BILL NUMBER: S7920

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

 
PURPOSE:

This bill allows the court to enter an order regarding a destitute minor
freeing the child for adoption and granting guardianship and custody to
the commissioner of social services for the purposes of consenting to an
adoption; authorizes certain commissioners of public welfare and city
public welfare officers to consent to such adoptions.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends subdivision (d) or section 1095 of the family court
act, as amended by chapter 3 of the laws of 2012 by adding number (3) an
alternative to free the child for adoption and granting guardianship and
              

custody to the commissioner of social services for the purposes of
consenting to adoption under certain terms.

Section 2 amends section 1095 of the family court act adding a new
subdivision (h)that states what the court would include in its order if
the child were freed for adoption pursuant to paragraph three of subdi-
vision (d) of this section.

Section 3 amends and adds a new paragraph to paragraphs (b) and (c) of
subdivision I or section 398 of the social services law, paragraph (b)
as added and paragraph (c) as amended by chapter 3 of the laws of 2012
which include a report to the local criminal justice agency and to the
statewide central register for missing children of relevant information
in appropriate instances; it also authorizes certain commissioners of
public welfare and city public welfare officers to consent to such
adoptions.

Section 4 outlines the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

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 the Family Court has found a child, 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 10A 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 alterp,atpbes in
Family Court Act § 1095(d) fails to fulfill the need for prompt manage-
ment of permanency for those destitute children whose parents are
deceased, especially considering 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 consid-
ering proof already adduced at the destitute child proceeding that the
parents are deceased and that no other guardian has been appointed. This
bill would obviate the need for the second proceeding in order that an
adoption may proceed more quickly.

This measure would amend the 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 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 timely and
appropriate agency efforts to achieve permanency and necessary assist-
ance 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 bill would benefit those destitute children already traumatized by
the loss of one or both parents. The need for this legislation was espe-
cially acute considering the pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control
estimated that, as of May 1, 2022, 10.5 million children globally expe-
rienced 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 caregivers 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 two hundred children have lost a parent or care-
giver to Covid-19, almost double the national average.3

This bill will streamline the process for affording destitute children,
who have suffered the death of a parent, a faster means of becoming 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.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2024: 97447 - Passed the Senate

2023: 57447 - Passed the Senate

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become a law.
References:
1 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Global Orphanhood
Associated with Covid-19thAth://ww w.cdc.aovieJobalhealth/covid- 1
9;orphaohoodlindex.html text-The%20number%?1,200N.
020ohildren'?,i)26who.co21)k.d,120bM20CDC%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 1.6 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/coronavibs- 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.nychearch2g-COVID+LOSS+0F+PARENT
 visited Jan. 12, 2023).