N.Y. Social Services Law § 372: Records and reports

§ 372. Records and reports. 1. Every court, and every public board,

commission, institution, or officer having powers or charged with duties

in relation to abandoned, delinquent, destitute, neglected or dependent

children who shall receive, accept or commit any child shall provide and

keep a record showing:

(a) the full and true name of the child;

(b) the child's sex and date and place of birth, if ascertainable, or

the child's apparent age;

(c) the full and true names and places of birth of the child's

parents, and such parents' actual residence if living, or such parents'

latest known residence, if deceased or whereabouts unknown and the name

and actual residence of any other person having custody of the child, as

nearly as the same can reasonably be ascertained;

(d) the religious faith of the parents and of the child;

(e) the name and address of any person, agency, institution or other

organization to which the child is committed, placed out, boarded out,

or otherwise given into care, custody or control;

(f) the religious faith and occupation of the head or heads of the

family with whom the child is placed out or boarded out and their

relationship, if any, to the child;

(g) if any such child shall die, the date and cause of death and place

of burial;

(h) any further disposition or change in care, custody or control of

the child;

(i) the date or dates of reception and of any subsequent disposition

or change in care, custody or control and, in case of adoption, the name

and title of the judge or surrogate making the order of adoption, the

date of such order and the date and place of filing of such order;

(j) the reasons for any act performed in reference to such child

herein required to be recorded, together with such further information

as the department may require; and shall make to the department upon

blanks provided by the department reports of each such child placed out,

or boarded out, containing the information herein required to be kept;

and shall furnish such information to any authorized agency to which any

such child shall be committed or otherwise given into custody; and

(k) if any such child shall have a developmental disability as defined

pursuant to subdivision twenty-two of section 1.03 of the mental hygiene

law, and, if so, the type of such developmental disability.

2. Every charitable, eleemosynary, reformatory, or correctional

institution, public or private, incorporated or unincorporated, and

every agency, association, corporation, institution, society or other

organization which shall receive, accept, or admit any child whether or

not in receipt of payments from public funds for the support of such

child shall provide and keep a record as described in subdivision one,

and also showing how, by whom and for what reason such child shall have

been given into its custody or committed to it and shall make reports of

each such child to the department upon blanks provided by the department

giving all the information required by subdivision one to be recorded

together with such further information as the department may require.

Except as to children placed out, boarded out or surrendered or for whom

guardianship is accepted or adoption provided, the requirement of this

section shall not apply to hospitals, day nurseries, eleemosynary day

schools, and summer and vacation homes and camps, or to institutions for

the care of convalescent, anaemic, under-nourished or cardiac children,

preventoria, working boys' homes, emergency shelters and schools for the

blind and for the deaf, but all such hospitals, homes and institutions

shall keep such records and make to the department such reports as the

department may require.

3. Such records maintained by the department or an authorized agency,

including a local social services district, regarding such children are

confidential, provided, however, that such records are subject to the

provisions of article thirty-one of the civil practice law and rules.

When either the subject foster child, or such child's parent, or such

child's guardian if any, is not a party to the action, a copy of the

notice or motion for discovery shall be served upon such parent,

guardian, and child and, if the child is still a minor, the child's

attorney. Such persons may thereafter appear in the action with regard

to such discovery. Where no action is pending, upon application by a

parent, relative or legal guardian of such child or by an authorized

agency, after due notice to the institution or authorized agency

affected and hearing had thereon, the supreme court may by order direct

the officers of such institution or authorized agency to furnish to such

parent, relative, legal guardian or authorized agency such extracts from

the record relating to such child as the court may deem proper. The

department through its authorized agents and employees may examine at

all reasonable times the records required by this section to be kept.

4. (a) All such records relating to such children shall be open to the

inspection of the board and the department at any reasonable time, and

the information called for under this section and such other data as may

be required by the department shall be reported to the department, in

accordance with the regulations of the department. Such records kept by

the department shall be deemed confidential and shall be safeguarded

from coming to the knowledge of and from inspection or examination by

any person other than one authorized, by the department, by a judge of

the court of claims when such records are required for the trial of a

claim or other proceeding in such court or by a justice of the supreme

court, or by a judge of the family court when such records are required

for the trial of a proceeding in such court, after a notice to all

interested persons and a hearing, to receive such knowledge or to make

such inspection or examination. No person shall divulge the information

thus obtained without authorization so to do by the department, or by

such judge or justice.

(b)(i) Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of law to the

contrary, records relating to children kept pursuant to this section

shall be made available to officers and employees of the state

comptroller or of the city comptroller of the city of New York, or of

the county officer designated by law or charter to perform the auditing

function in any county not wholly contained within a city, for the

purposes of a duly authorized performance audit, provided that such

comptroller shall have certified to the keeper of such records that he

or she has instituted procedures developed in consultation with the

department to limit access to client-identifiable information to persons

requiring such information for purposes of the audit, that such persons

shall not use such information in any way except for purposes of the

audit and that appropriate controls and prohibitions are imposed on the

dissemination of client-identifiable information obtained in the conduct

of the audit. Information pertaining to the substance or content of any

psychological, psychiatric, therapeutic, clinical or medical reports,

evaluations or like materials or information pertaining to such child or

the child's family shall not be made available to such officers and

employees unless disclosure of such information is absolutely essential

to the specific audit activity and the department gives prior written

approval.

(ii) Any failure to maintain the confidentiality of

client-identifiable information shall subject such comptroller or

officer to denial of any further access to records until such time as

the audit agency has reviewed its procedures concerning controls and

prohibitions imposed on the dissemination of such information and has

taken all reasonable and appropriate steps to eliminate such lapses in

maintaining confidentiality to the satisfaction of the department. The

department shall establish the grounds for denial of access to records

contained under this section and shall recommend, as necessary, a plan

of remediation to the audit agency. Except as provided in this section,

nothing in this paragraph shall be construed as limiting the powers of

such comptroller or officer to access records which he is otherwise

authorized to audit or obtain under any other applicable provision of

law. Any person given access to information pursuant to this paragraph

who releases data or information to persons or agencies not authorized

to receive such information shall be guilty of a class A misdemeanor.

4-a. Notwithstanding any provisions of law to the contrary, social

services districts shall provide a written summary of services rendered

to a child upon the request of a probation service conducting an

investigation pursuant to the provisions of section 351.1 of the family

court act. Information provided to a probation service pursuant to the

provisions of this subdivision shall be maintained by such service

according to the provisions of subdivision five of section 351.1 of the

family court act.

4-b. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, foster care

information governed by this section may be released by the department

or an authorized agency to a person, agency or organization for purposes

of a bona fide research project. Identifying information shall not be

made available, however, unless it is absolutely essential to the

research purpose and the department gives prior approval. Information

released pursuant to this subdivision shall not be re-disclosed except

as otherwise permitted by law and upon the approval of the department.

5. The requirements of this section to keep records and make reports

shall not apply to the birth parent or parents, or relatives within the

second degree of such parents.

6. The provisions of this section as to records and reports to the

department shall apply also to the placing out, adoption or boarding out

of a child and the acceptance of guardianship or of surrender of a

child.

7. An authorized agency as defined in paragraphs (a) and (b) of

subdivision ten of section three hundred seventy-one of this chapter or

any primary or secondary school or an office of the division for youth,

except agencies operating pursuant to article nineteen-H of the

executive law, who shall receive, accept, enroll or commit any child

under such circumstances as shall reasonably indicate that such child

may be a missing person shall make inquiries of each such child to the

division of criminal justice services in a manner prescribed by such

division; provided that as used in this subdivision a court shall not be

included within the definition of an authorized agency. If such child

appears to match a child registered with the statewide central register

for missing children as described in section eight hundred

thirty-seven-e of the executive law, or one registered with the national

crime information center register, such agency shall immediately contact

the local law enforcement agency.

8. In any case where a child is to be placed with or discharged to a

relative or other person legally responsible pursuant to section ten

hundred seventeen or ten hundred fifty-five of the family court act,

such relative or other person shall be provided with such information by

an authorized agency as is provided to foster parents pursuant to this

section and applicable regulations of the department.