

A: I think we spend too much time dwelling on the negatives and not celebrating what hope there is in the 14,000 or so people in foster care in New York. There is inspiration, perseverance, and—as Represent demonstrates—there is huge talent there.

This interview has been edited for space and clarity.