The Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) is New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

's child protection agency. It is part of the Department of Children and Families. Before 1996 It was called Child Protection Services.

History

Its stated mission is to "ensure the safety, permanency and well-being of children and to support families." The division is responsible for investigating allegations of child abuse

Child abuse

Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...

 and neglect and, when needed, arranging for the child's protection. In 2004 New Jersey's Child Advocate, Kevin Ryan

Kevin Ryan (commissioner)

Kevin Ryan , is a lawyer and champion for the protection of homeless children and youth, who serves as the President of Covenant House International, which is one of the largest charities serving homeless, trafficked and sexually exploited youth in the Americas...

 called DYFS a "systematic failure" and "a debilitated agency that was in need of a complete overhaul."

Cases

• In 2003 Bruce Jackson
  Collingswood Boys (Child abuse)
  The Collingswood Boys are four boys who were starved by their adoptive parents Raymond and Vanessa Jackson, while living in Collingswood, New Jersey...
  
  , a 19-year-old boy who weighed only 45 pounds was found eating food out of a garbage can in Collingswood, New Jersey
  Collingswood, New Jersey
  Collingswood is a borough in Camden County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 13,926....
  
  . The parents, authorities allege, were starving him and under feeding the other children. In October of 2005, lawyers for the four boys settled their lawsuit against New Jersey
  New Jersey
  New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
  
   for $12.5 million. It was one of the largest settlements in the United States
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
   for a child welfare
  Child welfare
  Child protection is used to describe a set of usually government-run services designed to protect children and young people who are underage and to encourage family stability...
  
  case.