Amd S206, Pub Health L; amd S15, add S176, Dom Rel L
Establishes a pre-marital course and a marital and family preservation program and imposes requirements to take the course and program; requires the completion of the pre-marital course before obtaining a marriage license; provides that penalties may be imposed if the marital and family preservation program is not completed before a divorce is granted.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
4431
2011-2012 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 3, 2011
___________
Introduced by M. of A. SCARBOROUGH -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law and the domestic relations law, in
relation to establishing a pre-marital education program and a
marriage and family preservation course and imposing certain require-
ments
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 206 of the public health law is amended by adding a
2 new subdivision 28 to read as follows:
3 28. The commissioner shall promulgate rules and regulations to estab-
4 lish a pre-marital education program which shall include, but not be
5 limited to, physical locations for instruction, curriculum for training
6 of instructors, curriculum for the program, fees for enrollment and the
7 issuance of certificates for those who have completed the program. The
8 curriculum of the program shall include instruction based on the "Heal-
9 thy Marriage Initiative" of the United States Department of Health and
10 Human Services. Marriage educators and counselors, mental health profes-
11 sionals, members of the clergy and their designees and other persons
12 designated by the commissioner, including members of community based
13 organizations, may apply to become instructors in the program.
14 § 2. Subdivision 3 of section 15 of the domestic relations law, as
15 amended by section 5 of part W2 of chapter 62 of the laws of 2003, is
16 amended and a new subdivision 5 is added to read as follows:
17 3. If it shall appear upon an application for a marriage license that
18 either party is under the age of sixteen years, the town or city clerk
19 shall require, in addition to any consents provided for in this section,
20 the written approval and consent of a justice of the supreme court or of
21 a judge of the family court, having jurisdiction over the town or city
22 in which the application is made, to be attached to or endorsed upon the
23 application, before the license is issued. The application for such
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03597-01-1
A. 4431 2
1 approval and consent shall be heard by the judge at chambers. All papers
2 and records pertaining to any such application shall be sealed by him
3 and withheld from inspection, except by order of a court of competent
4 jurisdiction. Before issuing any licenses herein provided for, the town
5 or city clerk shall be entitled to a fee of [thirty] ninety dollars,
6 which sum shall be paid by the applicants before or at the time the
7 license is issued. Any town or city clerk who shall issue a license to
8 marry any persons one or both of whom shall not be at the time of the
9 marriage under such license legally competent to marry without first
10 requiring the parties to such marriage to make such affidavits and
11 statements or who shall not require the production of documentary proof
12 of age or the procuring of the approval and consents provided for by
13 this article, which shall show that the parties authorized by said
14 license to be married are legally competent to marry, shall be guilty of
15 a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof shall be fined in the sum of one
16 hundred dollars for each and every offense. On or before the fifteenth
17 day of each month, each town and city clerk, except in the city of New
18 York, shall transmit to the state commissioner of health [twenty-two]
19 seventy-three dollars [and fifty cents] of the amount received for each
20 fee collected, twenty-three dollars of which shall be paid into the
21 vital records management account as provided by section ninety-seven-
22 cccc of the state finance law. Fifty dollars of the amount paid to the
23 state commissioner of health shall be used for expenses of the pre-mari-
24 tal education program as set out in subdivision twenty-eight of section
25 two hundred six of the public health law. In any city the balance of all
26 fees collected for the issuing of a marriage license, or for solemnizing
27 a marriage, so far as collected for services rendered by any officer or
28 employee of such city, shall be paid monthly into the city treasury and
29 may by ordinance be credited to any fund therein designated, and said
30 ordinance, when duly enacted, shall have the force of law in such city.
31 Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article, the clerk of any
32 city with the approval of the governing body of such city is hereby
33 authorized to designate, in writing filed in the city clerk's office, a
34 deputy clerk, if any, and/or other city employees in such office to
35 receive applications for, examine applications, investigate and issue
36 marriage licenses in the absence or inability of the clerk of said city
37 to act, and said deputy and/or employees so designated are hereby vested
38 with all the powers and duties of said city clerk relative thereto. Such
39 deputy and/or employees shall perform said duties without additional
40 compensation.
41 5. Upon application for a marriage license, the town or city clerk
42 shall advise the applicant of the availability of the pre-marital educa-
43 tion program as set out in subdivision twenty-eight of section two
44 hundred six of the public health law, and such clerk shall advise appli-
45 cants that the course must be completed before a license is issued. A
46 county court judge or a supreme court judge may order this requirement
47 waived on good cause shown.
48 § 3. Section 206 of the public health law is amended by adding a new
49 subdivision 29 to read as follows:
50 29. The commissioner shall promulgate rules and regulations to estab-
51 lish a marriage and family preservation course which shall provide at
52 least eight hours of instruction. Such course shall include, but shall
53 not be limited to, the following subjects: the effects of divorce on
54 minors including developmental stages of the minor, responses to
55 divorce, symptoms of and responses to maladjustment to divorce, educa-
56 tion and counseling options for a minor; the effects of divorce on the
A. 4431 3
1 parties to an action for divorce including parenting skills, communi-
2 cation skills, conflict resolution skills, money management skills,
3 emotional, family, financial and work adjustment techniques, stress
4 reduction, parallel and cooperative parenting techniques, reconciliation
5 and counseling options, remarriage issues and substance abuse informa-
6 tion and referral. The rules and regulations for the course shall
7 include, but shall not be limited to, physical locations for instruction
8 and fees for enrollment. The curriculum of the course must include stan-
9 dards of instruction taken from the Healthy Marriage Initiative of the
10 United States Department of Health and Human Services and the Healthy
11 Marriage Resource Center. A licensed psychologist, a licensed clinical
12 social worker, a licensed marriage and family therapist, a licensed
13 mental health counselor and a member of the clergy may teach the course.
14 Fees for the course shall be paid to the provider. The provider of the
15 course shall provide a certificate of completion to individuals who
16 successfully complete the course.
17 § 4. The domestic relations law is amended by adding a new section 176
18 to read as follows:
19 § 176. Marriage and family preservation course. 1. Unless otherwise
20 provided, each party to an action for divorce shall be required to
21 successfully complete the marriage and family preservation course as set
22 out in subdivision twenty-nine of section two hundred six of the public
23 health law.
24 2. A court may exempt a party to a divorce from completing the
25 marriage and family preservation course if:
26 a. the party files an affidavit with the court that states he or she
27 is a victim of domestic violence by the other party; or
28 b. the court finds other good cause for the exemption and states such
29 finding in writing.
30 3. The court in a divorce action may grant a divorce to a party who is
31 not exempt from completing the marriage and family preservation course,
32 and who did not complete the course, but the court may hold such party
33 in contempt of court and impose appropriate penalties for failure to
34 complete the course.
35 § 5. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed-
36 ing the date on which it shall have become a law, provided that the
37 commissioner of health is immediately authorized and directed to promul-
38 gate, amend and/or repeal any rules or regulations necessary to imple-
39 ment the provisions of this act on its effective date.
