Allows prospective and current agency personnel receive certification through remote training methods; requires the establishment of rules and regulations of such remote training.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5437
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 21, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. CLEARE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Social Services
AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to allowing
prospective and current agency personnel complete training through
remote training methods
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 409-g of the social services law, as added by chap-
2 ter 611 of the laws of 1979, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 409-g. Training of child welfare personnel. 1. Within the amounts
4 appropriated therefor, including all federal reimbursement received or
5 to be received on account thereof, the department shall develop and
6 implement a plan for the training of social services district and other
7 authorized agency personnel, including caseworkers involved in the
8 provision or supervision of preventive services, foster care services
9 and adoption services. Such training shall include but need not be
10 limited to:
11 [1. Permanence] (a) permanence casework: casework methodologies
12 focused on activities designed to prevent placement in foster care or to
13 shorten the length of stay in care for those children who can be
14 returned home or freed for adoption;
15 [2. Development] (b) development of skills to facilitate rehabili-
16 tation or restoration of the family unit;
17 [3. Development] (c) development of knowledge and skills in legally
18 freeing children for adoption and providing adoption services;
19 [4. Development] (d) development of knowledge and skills to prepare
20 for court processes necessary in foster care and adoption; and
21 [5. Development] (e) development of case management skills including
22 planning for permanence for each child.
23 2. The commissioner, in consultation with the commissioner of the
24 office of children and family services, shall establish rules and regu-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06807-01-5
S. 5437 2
1 lations for allowing prospective and current agency personnel to
2 complete any required training for certification as agency personnel
3 through remote training methods which evince that all participants are
4 in attendance for the duration of the training and are able to ask ques-
5 tions of the instructor, and for providing certification upon the
6 completion of such training through remote training methods.
7 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
8 have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or
9 repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of
10 this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed
11 on or before such date.
