As attorneys who represent children in custody and child protective cases, we wholeheartedly agree that keeping children safe should be an "intuitive" top priority for New York's legislators.

While leading our respective organizations, which have decades of experience representing hundreds of thousands of children in New York City's Family Courts, we have learned that achieving that child protective goal, while also protecting the vital interests of children and parents in maintaining family relationships, is much more challenging than simply acknowledging its critical import.