STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5437--A
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 -- recom-
mitted to the Committee on Children and Families in accordance with
Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -- reported favorably from said committee and
committed to the Committee on Finance -- committee discharged, bill
amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit-
tee
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;
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06807-02-6
S. 5437--A 2
1 [4. Development] (d) development of knowledge and skills to prepare
2 for court processes necessary in foster care and adoption; and
3 [5. Development] (e) development of case management skills including
4 planning for permanence for each child.
5 2. On or after April first, two thousand twenty-seven, such courses
6 may be satisfactorily completed through distance learning methods which
7 evince that all participants are in attendance for the duration of the
8 course and are able to ask questions of the instructor. Each county
9 shall be authorized to adopt a local law, ordinance or resolution to
10 provide for a local department of social services to fulfill the train-
11 ing requirement established by this subdivision through a distance
12 learning method, excluding the annual in service training requirement.
13 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
