Kyra's Law will protect NY's children

As prime sponsors of Kyra’s Law — named in honor of two-year-old Kyra Franchetti who was brutally murdered by her abusive father during an unsupervised, court-sanctioned visit — our blood boils at the hollow opposition that is emerging to the legislation. Critics seem to posit that the protection of children within New York’s family court system isn’t worth a little extra paperwork or time. Our overburdened courts, they argue, couldn’t possibly be asked to do the hard work of reform, or to do better for New York’s families.

The advocacy of Jacqueline Franchetti, the mother of Kyra, following her daughter’s death seven years ago spawned a grassroots effort to rewrite family court law, with her Long Island neighbors alone sending over 77,000 emails to lawmakers in Albany. 

Now, at the precipice of passing legislation that would protect children in custody and visitation proceedings, representatives of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers — some of whose members defend the very abusers Kyra’s Law is positioned to stop — are determined to bring the legislation to its knees.

New York’s children are routinely being court-ordered into homes with dangerous, and even murderous guardians. Indeed, since Kyra Franchetti’s murder, 22 children have been killed by a parent while embroiled in family court custody litigation in New York. Kyra’s Law is exactly the reform we need to end the suffering of children by requiring courts to conduct a review of any allegations or findings of domestic violence and child abuse, and expanding required training for judges and other court officers.

Despite perfunctory assessments that taking allegations of abuse seriously would open the floodgates to false claims being made, what we know from cases such as Kyra’s or Thomas Valva’s is that even true and substantiated claims of abuse aren’t receiving the attention, care, and reflection from family court judges that they deserve. Kyra’s Law would change this, addressing broad systemic weaknesses that, for decades, have placed vulnerable kids in harm's way with demonstrably abusive parents. Heightened sensitivity to child safety in visitation/custodial cases is essential, especially when we know so much more about the impacts of domestic violence and childhood trauma than we did when family courts were first established.

Thankfully, 27 State Senate colleagues and 77 Assembly members from across the political divide are motivated to do right by kids like Kyra and other victims of domestic violence and child abuse navigating the custodial court system. Their bipartisan cosponsorship emphasizes not just the dire need for this reform, but the broad support for the bill’s particulars. 

Kyra’s Law was shaped by people who practice family law, who know the family court system, and who’ve seen firsthand the injustices many domestic violence survivors face inside the courtroom. Their vast networks of family and matrimonial lawyers and professionals have been integral architects of this bill. They’ve even invited stakeholders with opposing views into the bill-drafting process. 

We have to get this right. And we can — if the powers that be in the family court system wake up to the reality of necessary, lifesaving reform. We’ll keep fighting alongside Jacqueline Franchetti and the many grieving parents who’ve lost their children to violent guardians, as well as the countless domestic violence survivors dealing with the fallout of sustained trauma, to break these cycles of abuse and complacency within the family court system. Kyra’s Law is the answer.

This guest essay reflects the views of State Sen. James Skoufis of the 42nd District in Orange County and Assemb. Andrew Hevesi of the 28th District in Queens.