BILL NUMBER: S3410

SPONSOR: BROUK
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the social services law, in relation to the duty to
report incidents

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

This legislation is meant to provide clarity and uniformity to all
appropriate state agencies on reporting requirements that have already
been adopted by the Office of Mental Health and by the Office of Alco-
holism and Substance Abuse Services as it relates to the Justice Center.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one amends section 491 of the social services law to allow a
mandated reporter to refrain from filing an incident report when

(i) the reporter has actual knowledge that the reportable incident has
              

already been reported to the register; and

(ii) that the reporter has been named as a person with knowledge of the
incident in such prior report. Section two establishes the effective
date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Employees from the six state oversight agencies under the jurisdiction
of the Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs
(Justice Center) are mandated to report an incident if directly
observed, or when said employee receives notice from another person that
provides the mandated reporter with reasonable cause to suspect that an
individual was subjected to a reportable incident. These reporting
requirements have led to a higher rate of vigilance and observance, but
have also led to duplicity.

Currently, when an incident occurs in front of a group of mandated
reporters, each of those employees are statutorily required to file a
report. This multiple reporting requirement has been found to be burden-
some and has led to a slowdown of processing and/or prosecution.

This legislation would allow a mandated reporter to refrain from filing
a report only in cases where it has been confirmed to them that an inci-
dent report was already filed, and in cases where said reporter is list-
ed as a witness in the incident report.

These changes to reporting requirements have already been adopted by the
Office of Mental Health and by the Office of Alcoholism and Substance
Abuse Services with the approval of the Justice Center.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2020: S1143 (Carlucci) Referred to Mental Health and Developmental Disa-
bilities.
2019: S1143 (Carlucci) Passed Senate.
2017-.18: S5539 (Carlucci) Referred to Mental Health and Developmental
Disabilities.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the state.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.