Allows the court to enter an order regarding a destitute minor freeing the child for adoption and granting guardianship and custody to the commissioner of social services for the purposes of consenting to an adoption; authorizes certain commissioners of public welfare and city public welfare officers to consent to such adoptions.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A8481
SPONSOR: Hevesi TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the family court act and the social services law, in
relation to dispositional alternatives for children placed with local
social services agencies as destitute minors
This is one in a series of measures being introduced at the request of
the Acting Chief Administrative Judge upon the recommendation of her
Family Court Advisory and Rules Committee.
Enactment of Article 10-C of the Family Court Act in 2011 provided a
valuable vehicle for addressing the needs of destitute children in New
York State, including children, inter alia, whose parents or caretakers
have died. However, once a child has been found by the Family Court to
be destitute, only two dispositional alternatives are included in Family
Court Act § 1095(d): First, a child may be placed in foster care with a
local commissioner of social services (or in New York City, the Adminis-
tration for Children's Services), which would be reviewed periodically
at permanency hearings under Article 10-A of the Family Court Act after
the child's first eight months in care and every six months thereafter.
In 2021, the statute was amended to require an independent evaluation
and judicial review of placements of destitute children in congregate
care settings under the Family First Prevention Services Act. See Family
Court Act § 1097. Second, the Family Court may order custody or guardi-
anship with a relative or other suitable person. Social Services Law §
458-a(1) was clarified to ensure that children for whom guardianship has
been ordered may qualify for the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program
(KinGAP).
Notwithstanding these modifications, the dispositional alternatives in
Family Court Act § 1095(d) fail to fulfill the need for prompt achieve-
ment of permanency for those destitute children whose parents are
deceased, especially in light of the serious loss or losses that they
have suffered. For those orphaned children who lack any relatives or
suitable individuals with whom guardianship or custody may be ordered
and for whom adoption is their permanency goal, the process to achieve
that goal is unnecessarily cumbersome. Current law requires that in such
cases, after the destitute child placement is ordered under Family Court
Act § 1095(d), a termination of parental rights proceeding must be filed
and prosecuted under Social Services Law § 384-b(4)(a). While uncon-
tested, this type of termination of parental rights proceeding is time-
consuming and burdensome for everyone involved, especially in light of
proof already adduced at the destitute child proceeding that the parents
are deceased and that no other guardian has been appointed. Therefore,
on the recommendation of the Family Court Advisory and Rules Committee,
we are proposing this measure to obviate the need for the second
proceeding in order that an adoption may proceed more quickly.
This measure would amend Family Court Act § 1095(d) to add a third
dispositions option, that is, to allow the Family Court to free the
child for adoption and to grant guardianship and custody to the local
commissioner of social services in order to authorize the commissioner
to consent to the child's adoption under Domestic Relations Law §
111(1)(f). The option would apply only to those cases in which both
parents are deceased or in which one parent is deceased, there is no
other person entitled to consent or notice regarding an adoption and for
whom no other guardian or custodian has been appointed. To ensure timely
and appropriate agency efforts to achieve permanency and necessary
assistance for the child, the measure further provides that: (1) a
permanency hearing should be scheduled on a date certain; (2) the rights
of the child to placement or, at minimum, contact with siblings should
be effectuated; and (3) appropriate services and assistance should be
provided to the child, including assistance in learning independent
living skills if the child is fourteen years of age or older. A conform-
ing amendment would be added to Social Services Law § 398 to authorize
the commissioners of social services to provide consents to adoption in
these cases.
This measure would benefit those destitute children already traumatized
by the.loss of one or both parents. The need for this legislation is
especially acute in light of the pandemic. The Centers for Disease
Control estimates that, as of May 1, 2022, 10.5 million children global-
ly have experienced the loss. of a parent to Covid-19. (1) Researchers
have estimated that over 200,000 children in the United States have lost
a parent to Covid-19. Noting that "Black and Hispanic children lose
caregivers at rates more than double those of white children," Dan Treg-
lia, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, has indicated that
states, such as New York and California, which have large communities of
color and communities experiencing poverty, have been hit especially
hard by the impact of the pandemic? Further, it has been estimated that
in New York City, one in every 200 children have lost a parent or care-
giver to Covid-19, almost double the national average.' .
The measure would streamline the process for affording destitute chil-
dren, who have suffered the death of a parent, a faster means of becom-
ing free for adoption by eliminating the unnecessary, perfunctory step
of a termination of parental rights proceeding. The simple addition of a
third dispositional option in destitute child proceedings would provide
a valuable benefit for children sorely in need of stable and permanent
homes.
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become a law. Legislative History: None. New Proposal.
1 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Global Orphanhood
Associated with Covid-I9 fhttps://www.cdc.eovI9Jobalheahh/cov id- 19/o
inha n hood/ i 11 dex.html :-:text=The%2 On u m ber%20o141/02 Och ld re
0 %20wh o,co%2Dled%20 bv%20CDC%2Orev eats, visited January 12, 2022.
2 E. Griswold, "The kids who lost parents to covid: On two teens bound
by grief, and the estimated two hundred thousand American children lice
Them," NEW YORKER, July 13, 2022. See also, N. Stewart "He is 16 and His
Mother Died of Covid-19. What Happens to Him Now? Children who lost
their parents in the pandemic are fighting to hold on to what is left of
their families," NY TIMES, Aug. 13, 2020 •
Pittps://wvvw.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/ nyregionicoronavius-ay-parents-
dead.html, visited Jan 12, 2023.
3 F. Khan, "1 in Every 200 NYC Children Have Lost Parent or Caregiver to
COVED. That's Almost Twice the National Average;" THE CITY, Apr. 20,
2022
(https://www.thecity.nyesearch?q---COVED+LOSS-F0F+PARENT+OR-FCAREGIVER n
t---naysearc; visited Jan. 12, 2023.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8481
IN ASSEMBLY
January 3, 2024
___________
Introduced by M. of A. HEVESI -- (at request of the Office of Court
Administration) -- read once and referred to the Committee on Children
and Families
AN ACT to amend the family court act and the social services law, in
relation to dispositional alternatives for children placed with local
social services agencies as destitute minors
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision (d) of section 1095 of the family court act, as
2 amended by chapter 3 of the laws of 2012, is amended to read as follows:
3 (d) If the court sustains the petition pursuant to subdivision (b) of
4 this section, it may immediately convene a dispositional hearing or may
5 adjourn the proceeding for further inquiries to be made prior to dispo-
6 sition provided however, that if a petition pursuant to article six of
7 this act has been filed by a person or persons seeking custody or guar-
8 dianship of the child, or if a petition pursuant to article seventeen of
9 the surrogate's court procedure act seeking guardianship of the child
10 has been filed, the court shall consolidate the dispositional hearing
11 with a hearing under section one thousand ninety-six of this article,
12 unless consolidation would not be appropriate under the circumstances.
13 If the court does not consolidate such dispositional proceedings it
14 shall hold the dispositional hearing under this section in abeyance
15 pending the disposition of the petition filed pursuant to article six of
16 this act or article seventeen of the surrogate's court procedure act.
17 Based upon material and relevant evidence presented at the dispositional
18 hearing, the court shall enter an order of disposition stating the
19 grounds for its order and directing one of the following alternatives:
20 (1) placing the child in the care and custody of the commissioner of
21 social services; [or]
22 (2) granting an order of custody or guardianship to relatives or suit-
23 able persons pursuant to a petition under article six of this act or
24 guardianship of the child to a relative or suitable person under article
25 seventeen of the surrogate's court procedure act and in accordance with
26 section one thousand ninety-six of this article; or
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09713-01-3
A. 8481 2
1 (3) freeing the child for adoption and granting guardianship and
2 custody to the commissioner of social services for the purposes of
3 consenting to an adoption where both of the child's parents are
4 deceased, or where one of the child's parents is deceased and the other
5 parent is not entitled to consent or notice pursuant to sections one
6 hundred eleven and one hundred eleven-a of the domestic relations law or
7 section three hundred eighty-four-c of the social services law and no
8 other guardian or custodian has been appointed.
9 § 2. Section 1095 of the family court act is amended by adding a new
10 subdivision (h) to read as follows:
11 (h) If the child has been freed for adoption pursuant to paragraph
12 three of subdivision (d) of this section, the court shall include the
13 following in its order:
14 (1) a date certain for the permanency hearing in accordance with para-
15 graph two of subdivision (a) of section one thousand eighty-nine of this
16 act;
17 (2) a direction that the child be placed together with or, at mini-
18 mum, to visit and have regular communication with, his or her siblings,
19 if any, unless contrary to the best interests of the child and/or the
20 siblings;
21 (3) if the child is or will be fourteen or older by the date of the
22 permanency hearing, the services and assistance that may be necessary to
23 assist the child in learning independent living skills; and
24 (4) a direction for the commissioner of social services to provide or
25 arrange for services or assistance, limited to those authorized or
26 required to be made available under the comprehensive annual services
27 program plan then in effect, to facilitate the child's permanency plan.
28 § 3. Paragraphs (b) and (c) of subdivision 1 of section 398 of the
29 social services law, paragraph (b) as added and paragraph (c) as amended
30 by chapter 3 of the laws of 2012, are amended and a new paragraph (d) is
31 added to read as follows:
32 (b) report to the local criminal justice agency and to the statewide
33 central register for missing children as described in section eight
34 hundred thirty-seven-e of the executive law such relevant information as
35 required on a form prescribed by the commissioner of the division of
36 criminal justice services, in appropriate instances; [and]
37 (c) assume charge of and provide care and support for any child who is
38 a destitute child pursuant to paragraph (a) of subdivision three of
39 section three hundred seventy-one of this article who cannot be properly
40 cared for in his or her home, and if required, petition the family court
41 to obtain custody of the child in accordance with article ten-C of the
42 family court act[.]; and
43 (d) consent to the adoption of a child whose custody and guardianship
44 has been transferred to a social services district in accordance with
45 section one thousand ninety-five of the family court act or paragraph
46 (a) of subdivision four of section three hundred eighty-four-b of this
47 article, where the child's parents are both deceased, or where one
48 parent is deceased and the other parent is not entitled to consent or
49 notice pursuant to sections one hundred eleven and one hundred eleven-a
50 of the domestic relations law or section three hundred eighty-four-c of
51 this article and no other guardian or custodian has been appointed.
52 § 4. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
53 have become a law.
