BILL NUMBER:S3459

TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the social services law, in relation
to requiring child protective services to document home visits with
photographs

PURPOSE:

To provide greater accountability and safety regarding caseworker
visits to children in the child protective services and foster care
system.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 of the bill provides that this bill shall be known and cited
as "Marchella Pierce's Law."

Section 2 of the bill amends section 421(3) of the Social Services
Law, which relates to the regulations that the Department of Social
Services is required to promulgate concerning the investigation of
child abuse or maltreatment. This section of the bill requires the
Department of Social Services to promulgate additional regulations to
require caseworkers to perform certain tasks in connection with their
visitation of children under a plan of treatment or supervision and
monitoring. Specifically, the regulations must require that each
caseworker to document each such with a photograph of the front door
              

of the residence where the child is domiciled at the time of the
visit. Additionally, the regulations must require that each caseworker
document visits using technology that provides geographic
documentation of the visit. Section 2 of the bill further provides
that if the child's parent or guardian objects to either the pictorial
or geographic documentation, the parent or guardian must sign a form
stating the objection, that the visit was conducted and that the
child's well-being was verified.

Section 3 of the bill adds a new subdivision 4-c to section 372 of the
Social Services Law to provide that the documentation described in
section 2 of this bill shall also be kept and filed by caseworkers
involved in the treatment plan or supervision and monitoring of foster
children.

Section 4 of the bill provides that this bill shall take effect
immediately.

EXISTING LAW:

Current law requires the Commissioner to issue regulations concerning
the supervision and monitoring of abused children. Additionally, the
Office of Children and Family Services is required to issue guidelines
to address situations when children must undergo medical examination
and when visibly injured children must be photographed.  Current law,
however, does not require that caseworkers document every contact they
have with a child. Nor does it require that the regulations contain
safeguards to ensure that the documentation contained in case records
is safe from manipulation.

JUSTIFICATION:


Our child protective services system was designed to afford protection
through monitoring of abused or neglected children or children at risk
from abuse and neglect. Trained caseworkers are required to make
routine visits to such children in their homes or in the foster care
system to ensure their protection. Sadly, even under the watch of
Child Protective Services, children "fall through the cracks,"
resulting in substantial harm and sometimes death.

In 2012, a case involving the death of Marchella Pierce, a medically
fragile child in Brooklyn, highlighted the lack of adequate safeguards
in the supervision of at risk children. Prosecutors charged the
Administration of Children's Services ("ACS") caseworker in
Marchella's death, alleging that he should have noticed the child's
injuries and malnourishment and that he changed records after her
death to make it seem like he visited her family when he did not make
the visits for months leading up to her death - months in which she
was starved and abused by her mother. In many ways, Marchella's case
resembles the tragedy of Nixmary Brown, a seven year-old Brooklyn girl
who was killed by her mother and stepfather in 2006 while she was
being monitored by ACS.

In January 2014, 4-year old Myls Dobson was tortured for three weeks
prior to his death at the hands of the caregiver who had custody of
Myls while his father was in jail. Until August 2013, Myls was
monitored by ACS pursuant to a Court order granting his father custody
in the wake of abuse charges leveled against his then-custodian
mother. An investigation into Myls' death found that ACS did not know
that Myls' father was in jail while under ACS supervision. This
failure to recognize that Myls was at risk allowed Myls to be cared
for by the woman who tortured and ultimately killed him.

In February 2014, Kevasia Edwards was found unresponsive and
unconscious at her home in Far Rockaway. The two-year old, along with
her four siblings, had previously been removed from her mother's care.
On January 23, 2014, the Queens Family Court allowed Kevasia and her
siblings to remain in their mother's care because she had shown
improvement during the court-ordered therapy and parenting classes
that were required due to abuse and neglect charges. Eleven days and
one ACS visit after the Court ruling, Kevasia was dead.  Kevasia
suffered, among other things, burns and broken ribs, which led to her
death.

These cases highlight the need for legislation to provide closer
oversight of child protective caseworkers. Specifically, legislation
is needed to ensure that the very small minority of caseworkers who
fail to live up to the high professional standards of child protective
agencies do not allow neglected and abused children to suffer. This
bill achieves that goal by requiring the Department of Social Services
to issue additional regulations requiring caseworkers to document
every contact they have with a child under agency supervision. Such
documentation shall consist of a description of the child's apparent
physical and emotional condition. This bill also requires regulations
to be promulgated requiring the timely and accurate filing of such
documentation in case files, as well as safeguards to prevent the
manipulation of case files, such as was alleged to have occurred in
Marchella Pierce's case.


LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2014: S.4441-B - Referred to Children and Families
2013: S.4441-A - Referred to Children and Families

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the State

EFFECTIVE DATE:

This bill shall apply immediately and shall take effect immediately.