Bill Text: NY A08342 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires social services districts to maintain a waiting list of certain families applying for child care assistance.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - referred to children and families [A08342 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-A08342-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 8342 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY December 13, 2023 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. SOLAGES -- read once and referred to the Commit- tee on Children and Families AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to requiring social services districts to maintain a waiting list of certain families applying for child care assistance The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 410-z of the social services law, as added by 2 section 52 of part B of chapter 436 of the laws of 1997, is amended to 3 read as follows: 4 § 410-z. Reporting requirements. 1. Each social services district 5 shall collect and submit to the [department] office of children and 6 family services, in such form and at such times as specified by the 7 [department] office of children and family services, such data and 8 information regarding child care assistance provided under the block 9 grant as the [department] office of children and family services may 10 need to comply with federal reporting requirements. 11 2. (a) Each social services district shall maintain a waiting list of 12 eligible families who have applied for child care assistance pursuant to 13 this title and who have not received such assistance. Such waiting list 14 shall contain information including, but not limited to: 15 (i) the date the child care assistance was requested; 16 (ii) the date the child care assistance was received; 17 (iii) the age of the child or children the assistance was requested on 18 behalf of; and 19 (iv) the total number of families on such waiting list as of the first 20 day of each month. 21 (b) Each district shall issue a report to the office of children and 22 family services by October fifteenth, two thousand twenty-four, and 23 annually thereafter detailing month-to-month information required pursu- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD04177-01-3A. 8342 2 1 ant to this subdivision for the preceding period of October first 2 through September thirtieth, and shall include the following: 3 (i) the average length of time for families on the waiting list; 4 (ii) the number of families on the waiting list for each of the 5 following time periods: 6 (A) less than two weeks, 7 (B) two weeks to less than a month, 8 (C) one month to less than three months, 9 (D) three months to less than six months, 10 (E) six months to less than a year, and 11 (F) one year or more; 12 (iii) the average age of children represented on the waiting list; 13 (iv) the number of children represented on the waiting list eligible 14 for each: 15 (A) infant, 16 (B) toddler, 17 (C) pre-school, and 18 (D) school-aged subsidized child care slots; and 19 (v) the number of existing infant, toddler, pre-school and school-aged 20 subsidized child care slots; 21 (vi) the number of families who would receive child care assistance 22 except that they are waiting for available slots in a particular child 23 care program; and 24 (vii) other information as the district deems appropriate. 25 (c) For purposes of this subdivision, "eligible family" shall include 26 all families with incomes at or below two hundred percent of the federal 27 poverty level, as most recently reported by the federal department of 28 health and human services, who are otherwise eligible, but who may have 29 been denied assistance because the local social services district does 30 not have enough funds to serve all eligible families and has opted to 31 apply its funds to lower income families as a priority population. 32 3. (a) Each social services district shall collect data regarding the 33 income of families who applied for child care assistance pursuant to 34 this title, specifying: 35 (i) the number of families who were denied; 36 (ii) the number of families who received such assistance; and 37 (iii) a listing of the incomes pursuant to paragraph (b) of this 38 subdivision of the families who applied for such assistance. 39 (b) Each district shall issue a report to the office of children and 40 family services by October fifteenth, two thousand twenty-four, and 41 annually thereafter, detailing month-to-month information collected 42 pursuant to this subdivision for the preceding period of October first 43 through September thirtieth, and shall include the following: 44 (i) the number of all families who applied for and received child care 45 assistance pursuant to this title whose: 46 (A) incomes were under one hundred one percent of the federal poverty 47 level for their family size and were in receipt of cash public assist- 48 ance; 49 (B) incomes were under one hundred one percent of the federal poverty 50 level for their family size and were not in receipt of cash public 51 assistance; 52 (C) incomes were between one hundred one percent and one hundred twen- 53 ty-five percent of the federal poverty level for their family size; 54 (D) incomes were between one hundred twenty-six and one hundred fifty 55 percent of the federal poverty level for their family size;A. 8342 3 1 (E) incomes were between one hundred fifty-one percent and one hundred 2 seventy-five percent of the federal poverty level for their family size; 3 and 4 (F) incomes were between one hundred seventy-six and two hundred 5 percent of the federal poverty level for their family size; and 6 (ii) the number of all families who applied for and were denied child 7 care assistance pursuant to this title whose: 8 (A) incomes were under one hundred one percent of the federal poverty 9 level for their family size, and who were in receipt of cash public 10 assistance; 11 (B) incomes were under one hundred one percent of the federal poverty 12 level for their family size and who were not in receipt of cash public 13 assistance; 14 (C) incomes were between one hundred one percent and one hundred twen- 15 ty-five percent of the federal poverty level for their family size; 16 (D) incomes were between one hundred twenty-six percent and one 17 hundred fifty percent of the federal poverty level for their family 18 size; 19 (E) incomes were between one hundred fifty-one percent and one hundred 20 seventy-five percent of the federal poverty level for their family size; 21 and 22 (F) incomes were between one hundred seventy-six and two hundred 23 percent of the federal poverty level for their family size; and 24 (iii) any other information as the office of children and family 25 services deems appropriate. 26 4. The office of children and family services shall compile such 27 reports pursuant to paragraph (b) of subdivision two, and paragraph (b) 28 of subdivision three of this section, into one comprehensive report 29 containing all required information on a county by county basis. Such 30 report shall be provided to the governor, the speaker of the assembly, 31 the temporary president of the senate, the chairperson of the assembly 32 committee on children and families, the chairperson of the senate 33 committee on children and families, the chairperson of the assembly 34 committee on social services, the chairperson of the senate committee on 35 social services, the chairperson of the assembly ways and means commit- 36 tee and the chairperson of the senate finance committee no later than 37 December first, two thousand twenty-four, and annually thereafter. 38 § 2. Nothing in this act shall be construed to require local social 39 services districts to maintain waiting lists for dates preceding the 40 effective date of this act, or to collect data pursuant to subdivision 3 41 of section 410-z of the social services law, as added by section one of 42 this act, for persons who applied for subsidized child care prior to the 43 effective date of this act. 44 § 3. This act shall take effect October 1, 2023. Effective immediate- 45 ly, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation 46 necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective date are 47 authorized to be made and completed on or before such effective date.
