The Legal Aid Society along with Lawyers For Children and The Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo are organizational plaintiffs in an Article 78 petition to challenge the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) regulations which established the Host Family Home program. This program is alleged to create an unauthorized shadow voluntary foster care system without legally required procedural safeguards for children. The program purports to authorize the placement of children in “host family homes,” for the provision of temporary care with volunteers. Branded as a “bold, new initiative” to support families, the program omits important legal protections for children, including the provision of counsel.

In November 2022, a trial court dismissed our petition for lack of standing. In July 2023, the Third Appellate Division reversed, and granted our motion for a preliminary injunction, preventing the program from going into effect. In December 2023, the trial court dismissed our petition again, finding that OCFS acted within its statutory authority in creating the Host Homes program. In a split decision, the appellate division affirmed in April 2025. We have appealed the ruling to the New York Court of Appeals.