STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                          4821
                               2017-2018 Regular Sessions
                   IN ASSEMBLY
                                    February 3, 2017
                                       ___________
        Introduced  by M. of A. TITUS -- read once and referred to the Committee
          on Social Services
        AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation  to  submission  of
          evidence at fair hearings
          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
     1    Section 1. Section 22 of the social services law is amended by  adding
     2  a new subdivision 15 to read as follows:
     3    15.  The  department  shall permit social services districts to submit
     4  their evidentiary packages for any fair hearing to the department solely
     5  in an electronic format and shall provide the means  to  facilitate  the
     6  social  services  districts'  use  of  any such evidentiary packages for
     7  their evidentiary presentations at the fair hearing.  Nothing  contained
     8  in  this  section shall require a social services district to submit its
     9  evidentiary package in an electronic format, nor shall a social services
    10  district, or any other party to a fair hearing, be precluded from offer-
    11  ing into evidence documentation in paper format, regardless of the medi-
    12  um used to create, transmit, and display the evidentiary package at  the
    13  fair  hearing. In cases where a person entitled to an appeal pursuant to
    14  this section requests a paper copy of  the  evidentiary  package  either
    15  before the hearing or at the hearing, the social services district shall
    16  provide such paper copy even if such district will utilize an electronic
    17  format  at  the  fair  hearing.  Requests made prior to the fair hearing
    18  shall be processed in accordance with the regulations of the department.
    19  When notifying a person entitled to an appeal to the department  of  the
    20  scheduling  of  a fair hearing, the department shall state that any such
    21  person may request orally or in writing a paper copy of the  evidentiary
    22  package  to  be  presented  by  the social services district at the fair
    23  hearing.
    24    § 2. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth  day  after  it  shall
    25  have become a law.
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD00086-01-7