“If they had taken her children away earlier, she probably wouldn’t have died.”

This is how a neighbor reacted when he learned of the tragic death of eleven-month-old Jazeli Mirabel last week and rightly blamed the child and youth authorities.

“The whole situation could have been prevented,” the neighbor told The Post, noting that ACS was called several times on Jazeli’s parents before the baby was found “purple” and lying on the floor of their Bronx home.

It’s a pity that the neighbor didn’t give her name.

Maybe we could hire her to run ACS.

After a series of tragedies this summer that can only be attributed to ACS’s elaborate fantasy, the agency should be looking for new leadership.

It is a game in which substance abuse is just another choice that adults make and can easily deal with, even when young children or children with disabilities are present.

In this game, neglect is a problem caused exclusively by poverty, never by mental illness or substance abuse.

It is a game whose sole aim seems to be to avoid foster care – and which teaches social workers that their role is to support Parents at the expense of child protection.

Jazeli’s case was the second death within a week of a child who had been the subject of numerous ACS investigations.

Ten-year-old Brian Santiago, who needed a feeding tube to survive, likely starved to death when Charlene Santiago, his mother and sole caregiver, died in their Bronx apartment.

She reportedly had a long history of substance abuse and mental health issues. ACS had previously removed him from her home because of the drugs and the child’s “failure to thrive” – ​​he wasn’t gaining weight.

Last month, five-year-old De’Neil Timberlake from the Bronx died after police found the boy foaming at the mouth from taking methadone.

According to the NYPD, the father’s ACS history included a total of nine incidents, ranging from neglect and inadequate guardianship to denial of food, clothing or shelter.

Oh, and he was arrested for attacking the mother of one of his children in front of the children.

Given the agency’s stance toward abusive and neglectful parents, it is not surprising that these children were left in these unsafe homes.

ACS Commissioner Jess Dannhauser has directed the agency to divert as many cases as possible from official investigations and to its Collaborative Assessment, Response, Engagement & Support system.

CARES, a “non-investigative” approach to child protection, is – according to the agency’s website – “one of ACS’s core strategies to combat racial inequities in child protection and promote social justice.”

The program “encourages families to develop their own solutions to their challenges.”

Who other than ACS believes that drug addicts and mentally ill people are good at finding “their own solutions to their problems”?

A whistleblower at ACS announced earlier this year that the agency had officially changed the list of criteria for automatic investigations: Two categories, “caregiver abuses drugs or alcohol and child under 7” and “caregiver mentally ill/developmentally disabled and child under 7,” were eliminated, as was a category related to criminal activity in the home.

Now these serious warning signs of dysfunction can only trigger a CARES response.

In the spring update on ACS strategic priorities, Commissioner Dannhauser boasted: “We have expanded CARES, our non-investigative approach to child protection, so that 25% of incoming reports are now addressed in a way that helps families identify what support they need for their children.”

The word “protection” appeared only six times in the update – while the word “support” appeared 39 times.

The agency has also discouraged schools from reporting signs that might indicate poverty — lack of food, dirty clothes, lack of bathing — but which more often indicate parental incompetence. (ACS boasts that school reports to the State Central Registry are down 11 percent this school year compared with last.)

Poor housing conditions are generally a symptom of far larger problems than low income.

In court documents this year, the home of Lynija Eason Kumar – who faces trial in 2023 for the murder of her daughter Jalayah Eason after filing multiple complaints with ACS – was described as littered with trash, dirty clothes and laundry. Open containers of food scraps and other trash were littered on the floor, and there was a visible insect infestation.

We may have to wait months or years to find out exactly what happened to Jazeli, Brian and De’Neil.

And Dannhauser will be in no hurry to tell us.

“I don’t believe that discussing the details of individual families’ lives is the best way to drive system change,” he recently told NY1 when asked to explain his policy on releasing information about child abuse deaths.

“If it’s important and the public needs to know if we’re doing something terribly wrong, I’ll make sure they know.”

We should not hold our breath while Dannhauser hesitates.

Three children are dead.

The mayor should demand answers Now.

Naomi Schaefer Riley is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.