Before he died, 5-year-old De’Neil Timberlake is believed to have ingested his father’s methadone. The NYPD said his father had a history of child neglect cases with the Administration for Children’s Services.

Brian Santiago, the disabled 10-year-old whose body was found decomposing in his apartment, was reportedly born with marijuana in his system, triggering an immediate investigation by ACS.

And after a sibling of 4-year-old Jahmeik Modlin, who died of starvation this month, tested positive for marijuana at birth, an ACS case was also reportedly opened.

ACS would not confirm a history with DeNeil, Brian, or Jahmeik’s families. Yet two ACS employees who contacted NY1 prior to these cases said that if a child is not considered to be in imminent danger, allegations of drug use are eligible for its CARES track. CARES is ACS’s unit that focuses on supporting families instead of investigating claims of maltreatment. It’s not known if these cases were routed to CARES.

The whistleblowers agreed to speak with NY1 on camera if their identities were concealed, as they feared retaliation.

“A parent now who has an active drug addiction, active drug addiction, crack, fentanyl, heroin, is available for the CARES approach,” one whistleblower said. “And I think that’s really horribly dangerous, in inherently dangerous homes, where you have this kind of activity going on.”

ACS disputes that. A spokesperson told NY1 that the majority of cases alleging parental drug use are routed to investigations. The agency has also launched child safety campaigns that include distributing lockboxes to store drugs.

Marcia Lowry, an expert on child welfare, says drug use clouds judgment, which in itself is a risk to children.

“It is easy to ignore the children when somebody is very high. And that’s a danger to children,” Lowry said. “So if there’s drug use in the home, it’s not as easy to just stick it in a corner or in a lockbox.”

These workers say an allegation of drug use is one of many calls to ACS that can be diverted to CARES instead of investigations.

“They’ve started to expand the criteria for CARES, and that’s terrifying for me,” the whistleblower said. “Another expansion of the CARES criteria has become criminal activity in the home. That’s now CARES-eligible. And that’s crazy.”

These whistleblowers explained that under CARES, they are required to get parental consent before interviewing a child or neighbor — an authority they previously had when they were investigators.

“In CARES, we sort of ask the parent, ‘We got this report that you hit your child. Can you tell us about it? Did you hit your child?’ Mom is always going to say no, you know, I don’t hit my child,” another whistleblower said.

Educational neglect is another category that has changed. Now, the majority of those allegations are routed to CARES. Lowry points out educational neglect can be a symptom of something much more serious.

“There’s often a connection between long absences from school and serious problems in the home, including abuse,” Lowry said. 

One of the whistleblowers gave an example of a child who missed more than two months of school.

“I showed up at the door as the first CARES worker. I worked with the parent and the child. Here’s a resource. Here’s a referral. Here’s another phone number to call. None of that was done. My case closed after 60 days. If that’s a promising outcome, I don’t know what metric that is, OK, because nothing was done for the child,” the whistleblower said. 

ACS says that most educational neglect cases are not substantiated.

While Commissioner Jess Dannhauser declined our request for an interview, he issued a statement that reads, in part, “We continuously assess our work so we can identify opportunities to strengthen our policies, practices, and services. We are working to build a multi-faceted system that protects children, connects families to help and New Yorkers trust to be fair and calibrated to the needs of each of NYC’s children and families.”

When asked about criticism of the CARES program back in May, Dannhauser had this response: “They go deep with families. In fact, families begin to trust them, and we get a lot further, often, in solving issues for families. CARES is an approach that we use. If we decide during that investigation that something’s unsafe, we can retrack it to an investigation, but we are doing really, really well with CARES, and we’re finding great outcomes for families.”

These whistleblowers have a different viewpoint. 

“I disagree with that statement, solely because I work directly with the families, so I see them continuously coming back. I see us going to the same home, addressing the same issues that are not being changed whatsoever,” the whistleblower said. 

Asked what made them want to choose a career as a child protective specialist, the whistleblower said, “Well, I care a lot about children. And I care about helping children and making sure they’re safe. I didn’t have a great childhood, so I feel like that makes me want to ensure that other children do have better childhoods. So I guess that’s what made me get into it.”

Asked if they felt fulfilled in their work now, the whistleblower said, “No.”