News & Press

NY Daily News

“ACS has been operating for decades with a no harm, no foul mentality. That when they conduct an investigation, and the caseworkers don’t find anything concerning, ‘Well, we did our job,'” said David Shalleck-Klein, an attorney for the plaintiffs and the founder and executive director of the Family Justice Law Center [part of our 2022-2024 Social Justice Accelerator cohort]. “What families that have been impacted have been saying — for years now — is that there is harm, and there is foul.”

19th News

“They are abused by their partners, and then they are abused by the system which is supposed to help them.” - David Shalleck-Klein, executive director and founder of the Family Justice Law Center [part of our 2022-2024 Social Justice Accelerator cohort].

WNYC

David Shalleck-Klein, founder and executive director of the Family Justice Law Center at the Urban Justice Center, discusses the class-action lawsuit charging the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) uses coercion, traumatizing families, and is joined by Shalonda Curtis-Hackett, a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Spectrum News

Shalonda Curtis-Hackett, one of the named plaintiffs, and David Shalleck-Klein, executive director and founder of Family Justice Law Center [part of UJC's Social Justice Accelerator '24 cohort] joined NY1 political anchor Errol Louis on “Inside City Hall” Wednesday to discuss the suit.

Mother Jones

"Parents are left humiliated and “unable to protect their children in their own homes,” says David Shalleck-Klein, executive director of the Family Justice Law Center [part of our 2022-2024 Social Justice Accelerator cohort]...He noted that ACS should be able to search families’ homes—but only when they follow legal procedures."

Gothamist

“ACS leaves in their wake real fear, real trauma, and real consequences that need to be accounted for,” said David Shalleck-Klein, an attorney for the nine families bringing the suit and the founder and director of the Family Justice Law Center [part of our 2022-2024 Social Justice Accelerator cohort]."

Courthouse News

"The plaintiffs are seeking damages on claims of Fourth Amendment unreasonable search violations. They’re being represented by David Shalleck-Klein of the Family Justice Law Center [part of our 2022-2024 Social Justice Accelerator cohort]."

Reason

"According to the lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday [by the Family Justice Law Center, part of our 2022-2024 Social Justice Accelerator cohort), ACS employs a widespread policy of coercing families under investigation to allow case workers into their homes."

NY Times

"Ms. Gould, 35, and the other plaintiffs are represented by the Family Justice Law Center, an organization dedicated to preventing unnecessary family separation. Its executive director, David Shalleck-Klein, said that the suit was not meant to stop A.C.S. investigations altogether, but to focus on illegal searches."

NY Daily News

David Shalleck-Klein, executive director of the Family Justice Law Center [part of UJC's Social Justice Accelerator] and one of her attorneys, said ACS supervision is a frequent requirement for survivors of domestic violence to maintain custody — but is often deeply misguided.

The New School

"As a matter of Fourth Amendment law, over 99.8 percent of ACS’s searches of families’ homes are “presumptively unreasonable” and therefore unconstitutional."

NY Law Journal

“The Family Justice Law Center [part of UJC's Social Justice Accelerator], the first organization of its kind in the United States, will go on the legal offensive on behalf of families who say child welfare agencies violated their constitutional rights.”

Philanthropy News

"The prize selects people with the determination and vision to change New York City’s communities, culture, and future for good...This year’s winners include David Shalleck-Klein, founder and executive director of the Family Justice Law Center [a member of the Urban Justice Center's Social Justice Accelerator]."

New York Times

"David Shalleck-Klein, 35, is one of five winners splitting this year’s $1 million David Prize, a no-strings-attached award established in 2019...[He] started the Family Justice Law Center six months ago [and is a member of UJC's Social Justice Accelerator]. He said it was the nation’s first civil rights organization dedicated to suing government agencies that separate children from their parents."

Mother Jones

"In New York City, for example, the hearings typically begin within three days of a child’s removal, but they are divided into tiny segments, stretching out months, says David Shalleck-Klein, executive director of New York’s Family Justice Law Center [a member of the UJC Social Justice Accelerator]."

The 74

"David Shalleck-Klein believes child welfare agencies routinely violate the Constitution by carrying out unlawful searches and family separations — with disastrous consequences for the low-income Black and Hispanic families they disproportionately investigate... The attorney last week launched what he says is the nation’s first civil rights organization dedicated to fighting back against such violations: the Family Justice Law Center [which is part of the Urban Justice Center's SJA].”