{"id":188497,"date":"2026-04-07T17:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T17:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/188497\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T17:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T17:01:10","slug":"mamdani-taps-former-biden-admin-official-to-head-nycs-oft-criticized-child-welfare-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/188497\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani taps former Biden admin. official to head NYC’s oft-criticized child welfare agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Mamdani on Tuesday tapped Rebecca Jones Gaston as the next commissioner of the Administration for Children\u2019s Services<\/a>, New York City\u2019s child protective services agency.<\/p>\n

Jones Gaston is a former President Joe Biden official<\/a> and frontline caseworker, according to City Hall. In interviews, she has spoken about her own background being a Black child adopted from foster care by a white family in the Midwest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am proud to appoint Rebecca Jones Gaston as Commissioner of ACS,\u201d Mamdani said in a statement. \u201cShe has dedicated her career to building smarter, stronger systems that keep children safe and families together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith her leadership, we will continue building a city where every child is safe, every family is supported and every young person has the opportunity to flourish.\u201d<\/p>\n

As commissioner, Jones Gaston assumes responsibility for a system that responds to tens of thousands of allegations of suspected child abuse or neglect every year, disproportionately made against Black and Hispanic families in poor neighborhoods and the majority of which are eventually deemed unfounded.<\/p>\n

ACS also manages the city\u2019s juvenile detention centers<\/a> and issues child care vouchers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jones Gaston\u2019s appointment comes after ACS had been without a permanent leader since the beginning of March. Former Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 commissioner, Jess Dannhauser, announced in January he was stepping down from the post, giving Mamdani a long runway to select his own top child welfare official.<\/p>\n

But that process was mired in delays and Mamdani\u2019s shortlist was scrutinized<\/a>, including one candidate who had publicly demanded the \u201cabolition\u201d of child protective services, which critics refer to as the \u201cfamily policing\u201d system. Dannhauser\u2019s last day was March 2<\/a>; he was replaced by his deputy, Melissa Hester, in the interim.<\/p>\n

On the topic of the abolition of child protective services, Jones Gaston at a 2023 seminar took a moderate stance, calling for the dismantling of \u201cpieces of the system\u201d that are particularly destructive to poor families of color, while building up programs that help children stay with their families and in their neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

\"MayorMayor Zohran Mamdani. (Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s a balance,\u201d Jones Gaston said at a National Press Foundation training for reporters.<\/p>\n

Before founding her own consulting firm, Jones Gaston was Biden\u2019s commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, joining the administration in late 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She also led both Maryland and Oregon\u2019s child welfare agencies under Democrat and Republican governors. Overall, she has worked in human services and child welfare for nearly three decades as a social worker, advocate, therapist, consultant and administrator<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Jones Gaston said this is a \u201cmoment that calls for us to reimagine how we show up for children, youth, and families across New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our opportunity to move beyond managing crisis,\u201d the commissioner said, \u201cand instead invest in prevention, trust and strengthen families, and ensure every family and child has a real pathway to stability, belonging, and opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Mamdani on Tuesday tapped Rebecca Jones Gaston as the next commissioner of the Administration for Children\u2019s Services,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[85,267,9,24,264,10,12,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-188497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-county","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-nyc-headlines","18":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}