Title SOS, Social Services

§ 420. Penalties for failure to report. 1. Any person, official or institution required by this title to report a case of suspected child abuse or maltreatment who willfully fails to do so shall be guilty of a class A misdemeanor. 2. Any person, official or institution required …

§ 421. Responsibility of the office. The office shall: 1. in conjunction with local departments, both jointly and individually, within the appropriation available, conduct a continuing publicity and education program for local department staff, persons and officials required to …

§ 422. Statewide central register of child abuse and maltreatment. 1. There shall be established in the office of children and family services a statewide central register of child abuse and maltreatment reports made pursuant to this title. 2. (a) The central register shall be c…

§ 422-a. Child abuse and neglect investigations; disclosure. 1. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of law to the contrary, the commissioner or a city or county social services commissioner may disclose information regarding the abuse or maltreatment of a child as set for…

§ 422-b. Local and regional fatality review teams. 1. A fatality review team may be established at a local or regional level, with the approval of the office of children and family services, for the purpose of investigating the death of any child whose care and custody or custod…

§ 422-c. Establishment of the child abuse medical provider program (CHAMP). 1. The child abuse medical provider program shall be established by the office of children and family services and operated by the child abuse referral and evaluation (CARE) program of the SUNY Upstate m…

§ 423. Child protective service responsibilities and organization; purchase of service and reimbursement of cost; local plan. 1. (a) Every local department of social services shall establish a "child protective service" within such department. The child protective service shall …

§ 423-a. Child advocacy centers established. 1. The office of children and family services shall to the greatest extent practicable facilitate the establishment of child advocacy centers in every region of the state so that child victims of sexual abuse or serious physical abuse…

§ 424. Duties of the child protective service concerning reports of abuse or maltreatment. Each child protective service shall: 1. receive on a twenty-four hour, seven day a week basis all reports of suspected child abuse or maltreatment in accordance with this title, the local …

§ 424-a. Access to information contained in the statewide central\nregister of child abuse and maltreatment. 1. (a) (i) A licensing agency\nshall inquire of the department and the department shall, subject to the\nprovisions of paragraph (e) of this subdivision, inform such agen…

§ 424-b. Children in the care of certain public and private agencies. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provisions of law, when a report of child abuse or maltreatment involves a child being cared for in a home operated or supervised by an authorized agency or the office of child…

§ 425. Cooperation of other agencies. 1. To effectuate the purposes of this title, the commissioner may request and shall receive from departments, boards, bureaus, or other agencies of the state, or any of its political subdivisions, or any duly authorized agency, or any other …

§ 426. Annual reports. The commissioner shall prepare for inclusion in the annual report required by subdivision (d) of section seventeen of this chapter to be filed with the governor and the legislature prior to December fifteenth of each year, a report on the operations of the…

§ 427. Regulations of the commissioner. 1. The commissioner shall adopt regulations necessary to implement this title. 2. The commissioner shall establish, by regulation, standards and criteria under which the child protective service of the appropriate local department of socia…

§ 427-a. Differential response programs for child protection assessments or investigations. 1. Any social services district may, upon the authorization of the office of children and family services, establish a program that implements differential responses to reports of child a…

§ 428. Separability. If any provision of this title or the application thereof to any person or circumstances is held to be invalid, the remainder of the act and the application of such provision to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

§ 429. Home visiting. 1. In accordance with a plan developed by the office of children and family services and approved by the director of the budget and within the amounts which the director of the budget determines should be made available therefor, such office, in conjunction…

§ 43. Homeless housing and assistance contracts. 1. Within the limits of funds available in the homeless housing and assistance fund, the commissioner is hereby authorized to enter into contracts with municipalities to provide state financial assistance for the project costs att…

§ 430. Day services; when social services official may furnish. 1. In order to preserve and stabilize family life, to prevent the need for placement of children outside their homes, and to enable children in foster care to return to their families as expeditiously as possible, a…

§ 431. Licensure. 1. No place, person, association, corporation, institution or agency shall operate a day services program without first obtaining a permit issued therefor by the department, or otherwise than in accordance with the terms of such permit and with the regulations …

§ 432. State reimbursement; standards of payment. 1. (a) Expenditures made by social services officials for day services programs and their administration pursuant to the provisions of this title shall, if approved by the department, be subject to reimbursement by the state, in …

§ 433. Other state funding sources. 1. Prior to purchasing day services pursuant to section four hundred thirty, a social services official shall inquire of the department, and the department shall inform him, as to the available funding sources, if any, of which the day service…

§ 434. Funding limitations. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter the total amount of reimbursement to social services districts pursuant to this title shall be limited to the amount of the annual appropriation made by the legislature for preventive services.

§ 44. General and administrative provisions. 1. The department, in consultation with the division of housing and community renewal, the office of mental health and other appropriate agencies, shall issue and promulgate rules and regulations for the administration of this article…

§ 440. Findings; purpose. 1. The legislature finds that children who are in care away from their own homes on a full time basis, whether temporarily or for a prolonged period, require effective supervision and review of their status in care and of the plans for them. It is the p…

§ 441. Definitions. As used in this title, the following terms shall have the following meanings: 1. "Service" shall mean the child care review service created by this title. 2. "Advisory committee" shall mean the committee established by section four hundred forty-three of this…

§ 442. Child care review service; establishment, operations and procedure. 1. The department, in consultation with the advisory committee, shall establish and operate a child care review service to accomplish the purposes of this title, for all children who are in the care of an…

§ 443. Advisory committee. 1. The department shall establish and meet regularly with an advisory committee of not more than twenty members to consider policy and planning issues relating to the service and to assist in the design, development, establishment and on-going operatio…

§ 444. Confidentiality of records; related matters. 1. The department in consultation with the advisory committee shall make regulations; (a) protecting the confidentiality of individual identifying information submitted to or provided by the service, and preventing access there…

§ 445. Funding. The department shall explore the possibility of, and is authorized to take steps necessary to qualify for any available funding from any private source or from the federal government, and is authorized to use any funds for which the state qualifies for the purpos…

§ 446. Statewide automated child welfare information system. (1) The department shall promulgate regulations required to implement federal requirements for the establishment and administration of a statewide automated child welfare information system as required by applicable fe…

§ 447-a. Definitions. As used in this title: 1. The term "sexually exploited child" means any person under the age of eighteen who has been subject to sexual exploitation because he or she: (a) is the victim of the crime of sex trafficking as defined in section 230.34 of the pen…

§ 447-b. Services for exploited children. 1. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of law, pursuant to regulations of the office of children and family services, every local social services district shall as a component of the district's multi-year consolidated services chi…

§ 45. Definitions. As used in this title, the following terms shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise: 1. "Eligible cost" shall mean the cost to deliver one or more services to eligible residents to assist such residents to live independen…

§ 45-a. Single room occupancy support services program. There is hereby established under the administration of the commissioner a single room occupancy support services program, to provide financial assistance, subject to limitations stated in appropriations therefor, in the fo…

§ 45-b. Notice of funding availability; contracts. A local social services district that receives funding pursuant to this title shall issue notices of funding availability together with application forms for financial assistance under this title, provided that such notices, app…

§ 45-c. Direct application by eligible applicants. Upon receipt of a copy of the request for proposals issued pursuant to section forty-five-a of this title, an eligible applicant may notify the local social services district in which its eligible project is located of its desir…

§ 45-d. Operating plans. 1. Contracts with not-for-profit corporations and charitable organizations shall be approved by the social services district, or the commissioner in the case of direct applications, in accordance with an operational plan submitted pursuant to the provisi…

§ 45-e. Reimbursement. Expenditures made by a social services district for grants made pursuant to this title shall be reimbursed by the state at the rate of fifty per centum, after first deducting therefrom any federal funds properly received or to be received on account thereo…

§ 45-f. Administration. 1. The commissioner shall promulgate rules and regulations for the administration of this title. Such rules and regulations shall include but not be limited to provisions concerning eligibility of not-for-profit corporations and charitable organizations f…

§ 45-g. Annual report. Beginning October first, nineteen hundred eighty-eight, and each year thereafter, the commissioner shall report to the governor and legislature on the success of the single room occupancy support services program in assisting eligible residents to live ind…

§ 450. Statement of legislative intent. The legislature intends, by the enactment of this title, to promote permanency of family status through adoption for children who might not otherwise derive the benefits of that status. By providing for an adoption subsidy program which wi…

§ 451. Definitions. As used in this title: 1. "Child" shall mean a person under the age of twenty-one years whose guardianship and custody have been committed to a social services official or a voluntary authorized agency, or whose guardianship and custody have been committed to…

§ 453. Maintenance subsidy; handicapped or hard to place child. 1. (a)\nA social services official shall make monthly payments for the care and\nmaintenance of a handicapped or hard to place child whom a social\nservices official has placed for adoption or who has been adopted a…

§ 453-a. Payments for non-recurring adoption expenses. 1. A social services official shall make payments for non-recurring adoption expenses incurred by or on behalf of the adoptive parents of a child with special needs, when such expenses are incurred in connection with the ado…

§ 454. Medical subsidy. 1. A social services official shall make\npayments for the cost of care, services and supplies payable under the\nstate's program of medical assistance for needy persons, provided to a\nhandicapped child whom he or a voluntary authorized agency has placed…

§ 455. Fair hearings. 1. Any person aggrieved by the decision of a social services official or an official of the office of children and family services not to make a payment or payments pursuant to this title or to make such payment or payments in an inadequate or inappropriate…

§ 456. State reimbursement and payments. 1. Payments made by social services officials pursuant to the provisions of this title shall, if approved by the department, be subject to reimbursement by the state, in accordance with the regulations of the department as follows: there …

§ 457. Out-of-state adoptive parents. With respect to a child who has been adopted within this state but who has been removed from this state by his adoptive parents, or a child who has been adopted by residents of another state or of the commonwealth of Puerto Rico and who is, …

§ 458. Availability of subsidy; publicity. The department shall promulgate regulations providing for the publicizing of the availability of payments under this title. Such regulations shall provide for the dissemination of literature and other means in each social services distr…