Expands the duties of the office of children and family services concerning youth who are disproportionately likely to be runaway and/or homeless youth.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
11102--A
IN ASSEMBLY
June 5, 2018
___________
Introduced by COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Ortiz) --
read once and referred to the Committee on Children and Families --
committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and
recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to expanding the duties
of the office of children and family services concerning youth who are
disproportionately likely to be runaway and/or homeless youth
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 532-e of the executive law, as amended by chapter
2 182 of the laws of 2002, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 532-e. Powers and duties of the office of children and family
4 services. The office of children and family services shall: [(a)] 1.
5 visit, inspect and make periodic reports on the operation and adequacy
6 of approved runaway programs and transitional independent living support
7 programs;
8 [(b)] 2. certify residential facilities providing care to runaway
9 and/or homeless youth, provided, however, that no certification shall be
10 issued or renewed until it can be demonstrated that a program operated
11 pursuant to this article has consistent with appropriate collective
12 bargaining agreements and applicable provisions of the civil service
13 law, developed and implemented a procedure for reviewing and evaluating
14 the backgrounds of and the information supplied by any person applying
15 to be an employee, volunteer or consultant, which shall include but not
16 be limited to the following requirements: that the applicants set forth
17 his or her employment history, provide personal and employment refer-
18 ences and sign a sworn statement indicating whether the applicant, to
19 the best of his or her knowledge, has ever been convicted of a crime in
20 this state or any other jurisdiction;
21 [(c)] 3. maintain a register of approved runaway programs, transi-
22 tional independent living support programs and runaway and homeless
23 youth service coordinators;
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD16104-03-8
A. 11102--A 2
1 [(d)] 4. submit to the governor and legislature an annual report
2 detailing the numbers and characteristics of runaway and otherwise home-
3 less youth throughout the state and their problems and service needs;
4 [(e)] 5. develop and promulgate in consultation with county youth
5 bureaus and organizations or programs which have had past experience
6 dealing with runaway and homeless youth, regulations concerning the
7 coordination and integration of services available for runaway and
8 otherwise homeless youth and prohibiting the disclosure or transferal of
9 any records containing the identity of individual youth receiving
10 services pursuant to this section, without the written consent of the
11 youth; [and]
12 [(f)] 6. develop and promulgate regulations in consultation with the
13 office of temporary and disability assistance concerning the provision
14 of services by transitional independent living support programs consist-
15 ent with the provisions of this article[.];
16 [(g)] 7. require all employees of approved programs providing care to
17 runaway and/or homeless youth to complete training as set forth in regu-
18 lations promulgated by the office. Such training shall require all
19 employees of such residential facilities to receive instruction as spec-
20 ified by the office in the regulations and shall, at a minimum, include
21 instruction in issues pertaining to demographics of youth who are
22 disproportionately likely to be runaway and/or homeless youth, with
23 particular emphasis on:
24 (a) challenges faced by runaway and/or homeless youth;
25 (b) how to address various forms of discrimination at the residential
26 facilities;
27 (c) maintaining confidentially in sensitive matters;
28 (d) how to address the families of such youths; and
29 (e) how to communicate effectively in a manner that demonstrates
30 sensitivity to the particular background and identities of the affected
31 youths.
32 8. in conjunction with the commissioner of education, develop and
33 annually review a plan to ensure coordination and access to education
34 for homeless children, in accordance with the provisions of section
35 thirty-two hundred nine of the education law, and monitor compliance of
36 residential programs for runaway and homeless youth with such plan.
37 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed-
38 ing the date upon which it shall have become a law.