Senate Bill S2240

                                BILL NUMBER:S2240

TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the social services law, in relation
to the release of child protective services records in the event of
kidnapping

PURPOSE:

To authorize the office of children and family services to release
reports and records to law enforcement officials upon receipt of a
reported kidnapping.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends the social services law by adding a new section 424-c
providing the release of records upon the receipt of a reported
kidnapping to law enforcement agencies. Section 2 provides the
effective date.

JUSTIFICATION:

During the investigation of an alleged kidnapping, in order for law
enforcement officials to access child-protective records, the
investigating officer must report the alleged kidnapping to the
state's child abuse hotline. Once reported, child protective services
may release certain records to law enforcement. However, the agency
              

may deny such a request if they deem the request unsubstantiated. The
social services law currently requires investigating agents
demonstrate necessity and provide evidence that it is reasonable to
believe that the subject of their investigation is the subject of a
specific report. The law states, only where the information is
"necessary to conduct a criminal investigation of criminal prosecution
of a person, (and) there is reasonable cause to believe that such
person is the subject of a report, and that it is reasonable to
believe that due to the nature of the crime under investigation or
prosecution, such person is the subject of a report, and that it is
reasonable to believe that due to that nature of the crime under
investigation or prosecution, such records may be related to the
criminal investigation or prosecution."

The current statutory scheme provides for tremendous agency discretion
and prevents law enforcement officials from thoroughly investigating a
report of kidnapping. An investigator may not have identified a
specific person of interest in a missing child case, but information
contained in that child's protective services records may help to
identify a suspect. At particular issue is the recent case of
five-year-old Kenneth White who was reported missing by his cousin but
was actually found dead, buried under the snow across the road from
his family's home. Although police officials were suspicious of the
cousin's kidnapping claim, they were stopped from accessing Kenneth's
child protective records. Those records could have provided the
investigators with additional persons of interest but the current law
prevents the release of these records unless there is an identifiable
person of interest and corresponding probable cause that the person of
interest is also the subject of the record.  Instead the police were
forced to siphon through contradictory statements made by other family
members, thus prolonging their search. Upon Kenneth's discovery,


Tiffany VanAlstyne, Kenneth's cousin allegedly confessed to attacking
the boy and has since been arraigned.

Given the exigent circumstances surrounding a report of kidnapping,
law enforcement access to child protective service records is
essential. These documents provide invaluable information related to
the child's situation and may lead to the child's prompt discovery.
Law enforcement officials are prevented from fully executing
kidnapping investigations because the statute currently provides for
significant agency discretion and requires that a person of interest
also be the subject of a child-protective service report in order for
law enforcement to access such information. Law enforcement must not
be forestalled in their investigations of missing children. This bill
would require the Office of Children and Family Services to provide
protective service records to law enforcement officials for the
purposes of the investigating a missing child report. It is the
responsibility of the legislature to provide the necessary access of
information to these officials in order to successfully administer
their searches. For the aforementioned reasons this legislation should
be enacted immediately.

PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

FISCAL IMPLICATION:

None.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

This act shall take effect immediately.