Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City

by Andrea Elliott

This is how Dasani finds herself sitting across from Roxanne, a blond student from Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service. While Dasani has never had a counselor, she already intuits the rules governing this arrangement—the fact that Roxanne is a “mandated reporter,” a person legally obliged to report abuse or neglect to the authorities. The warmth of her smile makes no difference. Just the words “How is your day going?” are enough to keep Dasani quiet. All it takes to enter the child protection system is one phone call. Anyone can make this call, from a professional like Roxanne to a jilted lover phoning anonymously. They dial a toll-free number, reaching an operator with the state’s child abuse hotline. The call is screened, and if it seems credible, an investigation begins. This makes Dasani so nervous that she googles “ACS questions” on the shelter’s recreational computer. “Just to know what they would ask and what answers I would have next.” Say the wrong thing and catastrophe awaits. “They can use that in a court of law against the parent,” says Dasani, who has heard the story of Supreme as a child, torn from his brothers without warning. Dasani would survive, she thinks, but not her youngest sister, Lee-Lee. Only Dasani speaks the baby’s language, discerning a wet diaper in her cries. What would happen to Lee-Lee in the hands of strangers? “Some people don’t know how to take care of babies,” Dasani says. This is where her mind goes when social worker...