Assembly Advances Child Safety Bills

Legislation Would Set Workload Standards for Child Protective Service Workers, Provide Services for Sexually Exploited Youth

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Children and Families Committee Chair William Scarborough today announced significant committee action on a package of bills aimed at strengthening New York's child protection system by enhancing child protective worker standards and training; making it easier to terminate parental rights in cases where a homicide has been committed against a parent or sibling; and providing critical services for the rising number of youth who suffer sexual exploitation.

These measures are expected to be considered on the floor of the Assembly before the conclusion of session. Silver and Scarborough said they are important measures that would codify the Assembly's Child Protective and Abuse Prevention Package, which was part of the bipartisan budget adopted by the Legislature in April. The lawmakers noted the package was the direct result of a series of statewide public hearings conducted by the Assembly committees on Children and Families and Oversight, Analysis and Investigation.

The bills, which were reported out of the Children and Families Committee earlier today, would reduce caseloads of child protective workers, enhance training and education for the thousands of mandated reporters who trigger entry into the child protective system, improve communication and establish better protocols for multidisciplinary responses among law enforcement and child protection agencies throughout the state and create a new, executive Office of the Child Advocate to ensure that vulnerable children have a strong and effective watchdog to monitor this vitally important system.

Termination of Parental Rights For Murderous Parents
A key bill in the package, A.11582, sponsored by Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera, seeks to protect children who have lost a parent or sibling to homicide. The bill, which is sponsored in the Senate by Senator Raymond Meier, is based on legislation advanced by the state Office of Court Administration. It would amend current law to add the conviction for homicide of the child's other parent or a child that that parent was legally responsible for as grounds for the termination of parental rights.

According to Rivera, under current law, children who have already had their families torn apart by the murder of a parent or sibling by another parent, languish in foster care for at least 15 months while a petition to terminate parental rights is considered. This bill does not apply in cases of domestic violence.

The Rivera bill would expedite the permanent placement for children by allowing the court to rapidly terminate parental rights for the parent responsible for murder.

Services For Sexually Exploited Youth
A second bill, A.11365, sponsored by Scarborough, would provide critical support and services to youth who are the victims of sexual exploitation. The legislation would define sexually exploited youth as someone under the age of 18 who may be subject to sexual exploitation because they engaged or agreed or offered to engage in sexual conduct in return for a fee, food, clothing or a place to stay. The youth would also be defined as sexually exploited if he or she has stripped, been filmed doing sexual acts, traded sex for drugs or found guilty of loitering for the purpose of engaging in prostitution.

Under current law, New York State has sought to prosecute sexually exploited youth as hardened criminals. Scarborough noted that since the overwhelming majority of these youths have a history of psychological, physical or sexual abuse as younger children and many have been raised in poverty, simply arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating them as criminals did little more than re-traumatize survivors of sexual exploitation.

Noting the lack of appropriate services in the juvenile justice system, Scarborough said, "Sexually exploited youth deserve the protection and services of family court through processes in place for persons in need of supervision (PINS), including diversion, crisis intervention, counseling and emergency and long-term housing services."

Strengthening and Expanding Child Advocacy Centers (CACs)
Calling them "modern day miracles in the fight against child abuse and neglect," Silver and Scarborough said the Assembly would continue advocating strongly for the expansion of child advocacy centers (CACs) and multi-disciplinary investigative teams across New York State. Assembly bill 11188 would create a statutory definition of child advocacy centers and require CACs to meet certain minimum standards.

Following a series of statewide hearings last year, the Assembly concluded the lack of coordination amongst law enforcement agencies, child protective services and other entities involved in the protection of children was a major impediment in effectively protecting abused and neglected children.

CACs and multi-disciplinary investigative teams provide children and their families coordinated intervention services from teams that include professionals from child protective services, law enforcement, medical, prosecution, mental health and other disciplines responsible for the investigation and management of reports of child abuse. These facilities provide services and staff specially trained in the unique needs of child-abuse victims, thereby increasing rates of prosecution of child abusers and more effectively and humanely assisting child victims.

According to Scarborough, there are 28 CACs and seven multidisciplinary teams statewide. While co-location of these centers and teams is a recommended best practice, this arrangement exists at a limited number of sites.

Fatality Review Teams
Another bill in the package, A.10023-A, sponsored by Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, would expand the composition of regional fatality review teams responsible for investigating the deaths of children under 18 years of age. Provisions of the bill also would expand the scope of child fatality review teams to include fatalities of all children involved in the child welfare system. The bill provides for subpoena power, immunity and confidentiality for fatality review teams and requires an annual report.

Paulin noted the purpose of a child fatality review team is to investigate unexpected and unexplained deaths of children under 18 to determine if any death could have been prevented. Since it is unusual for a child to die unnaturally, law enforcement officers, public health officials and child protective caseworkers must thoroughly investigate every unexplained death in order to correctly identify failures inherent in a system that is designed to protect children, she said.

Establishing A New Executive Office of the Child Advocate
Additional legislation, A.6334, sponsored by Assemblywoman Barbara Clark would establish an independent Office of the Child Advocate. Similar to offices that currently exist in numerous other states, including New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island, the office would provide oversight of the state Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) and evaluate treatment and service patterns and the policy implications of those patterns. Based on its findings, the office would make recommendations for systemic change in the state's child welfare, juvenile justice systems and child care systems.

Better Educating the Public About Child Abuse and Neglect
Another bill, A.11635, sponsored by Assemblywoman Annette Robinson, seeks to increase community awareness about the symptoms of child abuse and neglect. The bill would require OCFS to conduct a public education campaign that emphasizes zero tolerance for child abuse and maltreatment. The campaign would include information about the signs and indicators of child abuse and maltreatment, information about the Child Abuse Hotline and information about services available to assist families with substance-abuse, domestic-violence and mental-health needs.

Qualifications and Training For CPS
Legislation, A.11574, sponsored by Assemblywoman Michele Titus, would provide advanced clinical supervision and on-going training for child protective workers. The lawmakers noted that under current regulations entry level child protective services workers are only required to have either a baccalaureate or equivalent college degree, or relevant human services experience. At the same time, supervisory staff is only required to have one year of experience in child welfare services.

According to Titus, these requirements have led to situations in which supervisors may have very little experience or education in providing child protective services. Provisions of the bill would require that the qualifications of supervisory child protective services workers hired after December 1, 2006 must include an advanced social work degree or comparable human services field experience. In addition, the bill also would require supervisors to have two years experience working with children and families or a baccalaureate degree in social work or comparable human services field and four years of experience working with children and families, with two of those years within the child protective services system.

Other bills included in the package include:

• A.10135-A, sponsored by Assemblyman Adam Bradley, would require past history of child abuse reports and/or allegations of child abuse be taken into consideration when determining if a new allegation of abuse or maltreatment should be accepted as a report by the state central registry;
• A.11150, sponsored by Scarborough, would establish caseload standards for child protection services and workload guidelines for foster care services and preventive services; and,
• A.11151, sponsored by Scarborough, would enhance training for certain mandated reporters on the identification of child abuse.