Requires child protective services to orally and in writing disclose certain information to parents and caretakers who are the subject of a child protective services investigation; requires such oral and written disclosure to contain certain information regarding the rights of the person under investigation.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1980
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 23, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. WALKER, COOK, SAYEGH, TAYLOR, SIMON, EPSTEIN,
JACKSON, CRUZ, BURGOS, JEAN-PIERRE, DICKENS, L. ROSENTHAL -- read once
and referred to the Committee on Children and Families
AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to requiring child
protective services to disclose certain information to parents and
caretakers who are the subject of a child protective services investi-
gation
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The social services law is amended by adding a new section
2 424-c to read as follows:
3 § 424-c. Information regarding parent or caretaker's rights. A parent
4 or caretaker has the right to receive certain information regarding
5 their rights at the initial point of contact during a child protective
6 investigation.
7 1. At the initial point of contact with a parent or caretaker, child
8 protective services shall orally and in writing disseminate, in the
9 parent or caretaker's preferred language, information regarding the
10 parent or caretaker's rights during such investigation and shall docu-
11 ment in the case record that such information has been provided to the
12 parent or caretaker. Such information shall include, but need not be
13 limited to, the following information:
14 (a) The parent or caretaker is not required, unless court ordered, to
15 permit the child protective services representative to enter the resi-
16 dence of the parent or caretaker;
17 (b) The parent or caretaker who is the subject of the investigation is
18 entitled to be informed of the allegations being investigated;
19 (c) The parent or caretaker is not required, unless court ordered, to
20 speak with the child protective services representative, and any state-
21 ment made by the parent, caretaker or other family member may be used
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03741-01-3
A. 1980 2
1 against the parent or caretaker in an administrative or court proceed-
2 ing;
3 (d) The parent or caretaker is entitled to seek the advice of an
4 attorney and to have an attorney present when the parent or caretaker is
5 questioned by a child protective representative;
6 (e) The parent or caretaker is not required, unless court ordered, to
7 allow a child protective services representative to interview or examine
8 a child;
9 (f) The parent or caretaker is not required, unless court ordered, to
10 agree to any requests made by a child protective services represen-
11 tative, including, but not limited to, requests to sign a release of
12 information, to take a drug or alcohol test, or to submit to a mental
13 health evaluation;
14 (g) Contact information for resources which may be available to
15 parents and caretakers during a child protective services investigation,
16 including legal services from a designated organization.
17 2. If at the initial point of contact with the parent or caretaker the
18 child protective services worker has reasonable cause to believe that
19 exigent circumstances exist that present an imminent danger to the
20 child's life or health and there is no time to seek a court order under
21 section one thousand twenty-four of the family court act, the child
22 protective services worker shall take all lawful measures necessary to
23 protect the child's life or health prior to disseminating information
24 regarding the parent or caretaker's rights during the investigation
25 pursuant to subdivision one of this section.
26 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
