Bill Text: NY A02176 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Relates to reporting of youth placed in foster care settings and recruitment of foster parents; requires information including the total number of youth placed in foster care, the reasons why such youth were placed and the efforts the state has taken to recruit and retain foster parents; repeals provisions relating to directing the office of children and family services to make information publicly available on the number of youth placed in foster care settings and recruitment of foster parents and the effectiveness thereof.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)
Status: (Passed) 2023-12-22 - approval memo.64 [A02176 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-A02176-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 2176 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY January 23, 2023 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. EPSTEIN, GONZALEZ-ROJAS, GIBBS, OTIS -- read once and referred to the Committee on Children and Families AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to reporting of youth placed in foster care settings and recruitment of foster parents; and to repeal section 2 of chapter 11 of the laws of 2021, relating to directing the office of children and family services to make information publicly available on the number of youth placed in foster care settings and recruitment of foster parents and the effec- tiveness thereof The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 2 of chapter 11 of the laws of 2021, relating to 2 directing the office of children and family services to make information 3 publicly available on the number of youth placed in foster care settings 4 and recruitment of foster parents and the effectiveness thereof, is 5 REPEALED. 6 § 2. Section 17 of the social services law is amended by adding a new 7 subdivision (l) to read as follows: 8 (l) submit a report to the governor, the speaker of the assembly, the 9 temporary president of the senate, the minority leader of the assembly 10 and the minority leader of the senate beginning December thirty-first, 11 two thousand twenty-four, and biannually thereafter, regarding youth 12 placed in foster care settings and the recruitment of foster parents. 13 Such report shall be made publicly available online and shall provide 14 information, as required pursuant to this subdivision, aggregated by 15 local social services districts and foster care settings. For the 16 purposes of this subdivision, foster care settings shall include, but 17 not be limited to, foster boarding homes, approved relative homes, group 18 homes, group residences, agency operated boarding homes, supervised 19 independent living arrangements, therapeutic foster care and child care EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD03463-01-3A. 2176 2 1 institutions. The report shall include, but not be limited to, the 2 following information: 3 (i) the total number of youth placed in a foster care setting at the 4 time of the report, as well as a comparison to the total number of youth 5 in care since the previous report was submitted; 6 (ii) the reasons why such youth have been placed in a foster care 7 setting, with the total number of youth per category at the time of the 8 report. Such reasons shall include, but not be limited to, voluntary 9 placement pursuant to section three hundred fifty-eight-a of this chap- 10 ter, a termination of parental rights pursuant to section three hundred 11 eighty-four-b of this chapter, placements pursuant to articles ten and 12 ten-C of the family court act, or pursuant to a contract, grant or other 13 agreement with the federal government; 14 (iii) to the extent such information is available, the total number of 15 youth placed in a foster care setting at the time of the report that are 16 in need of or receiving specialized services, either due to a mental 17 health illness or another disorder that may require additional supports 18 and services, including specialized educational services; 19 (iv) to the extent such information is available, how many youth at 20 the time of the report have been previously placed in a foster care 21 setting in the state; 22 (v) the total number of foster families that are currently certified 23 in the state at the time of the report and whether that number has 24 increased or decreased since the previous report was submitted; 25 (vi) how many children and/or families have received preventive 26 services through a local social services district, and of those children 27 and/or families, how many youth were successfully kept out of foster 28 care due to such services within the last calendar year for the initial 29 report, and then since the previous report was submitted for all subse- 30 quent reports; 31 (vii) the total number of placement options that have been certified 32 as a qualified residential treatment program, as defined by 42 USCS § 33 672; and 34 (viii) the efforts the state has taken to recruit and retain foster 35 parents in the state. 36 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.