ACS is one of the three of government agencies Dasani and her family must navigate in their efforts to gain access to resources. Informally referred to as “child protection,” this is the agency that most directly affects Dasani and her family, ultimately making the decision to separate the children from their parents.

A political movement that emerged in 2013 as a response to several killings, often by police officers, of unarmed Black people. The movement represents a loose coalition of groups and consequently has a wide variety of approaches to addressing the systemic mistreatment of people of color by law enforcement.

Broadly, charter schools are schools that “are publicly funded but privately operated” (32). The specifics of how charter schools operate and how they are used can vary widely by state to state and city to city and sometimes even political administration to political administration. In the context of Invisible Child, “charter schools” refers to schools supported by Mayor Bloomberg in an effort to improve education.