Senate Bill S652

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S652

SPONSOR: KENNEDY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the social services law, in relation to staff qualifica-
tions for non-supervisory and supervisory child protective services
workers

 
PURPOSE:

To require that child protective services workers and their supervisors
are formally trained in the fields of social work, psychology and/or
counseling in order to better prepare them to handle cases involving
significant and severe mental health, substance abuse and criminal
issues.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1: amends paragraphs (a) of subdivision 4 of section 421 of the
social services law to require that child protective services casework-
              

ers have at least a baccalaureate degree in social work, psychology,
counseling and/or experience in law enforcement, counseling or work with
mental health or cognitively impaired persons and children. Requirements
would not apply to individuals hired before the enactment of this act.

Section 1: also amends paragraph (b) of subdivision 4 of section 421 of
the social services law to require that child protective services super-
visors have at least a baccalaureate degree in social work, psychology,
counseling and/or experience in law enforcement, counseling or work with
mental health or cognitively impaired persons and children. Requirements
would not apply to individuals hired before the enactment of this act.

Section 2: sets the effective date for this act.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Determining whether a child has been abused or neglected, and developing
a plan to protect that child who may be in imminent risk or harm, is an
exceptionally difficult task to assign to any one person. This is espe-
cially the case when that individual is not formally trained in the
fields of social work, psychology or counseling, which provide substan-
tial training to deal with mental health, substance abuse, and criminal
issues that often arise in Child Protective Service cases.

Many experts in the field agree that generalized training regarding
investigations and form work is inadequate preparation to deal with the
issues that arise in a child protection case. Initial and ongoing train-
ing on trauma and the sociological and psychological effects of persist-
ent and generational poverty, working with the mentally or cognitively
impaired, experience working with addiction and chemical dependency
issues, and domestic violence is necessary to go into this challenging
line of work.

Requiring our county caseworkers and their supervisors to have academic
backgrounds in these fields will allow for more thorough and meaningful
investigations and ensure the people doing this job are the kind of
people who want to build a career around social work. We entrust these
individuals to make some of the most complicated and often irrevocable
decisions regarding the safety of New York State's children. Ensuring
they have the expertise and relevant background experience to consider
all facets of their investigation before making a decision is an impor-
tant step towards improving our child protection system throughout New
York State.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2013-2014: S.6343/A.8429 referred to Children and Families
2015-2016:  S.2120A/A.3027A referred to Children and Families
2017-2018:  S.2986/A.2356 died in committee

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately