Bill Text: NY A04245 | 2015-2016 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Relates to guidelines and standards for child protective services caseworker workloads.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 10-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-05-07 - enacting clause stricken [A04245 Detail]
Download: New_York-2015-A04245-Introduced.html
S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K ________________________________________________________________________ 4245 2015-2016 Regular Sessions I N A S S E M B L Y January 29, 2015 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. SCARBOROUGH, CLARK, ROSENTHAL, JAFFEE, PAULIN, COOK -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. CAMARA, SCHIMEL, TITONE -- read once and referred to the Committee on Children and Families AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to standards for workloads for child protective services caseworkers THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM- BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: 1 Section 1. Section 20-a of the social services law, as added by chap- 2 ter 107 of the laws of 1971, is amended to read as follows: 3 S 20-a. Local personnel; limitations on department's power. Notwith- 4 standing any inconsistent provision of this chapter, the board, the 5 commissioner or the department, acting singly or in unison, shall not 6 have the power, directly or indirectly to prescribe the number of 7 persons to be employed in any social services district providing the 8 district complies with the minimum federal standards relating thereto. 9 PROVIDED, HOWEVER, THAT THE OFFICE OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES SHALL 10 HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO PROMULGATE REGULATIONS THAT SET WORKLOAD STANDARDS 11 FOR CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, FOSTER CARE, PREVENTIVE SERVICES AND 12 ADOPTION SERVICES, WHICH STANDARDS ARE BASED ON THE NEW YORK STATE WORK- 13 LOAD STUDY. THE OFFICE SHALL SET WORKLOAD STANDARDS FOR CHILD PROTECTIVE 14 SERVICES BY OCTOBER FIRST, TWO THOUSAND EIGHTEEN. NO COUNTY SHALL BE 15 REQUIRED TO INCREASE ITS CHILD PROTECTIVE WORKFORCE BY MORE THAN TWEN- 16 TY-FIVE PERCENT IN ANY GIVEN STATE FISCAL YEAR, PROVIDED THAT EVERY 17 SOCIAL SERVICES DISTRICT SHALL COME INTO COMPLIANCE WITH THE ESTABLISHED 18 WORKLOAD STANDARDS BY JANUARY FIRST, TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-TWO. 19 S 2. Paragraph (c) of subdivision 1 of section 423 of the social 20 services law, as amended by chapter 83 of the laws of 1995, is amended 21 to read as follows: 22 (c) The child protective service shall have a sufficient staff, AS 23 REQUIRED BY CASELOAD STANDARDS ESTABLISHED BY THE OFFICE OF CHILDREN AND 24 FAMILY SERVICES, of sufficient qualifications to fulfill the purposes of EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD08036-01-5 A. 4245 2 1 this title and be organized in such a way as to maximize the continuity 2 of responsibility, care and service of individual workers toward indi- 3 vidual children and families. A social services district shall have 4 flexibility in assigning staff to the child protective service provided 5 that each staff assigned to such service has the staff qualifications 6 and has received the training required by the [department] regulations 7 promulgated BY THE OFFICE OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES pursuant to 8 subdivisions four and five of section four hundred twenty-one of this 9 title. 10 S 3. This act shall take effect immediately; provided however, that 11 the amendments to paragraph (c) of subdivision 1 of section 423 of the 12 social services law made by section two of this act shall take effect 13 October 1, 2018.