NEW YORK, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- For decades, Black families have complained that New York City's child welfare agency, the Administration for Children's Services, is biased against them, reported The New York Times (NYT) on Tuesday.

"It turns out that many of the agency's own employees agree, according to a racial equity audit the agency commissioned but never publicly released," said the report.

A draft report, based on a 2020 survey of more than 50 Black and Hispanic frontline caseworkers and agency managers in Brooklyn and the Bronx, along with many parents and advocates, described a "predatory system that specifically targets Black and brown parents" and subjects them to "a different level of scrutiny," it noted.

In New York's child welfare system, where Black families are seven times as likely as white families to be accused of child maltreatment and 13 times as likely to have their children removed, "race operates as an indicator of risk," the report concluded.

"The survey laid out deep-seated problems afflicting an agency that must balance protecting the safety of children and respecting the autonomy of families," it added.