Radical activist who likened CPS to genocide may be picked by Mamdani to lead city’s child welfare agency
Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani is reportedly weighing the appointment of a controversial activist who has called for abolishing Child Protective Services to lead New York City’s child-welfare agency, according to New York Post sources.
Angela Burton is said to be in the final round of interviews to head the city’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), a source familiar with the selection process told the paper.
Like the state’s Child Protective Services system, the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) investigates allegations of abuse and oversees foster care placements. Burton, 65, is a longtime activist affiliated with the nonprofit Children’s Rights through its New York Mandated Reporting Working Group. The group advocates narrowing mandated-reporting laws and reducing investigations they say disproportionately affect marginalized families.
The group argues that mandated-reporting policies have led to excessive surveillance and family separation, particularly among Black, Latino, and low-income communities. Burton has repeatedly criticized child-welfare agencies and foster care, framing child-removal practices as racially biased.
In social-media posts, she has gone further, writing in 2023 that “we don’t need CPS” and accusing the system of causing harm to Black families. In another post the same year, she likened the state child-welfare system to “child slavery.”
Burton has also spoken about dismantling what she calls the “foster care industrial complex,” and has described CPS staff as racist and dangerous. In a 2024 post, she wrote that CPS investigations traumatize large numbers of children and called the system a “grave and imminent threat” to families.
Critics warn that views like these could endanger children if she were placed in charge of the city agency.
Based on Burton’s public statements, her leadership could weaken the agency’s ability to remove children from abusive homes, said Rafael Mangual of the Manhattan Institute. He argued that such an agenda would leave vulnerable children at risk and could have deadly consequences.
According to another source, Burton has told allies she expects to get the job. “Word is spreading and causing real concern,” the source said. “She’s seen as ready to translate her online rhetoric into policy.”
Burton previously worked as special counsel on interdisciplinary matters in the Justice Initiatives division of the New York State Office of Court Administration, which oversees child-welfare and juvenile-justice programs. She wrote in a 2023 social-media post that she was dismissed from that role in 2022 after planning to publicly oppose abuse investigations at a government forum.
ACS referred inquiries to City Hall. The mayor’s office and Burton did not respond to requests for comment, and a state court spokesperson also did not immediately reply.
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