Flailing ACS reveals the fatal flaw that endangers NYC kids in its want ads

It’s no secret that the Administration for Children’s Services has been falling down on the job.Adonis Jarvis — the nonverbal, autistic 16-year-old who starved to death this year while in the care of his mother and grandmother — is only the latest tragedy in a long list of kids who were known to the city’s child-welfare agency but were nevertheless left in a dangerous situation.Why is ACS so often missing signs of risk?One reason is its workforce.Earlier this month, ACS posted that the agency is “actively recruiting for the Child Protective Specialist (CPS) role.”With a starting salary of almost $60,000, a city pension plan, health insurance, a deferred compensation plan, 37 paid days off during the first year of employment and openings in every borough, you’d think they’d have no lack of strong candidates.Not so, in part because of the agency’s head-scratching recruitment strategy and hiring criteria.For instance, ACS requires a bachelor’s degree with at least 24 credits in fields including social work, psychology, sociology, criminal justice, education, nursing or cultural anthropology.Sure, some courses in criminal justice or nursing might help a front-line child protective specialist.But sociology and cultural anthropology? Who are they kidding?To be clear, the job of an ACS investigator is to enter a potentially dangerous home, gather evidence, ask difficult questions and make life-or-death decisions about potential risks to a child.Who would you send?Here’s a hint: The NYPD doesn’t require recruits to have a bachelor’s degree at all, let alone one in a useless field focused on woke notions of race, class and gender.The Police Department does, however, require an exam that measures the skills law enforcement wants in candidates.ACS has an exam, too — technically.But it also hires employees provisionally without asking them to take the test, let alone pass it.Those employees can go through ACS training and be placed in the field ind...