NY State Senate Bill 2019-S5446

Senate Bill S5446

2019-2020 Legislative Session

Authorizes certain reports relating to reportable incidents involving vulnerable persons to be made available to officers and employees of the state comptroller

download bill text pdf

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Mental Health And Developmental Disabilities Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

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Actions

View Actions

	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 08, 2020	referred to mental health and developmental disabilities returned to senate died in assembly
Jun 19, 2019	referred to mental health delivered to assembly passed senate
May 20, 2019	advanced to third reading
May 15, 2019	2nd report cal.
May 14, 2019	1st report cal.740
May 01, 2019	referred to mental health and developmental disabilities

Votes

- Jun 19, 2019 - Floor Vote
  S5446
  
  61
  
  Aye
  
  1
  
  Nay
  
  0
  
  Absent
  
  0
  
  Excused
  
  0
  
  Abstained
  - - Floor Vote: Jun 19, 2019
      
      aye (61)
      
      Addabbo Jr.
      
      Akshar
      
      Amedore
      
      Antonacci
      
      Bailey
      
      Benjamin
      
      Biaggi
      
      Boyle
      
      Breslin
      
      Brooks
      
      Carlucci
      
      Comrie
      
      Felder
      
      Flanagan
      
      Funke
      
      Gallivan
      
      Gaughran
      
      Gianaris
      
      Gounardes
      
      Griffo
      
      Harckham
      
      Helming
      
      Hoylman-Sigal
      
      Jackson
      
      Jacobs
      
      Jordan
      
      Kaminsky
      
      Kaplan
      
      Kavanagh
      
      Kennedy
      
      Krueger
      
      LaValle
      
      Lanza
      
      Little
      
      Liu
      
      May
      
      Mayer
      
      Metzger
      
      Montgomery
      
      Myrie
      
      O'Mara
      
      Ortt
      
      Parker
      
      Persaud
      
      Ramos
      
      Ranzenhofer
      
      Ritchie
      
      Rivera
      
      Robach
      
      Salazar
      
      Sanders Jr.
      
      Savino
      
      Sepúlveda
      
      Serino
      
      Serrano
      
      Seward
      
      Skoufis
      
      Stavisky
      
      Stewart-Cousins
      
      Tedisco
      
      Thomas
      
      nay (1)
      
      Martinez
  May 14, 2019 - Committee Vote
  S5446
  
  5
  
  Aye
  
  0
  
  Nay
  
  2
  
  Aye with Reservations
  
  0
  
  Absent
  
  0
  
  Excused
  
  0
  
  Abstained
  - - Committee Vote: May 14, 2019
      
      aye (5)
      
      Amedore
      
      Brooks
      
      Carlucci
      
      Kaplan
      
      Sepúlveda
      
      aye wr (2)
      
      Ortt
      
      Rivera

2019-S5446 (ACTIVE) - Details

Current Committee:: Senate Mental Health And Developmental Disabilities
Law Section:: Social Services Law
Laws Affected:: Amd §496, Soc Serv L

2019-S5446 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Authorizes certain reports relating to reportable incidents involving vulnerable persons to be made available to officers and employees of the state comptroller for the purposes of a duly authorized performance audit.

2019-S5446 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S5446

SPONSOR: CARLUCCI
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the social services law, in relation
to authorizing certain reports relating to reportable incidents involv-
ing vulnerable persons to be made available to officers and employees of
the state comptroller for the purposes of a duly authorized performance
audit

 
PURPOSE: OR IDEA OF BILL:

To provide additional information to the Comptroller's Office for the
purpose of conducting a duly authorized performance audit. This bill
would provide for reports and related information on unsubstantiated
cases under Article 11 of the Social Services Law to be made available
to officers and employees of the Office of the New York State Comp-
troller.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 of this proposal amends

Section 496 of the social services law.

Section 2 provides for an immediate effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The State Constitution and the State Finance Law authorize the Office of
the State Comptroller (OSC) to conduct performance audits. Under Section
496 of the Social Services Law, officers and employees of the OSC are
authorized to receive reports made pursuant to Article 11 of such law
that are found to be substantiated as well as receive related informa-
tion concerning such reports for the purpose of conducting the author-
ized audits.

Current law does not provide for access to information or reports which
are considered to be unsubstantiated. The lack of access to information
related to unsubstantiated cases is a significant barrier to evaluating
the operations of auditees as such cases represent the majority of cases
investigated. For example, according to the Justice Center's 2017 Annual
Report, for State Operated facilities, 70.4% of closed cases were unsub-
stantiated and 64.1% of the Non-State-Operated facilities were unsub-
stantiated.

OSC conducted an audit released in March of 2017 that assessed whether
the Justice Center was meeting its responsibilities. Due to the lack of
access to unsubstantiated information, auditors were unable to accurate-
ly assess several of the key areas of the Center's responsibilities.
Specifically, auditors were unable to assess whether the population of
allegations and incident reports provided during the audit period was
accurate and complete; or whether all allegations received were accu-
rately categorized and recorded in the Vulnerable Persons' Central
Register (VPCR).

This bill would ensure that the duty of the State Comptroller to provide
independent oversight is properly effectuated.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
S. 6583-A and A.9545 (2018)

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.

2019-S5446 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   5446
 
                        2019-2020 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                                May 1, 2019
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by Sen. CARLUCCI -- (at request of the State Comptroller) --
   read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to  be  committed  to
   the Committee on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities
 
 AN  ACT  to  amend  the  social services law, in relation to authorizing
   certain reports relating to reportable incidents involving  vulnerable
   persons  to  be  made available to officers and employees of the state
   comptroller for the purposes of a duly authorized performance audit
 
   THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section  1.  Paragraphs (f) and (g) of subdivision 1 of section 496 of
 the social services law, as added by section 1 of part B of chapter  501
 of  the  laws  of  2012, are amended and a new paragraph (h) is added to
 read as follows:
   (f) the independent agency designated pursuant to subdivision  (b)  of
 section  five  hundred  fifty-eight  of the executive law, provided that
 such information is relevant to a matter within the legal  authority  of
 such agency; [or]
   (g) other persons named in the report, as defined in subdivision thir-
 teen  of  section  four  hundred  eighty-eight  of  this  article  which
 includes, but is not limited to, the service recipient's parent, guardi-
 an or other person legally responsible for such person; provided, howev-
 er, that the names  and  other  personally  identifying  information  of
 custodians  and  other  service  recipients shall not be included unless
 such custodians and service recipients authorize disclosure.    Notwith-
 standing  the  prohibitions on non-redisclosure set forth in the closing
 sentence of this subdivision, the service recipient,  and  such  service
 recipient's  parent,  guardian  or  other person legally responsible for
 such service recipient may disclose information and reports made  avail-
 able  pursuant  to  this paragraph to an attorney, who shall not further
 disclose except as is necessary for use by such  attorney  in  rendering
 advice, assistance and representation[.]; OR
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.

                                                            LBD09778-02-9

 S. 5446                             2
 
   (H) OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES OF THE STATE COMPTROLLER, FOR PURPOSES OF A
 DULY AUTHORIZED PERFORMANCE AUDIT; PROVIDED, HOWEVER, THAT SUCH OFFICERS
 AND  EMPLOYEES  SHALL PROTECT THE CONFIDENTIALITY OF THE SERVICE RECIPI-
 ENT, THE SUBJECT OF THE REPORT,  AND  ANY  OTHER  PERSON  NAMED  IN  THE
 REPORT,  IN  ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS OF PARAGRAPH (T) OF SUBDIVI-
 SION TWO OF THIS SECTION.
   § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

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