BILL NUMBER: S7447

SPONSOR: PERSAUD
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the family court act and the social services law, in
relation to dispositional alternatives for children placed with local
social services agencies as destitute minors

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

Enactment of Article 10-C of the Family Court Act in 2011 provided a
valuable vehicle for addressing the needs of destitute children in New
York State, including children, inter alia, whose parents or caretakers
have died. However, once a child has been found by the Family Court to
be destitute, only two dispositional alternatives are included in Family
Court Act § 1095(d). First, a child may be placed in foster care with a
local commissioner of social services (or in New York City, the Adminis-
tration for Children's Services), which would be reviewed periodically
at permanency hearings under Article 10-A of the Family Court Act after
the child's first eight months in care and every six months thereafter.
In 2021, the statute was amended to require an independent evaluation
              

and judicial review of placements of destitute children in congregate
care settings under the Family First Prevention Services Act. See Family
Court Act § 1097. Second, the Family Court may order custody or guardi-
anship with a relative or other suitable person. Social Services Law §
458-a(1) was clarified to ensure that children for whom guardianship has
been ordered may qualify for the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program
(KinGAP).

Notwithstanding these modifications, the dispositional alternatives in
Family Court Act § 1095(d) fail to fulfill the need for prompt achieve-
ment of permanency for those destitute children whose parents are
deceased, especially in light of the serious loss or losses that they
have suffered. For those orphaned children who lack any relatives or
suitable individuals with whom guardianship or custody may be ordered
and for whom adoption is their permanency goal, the process to achieve
that goal is unnecessarily cumbersome.  Current law requires that in
such cases, after the destitute child placement is ordered under Family
Court Act § 1095(d), a termination of parental rights proceeding must be
filed and prosecuted under Social Services Law § 384-b(4)(a). While
uncontested, this type of termination of parental rights proceeding is
time-consuming and burdensome for everyone involved, especially in light
of proof already adduced at the destitute child proceeding that the
parents are deceased and that no other guardian has been appointed.
Therefore, on the recommendation of the Family Court Advisory and Rules
Committee, we are proposing this measure to obviate the need for the
second proceeding in order that an adoption may proceed more quickly.

This measure would amend Family Court Act § 1095(d) to add a third
dispositional option, that is, to allow the Family Court to free the
child for adoption and to grant guardianship and custody to the local
commissioner of social services in order to authorize the commissioner
to consent to the child's adoption under Domestic Relations Law §
111(1)(f). The option would apply only to those cases in which both
parents are deceased or in which one parent is deceased, there is no
other person entitled to consent or notice regarding an adoption and for
whom no other guardian or custodian has been appointed.  To ensure time-
ly and appropriate agency efforts to achieve permanency and necessary
assistance for the child, the measure further provides that: (1.) a
permanency hearing should be scheduled on a date certain; (2) the rights
of the child to placement or, at minimum, contact with siblings should
be effectuated; and (3) appropriate services and assistance should be
provided to the child, including assistance in learning independent
living skills if the child is fourteen years of age or older. A conform-
ing amendment would be added to Social Services Law § 398 to authorize
the commissioners of social services to provide consents to adoption in
these cases.

This measure would benefit those destitute children already traumatized
by the loss of one or both parents. The need for this legislation is
especially acute in light of the pandemic. The Centers for Disease
Control estimates that, as of May 1, 2022, 10.5 million children global-
ly have experienced the loss of a parent to Covid-19.' Researchers have
estimated that over 200,000 children in the United States have lost a
parent to Covid-19. Noting that "Black and Hispanic children lose care-
givers at rates more than double those of white children," Dan Treglia,
a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, has indicated that
states, such as New York and California, which have large communities of
color and communities experiencing poverty, have been hit especially
hard by the impact of the pandemic.2 Further, it has been estimated that
in New York City, one in every 200 children have lost a parent or care-
giver to Covid-19, almost double the national average.3

The measure would streamline the process for affording destitute chil-
dren, who have suffered the death of a parent, a faster means of becom-
ing free for adoption by eliminating the unnecessary, perfunctory step
of a termination of parental rights proceeding.  The simple addition of
a third dispositional option in destitute child proceedings would
provide a valuable benefit for children sorely in need of stable and
permanent homes.

This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become a law.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

None. New Proposal.

1 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Global Orphanhood
Associated with Covid-19thAth://ww w.cdc.aovieJobalhealth/covid- I
9;orphaohoodlindex.html text-The%20number%?i,200N.
020children'?,i)20who.co%21)k.d%20bN%20CDC%2Orev call, visited January
12, 20221.

2 E. Griswold, "The kids who lost parents to covid: On two teens bound
by grief, and the estimated two hundred thousand American children like
them," NEW YORKER, July 13, 2022.  See also, N. Stewart, "He is 16 and
His Mother Died of Covid-19.  What Happens to Him Now? Children who lost
their parents in the pandemic are fighting to hold on to what is left of
their families," NY TIMES, Aug. 13, 2020
(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/nyregion /coronavius-ny-parents-
dead.html, visited Jan 12, 2023).


3 F. Khan, "I in Every 200 NYC Children Have Lost Parent or Caregiver to
COVID. That's Almost Twice the National Average," THE CITY, Apr.  20,
2022 (https://www.thecity.nychearch?q=COVID+LOSS+0F+PARENT +OltiCAREGIV-
ER nt=naysearc; visited Jan. 12, 2023).