Senate Bill S3877

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S3877

 TITLE OF BILL :
An act to amend the family court act and the social services law, in
relation to notice of indicated reports of child maltreatment and
changes of placement in child protective and voluntary foster care
placement and review proceedings


This is one in a series of measures being introduced at the request of
the Chief Administrative Judge upon the recommendation of her Family
Court Advisory and Rules Committee.

This measure would amend provisions of the Family Court Act and the
Social Services Law to require that prompt notice be given to Family
Court, a child's attorney and interested parties in child welfare
proceedings of indicated reports of child abuse or maltreatment and of
changes in children's placements. This is a critically-needed next
step in New York's effort to achieve compliance with the federal
Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 Public Law 105-89 .

Both the federal ASFA and its State implementing legislation, as well
as the subsequently-enacted omnibus permanency legislation  L. 2005,
c. 3  and State Adoption and Safe Families Acts emphasize that the
safety of the child is paramount, compelling the conclusion that the
Court and parties must be informed on a timely basis of all events
              

affecting child safety, especially indicated reports of abuse or
maltreatment.

Of equal importance, the federal ASFA measures success in terms of
outcomes, i.e., the States' ability to reach federally-established
targets for timely achievement of permanency for children. The first
"Child and Family Service Review (CFSR)," conducted by the
Administration for Children and Families of the United States
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), concluded that New York
State, with among the lowest scores in the nation, has far to go to
achieving the federal targets.  The second CFSR, which occurred in
Spring, 2008, after the New York State Office of Children and Family
Services finished implementation of its "Program Improvement Plan,"
unfortunately reflected only incremental improvement. Legislative
action is thus compelled in order to ensure that the Family Courts can
exercise their important monitoring functions on the basis of
complete, timely information. The 2005 permanency legislation, with
its salutary provisions for continuing jurisdiction, was an important
step, but further legislation is necessary to ensure that information
regarding the most compelling of circumstances is conveyed to the
Court, the child's attorney and the parties on a timely basis.

In few areas of the Court's functioning is its continuing jurisdiction
as critical as in child welfare, where complex decisions regarding
children must be adjusted to the dynamic of their constantly changing
needs and circumstances. Federal and state statutes emphasize that
safety of the child must be deemed the paramount consideration and
that timely achievement of permanence must be the central goal. Not
only are these matters of statutory imperative, but they are also
determinative of New York State's eligibility for several hundred
million dollars of annual federal foster care aid. Prompt receipt by
the Court, the parties and attorneys for children of information
regarding the child's ever-changing circumstances, both as to any
maltreatment suffered by the child and as to changes in the child's
placement, is vital to the effective exercise of Family Court's
continuing jurisdiction and is a critical component of our State's
ability to comply with the ASFA funding eligibility mandates.

Recognizing that "time is of the essence" where children are
concerned, this measure is an expanded version of our earlier proposal
to assure that Family Court, the parties and children's attorneys are
informed promptly of any changes in placement that may warrant Court
intervention. The measure would amend sections 1055 and 1089 of the
Family Court Act, as well as section 358-a of the Social Services Law,
to require an agency with whom a child has been placed, either
voluntarily or as a result of an abuse or neglect finding, or to whom
guardianship and custody has been transferred as a result of the child
being freed for adoption, to report to the Court, the parties and the
attorney for the child within 30 days of any change in the child's
placement status and within five days of the date that any report of
abuse or maltreatment is found to be indicated. The two types of
reports, in fact, are related, as the existence of an indicated report
of maltreatment may bear directly upon the suitability of a planned
status change.

Changes in placement covered by the notification requirement would
include, but not be limited to, cases in which the child has been
moved from the foster or pre-adoptive home or program into which he or
she has been placed, cases in which the foster or preadoptive parents
move out of state with the child and, with respect to children not
freed for adoption, cases in which a trial or final discharge of the
child from foster care has been made. The report of a change in
placement must provide enough information for litigants and the Court
to assess whether further judicial intervention may be warranted. It
must state the reasons for the change, as well as the grounds for the
agency's conclusion that the change is in the best interests of the
child. This notification requirement does not contemplate court action
in every case; nor does it interfere with the discretion of social
services agencies to make necessary changes.  However, acknowledging
that this after-the-fact reporting may, indeed, be less than what may
be called for in particular cases, the measure includes a caveat that
it is not intended to limit the current discretion enjoyed by Family
Court to condition changes in placement, including trial and final
discharges, upon prior notice to the Court, the parties and child's
attorney.

Both the Adoption and Safe Families Act and recent permanency
legislation increased the frequency of judicial reviews of children in
foster care, thus minimizing the problem of stale information.
However, the ability of Family Court and of the litigants to respond
effectively is seriously impeded- and harm to children may be
compounded - if information regarding significant changes in a child's
status and, importantly, indicated reports of neglect or abuse of a
child, is not conveyed to the Court or parties until the next
permanency hearing, often a delay of several months. This measure will
facilitate timely, informed responses to changes in children's
placements and incidents of maltreatment, thus prompting more
expeditious and effective resolution of their cases.

This measure, which would have no fiscal impact upon the State, would
take effect 90 days after becoming a law.

 2008 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

S.5846 (Social Services, Children + Families Comm.).