BILL NUMBER:  S5790

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the family court act and the social
services law, in relation to orders committing guardianship and
custody of a child

 PURPOSE :

The bill will be known as the "Preserving Family Bonds" Act. This bill
grants family court judges the discretion to order continued
visitation and/or contact between children and their birth parents
and/or their siblings after a parent's rights have been terminated.
The judge may grant post-termination contact at the disposition
hearing in a termination of parental rights proceeding when such
contact is deemed by the Court to be in the child or children's best
interests.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

*ensures that the provisions governing post-termination visitation
and/or contact included in Social Services Law section 384-b apply to
judges conducting termination of parental rights disposition hearings
pursuant to the Family Court Act.

*amends the social services law to authorize family court judges to
order post-termination visitation and/or contact to the parent,
              

custodian and/or sibling who is a party to the proceeding if
visitation and/or contact is in the child or children's best
interests. Any party to the post-termination visitation and/or contact
order, including foster or adoptive parents, will have notice of the
hearing. The court will have the authority to enforce or modify the
order based on a showing of good cause and the best interests of the
child.

*provides that the bill shall take effect 30 days after being signed
into law.

 JUSTIFICATION :

Research shows that children benefit from strong, healthy family
bonds. Under current law, Family Court Judges are not allowed to
protect the rights of children to contact or visit with their parents
and siblings after parental rights have been terminated, even when the
court deems it in the best interest of the children. The Preserving
Family Bonds Act (S.XXXX/A.XXXX) provides that, if it is truly in the
best interest of the children to stay connected with their families,
then judges may allow them to do so, in a manner that is safe and
appropriate.

The current law in New York provides for open adoption and
post-termination contact when a parent voluntarily surrenders his or
her parental rights* but does not give courts any authority to allow
for contact between children and biological parents after a parent's
rights have been terminated.** In a 2012 case called Matter of Halley
ZZ, the New York Court of Appeals clearly stated that New York family
court judges do not have the authority to order post-termination
contact between a biological parent and her child, even when such an
order would be in that child's best interest.*** The Court reasoned
that "the Legislature, the entity best suited to balance the critical
social policy choices and the delicate issues of family relations
involved in such matters, has not sanctioned judicial imposition of
post termination contact where parental rights are terminated after a
contested proceeding."****

This legislation seeks to recognize the value that post-termination
contact between children and biological parents and/or siblings has
for many children, especially those that may have strong bonds with
their biological family. Specifically, it would provide the Court with
the discretion to order contact and communication between the child
and the parent, custodian or sibling, subject to the best interests of
the child. This contact may include, but is not limited to, supervised
or unsupervised visitation, telephone calls, emails, letters, exchange
of pictures, social media, and skype or other forms of video chat.

The bill ensures that parents and children who are parties to the
termination proceeding, as well as the child's pre-adoptive foster
parents, have standing to participate in the best interest
post-termination visitation and/or contact hearing.

While the termination of a parent's right to a child may ultimately be
best for that child, a growing body of research has shown that
retaining some contact with a biological family or parent may also be
in that child's best interest.***** Even when a biological parent is
unable to care for their child, post-termination contact allows the
child to retain a relationship with his or her parent and/or sibling
and may allow that biological parent to play a positive role in the
child's life. Most children placed in the foster care system already
have established significant ties to their biological parents and
other family members.****** Even children who enter foster care at
birth and are ultimately adopted will likely have had regular contact
and strong bonds with their biological families for a lengthy time
period, even years, prior to the time the parent-child relationship is
legally severed.*******

Children who enter foster care and are eventually adopted can
experience long-term emotional consequences stemming from the break-up
of the biological family, the disruption in the children's most basic
source of security, and the feelings of displacement that
follow.******** Children who have been adopted may experience
insecurity and doubt in future relationships, based on the termination
of the biological parent-child relationship.

Post-termination contact, where appropriate, may offer a number of
benefits to children who may remain in foster care or transition into
an adoptive family. Continued contact after a parent's rights have
been terminated, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, allows a child
to maintain a social relationship with his or her biological parent
and/or siblings. It may also help a child develop a more secure sense
of self by offering them the ability to better understand their
parents, biological family and what led to the termination of the
legal relationship. Post-termination contact may also help a child
with the transition that comes after the termination of a parent's
rights.  This same child has likely already transitioned from their
biological family to foster care, and may now be dealing with the
transition to their adoptive family. Contact may offer children the
opportunity to heal and transition through communication, where
appropriate and safe, with their biological parents and come to accept
their life story. Especially as children age, they are better equipped
to process the emotional burdens of what happened in their families
that led to the termination. Biological parents can reinforce with
their children, through post-termination contact, that the termination
was not the fault of the child and that the parent still loves and
cares for the child, even if he or she is unable to parent him or
her.*********

Many adopted children, no matter the process of their adoptions, find
themselves curious about their biological parents and their biological
ancestry.********** Satisfying a child's curiosity about where they
come from has been directly correlated to a child's well-being.
Studies have shown that the more children know about their family
histories, even negative family histories, "the lower their anxiety,
the higher their self-esteem, the more internally controlled they
were, the better their family functioning, the fewer their behavioral
problems, and the more cohesive their families."***********
Post-termination contact, where appropriate, allows children access to
their racial, ethnic, religious and cultural histories, critical in
developing sense of self. Contact may also become crucial to them
later in life, including the exchange of family medical and health
information.  ************

This bill will bring New York law in line with the realities of
families involved in the child welfare system and will better allow
family courts to tailor termination of parental rights (TPR)
dispositional orders to meet the needs and best interests of children.

* Social Services Law § 383.

** Matter of Hailey ZZ, 19 N.Y.3d 422 (2012).

*** Id.

**** Id.

***** See, e.g., Solangel Maldonado, Permanency v. Biology: Making the
Case for Post-Adoption Contact, 37 CAP. U. L. REv. 321, 326-28 (2008)
(reviewing recent studies); Kirsten Widner, Continuing the Evolution:
Why California Should Amend Family Code Section 8616.5 to Allow
Visitation in All Postadoption Contact Agreements, 44 SAN DIEGO L.
Rsv. 355, 367-68 (2007).

****** See Child Welfare Information Gateway, Foster Care Statistics
2014 8 (2016), available at
https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/foster.pdf (last visited
Dec. 2, 2016) (median age of child entering foster care in fiscal year
2014 was 6.4 years).

******* U.S. Dep't of Health and Human Services, Administration for
Children and Families, The AFCARS Report, Preliminary FY 2014
Estimates as of July 2015, available at
http://www.acf.hhs.ov/57,ites/def:lultifiles/cb/fcarsreport22.0f
(showing mean time in care for children waiting to be adopted was 32.3
months, with 85% of those children having spent one year or more in
care).

******** See Sandra Stukes Chipungu & Tricia B. Bent-Goodley, Meeting
the Challenges of Contemporary Foster Care, 14 FUTURE CHILD 74 (2004),
available at
httpp://www.princeton.edulfutureofchildren/Eublications/docs/14 01
04.pdf.

********* Erika Harrison, Benefits of Post Adoption Contact
Agreements, 31 CHILD. LEGAL RTS. J. 1, 61 (Spring 2011).

********** See Mark Courtney et al., Executive Summary, Midwest
Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth: Outcomes
at Age 21, 3 (2007) ("Midwest Study") (reporting that " a lmost all of
the young adults in the Midwest Study sample had maintained at least
some family ties, and in many cases those ties were quite strong.");
Dawn J. Post & Brian Zimmerman, The Revolving Doors of Family Court:
Confronting Broken Adoptions, 40 CAP. U. L. REB 437, 477 (2012),
(finding that biological family remained involved in the lives of
children in 75% of surveyed cases).

*********** Marshal P. Duke et al., Knowledge of Family History As A
Clinically Useful Index of Psychological Well-Being And Prognosis: A
Brief Report, 45 PSYCHOTHERAPY THEORY, RESEARCH, PRACTICE, TRAINING268
(2008) .  ************ Alexis Williams, Rethinking Social Severance:

Post-Termination Contact Between Birth Parents and Children, 41 CONN.
L.  REv. 609 (2008).