Family of tragic NYC tots who died under ACS care slam agency over scathing report: Someone has to pay
The grieving families of kids who died under the watch of the Big Apple’s child-welfare agency say a scathing new city report proves what they already know — nothing has changed.The damning probe by the Department of Investigation revealed that the embattled Administration for Children’s Services has continually blocked investigators from examining the abuse and deaths of dozens of innocent youngsters in its care, leaving the door open for more tragic outcomes, victims’ relatives lamented to The Post.“When a kid dies, someone has to pay for that,” said Nyisha Ragsdale, whose 4-year-old nephew Jahmeik Moldin was found starved to death inside his family’s Harlem apartment in 2024.The tragic tot’s mom, Nytavia Ragsdale, is awaiting trial on murder and manslaughter charges.“My sister had previous cases,” Nyisha Ragsdale told The Post.“They got reported.
There is no way anyone is gonna tell me that she had cases for three or four years, and my nephew died — it’s not something that happened overnight or in a couple of weeks or a couple of months. “It had to be going on for a while, so all this information, DOI should have access to,” she said.The DOI report, released May 5, found ACS to be one of the Big Apple’s cagiest agencies.According to the investigation, ACS barred DOI from reviewing files on 17 of 18 child fatalities that occurred under the agency’s recent oversight.In 2024, ACS denied access to 13 out of 16 such child fatalities and withheld 19 out of 25 files in cases involving children’s deaths in 2023, according to the DOI report.It has also denied access to records of alleged sexual misconduct.
“When a New York City child dies or suffers severe injury due to neglect or abuse, it’s not only a tragedy,” the report said.“It’s a failure that should prompt city government to ask where we went wrong and what we can do better.” The DOI report was released exactly one year after The Post reported on more than a half...