Protect Children, Not Abusers: Pass Kyra’s Law to Reform the Family Court System and Save Children’s Lives

New York State Senator James Skoufis speaks with Kyra’s mother, Jacqueline Franchetti. Skoufis is sponsoring Kyra's Law in the Senate.

Francesca Wehner '29, Analyst in the Center for Education Policy, and Kiran Chaudhry-Bishop '29, Assistant Director of the Center for Education Policy, co-wrote this op-ed.

Autumn Coleman was a three-year-old girl growing up in Queens, New York, with curly braids, a sharp sense of humor, and dreams of being a “princess-doctor.” In March 2019, after her parents separated, she lived in her mother’s one-bedroom apartment during the week and spent weekends on unsupervised visits with her father under an arrangement the New York State (NYS) Family Court established. In late April, her mother petitioned the court to stop these visits, arguing that the erratic behavior of Autumn’s father endangered her. But a judge adjourned the matter until June, and less than two weeks later, on May 5th, 2019, Autumn was burned to death after her father strapped her into a car seat and set the car ablaze. 

Autumn is just one of 39 children who have been killed during custody disputes in New York since two-year-old Kyra Franchetti of Manhasset was killed in her sleep by her suicidal father during a court-ordered visit in 2016. Nationally, she is one of 989 children who have been murdered by a separated parent since 2008–an alarming trend that has worsened recently, with child murders by separating parents increasing by 47.8% from 2020 to 2022.

Kyra’s Law, championed by Kyra’s mother, Jacqueline Franchetti, was introduced as legislation in 2023 to address these failures of NYS Family Court, and Senator James Skoufis and Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi are currently sponsoring the bill in the NYS Legislature. The law would require courts to hold prompt hearings during custody disputes when one party asserts “facially-credible” allegations that a child is unsafe in another guardian’s care, and ensure that all allegations are investigated before custody decisions are made. But the bill also addresses other shortcomings of family court, such as the mishandling of parental alienation claims and a lack of training for judicial officials.

Parental alienation is a common counterclaim where an accused guardian argues that the other party fabricated abuse allegations to manipulate the court into restricting their parental access, thereby damaging their relationship with the child. A Department of Justice study found that when fathers assert alienation, judges are virtually twice as likely to discredit the mother’s claims and grant sole custody to the accused father without further investigation, leaving many children in the hands of their abusers. Kyra’s law seeks to close this loophole by mandating prompt hearings in all cases with alleged threats to child safety, and requiring that if judicial referees deem an allegation credible, temporary protective measures to ensure child safety cannot be considered as attempts to harm a child’s relationship with another party. The law also seeks to implement comprehensive training for judges and court referees assigned to these cases so that those in charge of custody decisions can better recognize warning signs of endangerment.

Critics of Kyra’s Law focus on how an overloaded family court system, combined with parties submitting false accusations of abuse, could lead to innocent parents being ripped away from their children and denied their parental rights. With nearly 150,000 custody cases filed in 2025 in New York, they argue that mandatory hearings for all allegations would impede judges from acting swiftly, and that the resulting delays could allow manipulative parties with false claims to successfully alienate other guardians and deny them parental access through the process. 

While these are valid concerns, and the legislation could cause case backlogs, the risk of alienation is overstated. Researchers from the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence found that only 12% of child abuse allegations made during custody disputes were intentionally false, meaning the vast majority of allegations are worthy of investigation, and not just manipulative schemes to gain custody. Thus, it is far better to scrutinize each case thoroughly, despite the risk of delays and infrequent alienation, than it is to allow another child to follow in Kyra and Autumn’s footsteps.

After two years of persistent advocacy, Kyra’s Law finally passed the NYS Senate last June, but it stalled in the Assembly this past January. Advocates are currently seeking to push the bill forward either as part of Governor Hochul’s 2027 Executive Budget or independently in upcoming legislative sessions, but to succeed, the bill needs a strong boost from the public, and it needs your support. 

The best way to get involved is to message NYS officials directly through the Kyra’s Champions website, which provides pre-written emails that only require a signature to send. There are also opportunities to volunteer directly with the organization by filling out their online form or to donate to support their advocacy campaigns. The sobering reality is that nothing can be done to bring back Kyra, Autumn, or any of the 38 other children, but by passing Kyra’s Law, we can honor their legacies by reforming the family court system that failed to protect them.

Image Credit

NYS Senate Media Services, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons