EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES

Kenneth Watkins’s son, Kenny, was 6 days old when he was taken away and placed with a wealthy foster family. To regain custody, Watkins had to prove that being poor didn’t make him a bad father.

- PETRA BARTOSIEWICZ

IN THE MOMENTS after Kenny was born, Kenneth Watkins remembers feeling happier than he had ever been in his life. Blissed out, he couldn’t stop staring at his son—the impossibly tiny toes and fingers, his curly brown hair, his perfect little mouth.

Watkins brought Kenny home from the hospital to his mother’s apartment in the Bronx in March 2017. A few days after they arrived, a pair of caseworkers from the Administration for Children’s Services, New York City’s child-welfare agency, knocked on the door. The caseworkers said they were conducting a routine welfare check on Kenny.

Watkins had no history of violence or mental illness, no criminal record, and was not accused of putting Kenny in danger. He knew, however, that Kenny’s mother, Iris Rohlsen, had a complicated history of abusive relationships. She’d had nine previous children, all of whom either were in foster care or had been adopted.

Watkins invited the social workers inside. He showed them that Kenny was healthy and that he had a crib and diapers and clothes. He remembers saying proudly that Kenny was his first child. The social workers seemed satisfied, but as they left, they asked Watkins to come to their office the following day and to bring Kenny. They said they wanted to talk more about Rohlsen.

The next morning, Watkins, his mother, and Rohlsen brought Kenny to an ACS office in the Bronx. They were ushered into a windowless room, and an ACS worker asked Watkins to hand Kenny to another employee while they talked. Watkins did as he was asked.