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.
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