Enacts Caylee's law; establishes the crime of failure to report a child's disappearance or death, a class D felony; makes exception where child dies while under the medical care of a licensed physician.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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5661
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 22, 2021
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Introduced by M. of A. BRABENEC -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Codes
AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to establishing the crime of
failure to report the death or disappearance of a child
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
2 "Caylee's law".
3 § 2. The penal law is amended by adding a new section 260.37 to read
4 as follows:
5 § 260.37 Failure to report the death or disappearance of a child.
6 1. A person is guilty of failure to report the death or disappearance
7 of a child when:
8 (a) He or she is the parent, guardian or other person legally charged
9 with the care or custody of a child less than eighteen years old and
10 knowingly or intentionally fails to notify and report to law enforcement
11 within twenty-four hours of the death of such child, regardless of
12 whether such death was accidental or intentional; or
13 (b) He or she is the parent, guardian or other person legally charged
14 with the care or custody of a child less than eighteen years old and
15 knowingly or intentionally fails to notify and report to law enforcement
16 within twenty-four hours of the disappearance of such child.
17 2. A person is not guilty of the provisions of this section when he
18 or she engages in the conduct described in subdivision one of this
19 section and the child dies while under medical care from a duly licensed
20 physician or when a death certificate has been issued for the child.
21 Failure to report the death or disappearance of a child is a class D
22 felony.
23 § 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
24 have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07853-01-1
