N.Y. Social Services Law § 398-d: Child welfare services community demonstration projects

§ 398-d. Child welfare services community demonstration projects. 1.

The legislature finds that the centralized delivery of child protective

services, preventive services, adoption services and foster care

services in a social service district with a population of more than two

million hinders their effective delivery and adds unnecessary costs.

Numerous studies have recommended that such services serve small areas,

be located in such areas, and be integrated. Such relocation will: give

caseworkers greater knowledge of their assigned community, the residents

of that community and the availability of community-based services;

increase the availability of caseworkers; reduce travel time for

caseworkers; enable children in foster care to remain in their own

communities and schools and maintain their friendships; enable children

in foster care to have greater visitation with their parents; provide

for more effective delivery of preventive services; and expedite

adoptions and otherwise reduce the amount of time children spend in

foster care.

The relocation of child welfare service delivery to the community

sites will strengthen efforts to provide a wide range of community-based

early intervention programs including, but not limited to, school-based

health clinics and community schools, thereby ensuring the continued

development of a critical mass of community services.

2. No later than March first, nineteen hundred ninety-six, a social

service district with a population in excess of two million shall

implement at least three demonstration projects for a period of at least

two years to provide child welfare services on a community level to

improve the delivery of child welfare services, increase adoptions and

reduce the rate of foster care placements. These projects shall be

located in and serve community school districts which have high rates

of: children at risk of becoming a part of the foster care system,

poverty, households on public assistance, juvenile delinquency, and

unemployment. Such projects shall provide foster care, preventive,

adoption and child protective services as required by this article.

3. In proposed demonstration areas, child welfare services must be

coordinated with community schools, school health clinics, and other

relevant programs to provide and administer the most efficient services.

In one demonstration area, the district shall use a caseworker to client

ratio equal to the preferred national average of one to fourteen.

4. A report evaluating such projects shall be presented no later than

June first, nineteen hundred ninety-eight, to the governor, the

department and the respective chairpersons of the assembly children and

families committee, the senate children and families committee, the

assembly ways and means committee, and the senate finance committee.

Such report shall include:

(a) the number of children and families who received preventive

services, child protective services and foster care, (b) the number of

delinquent and incarcerated youth in the demonstration projects, (c) the

length of an average foster care placement, (d) the number of completed

adoptions for youth residing within the demonstration area, including

their age, gender, race, ethnicity and religion, (e) the gross

expenditures for foster care, compared to the gross expenditures for

child protective, preventive and adoption services, (f) changes in the

quality and quantity of time spent by caseworkers with clients, (g)

staffing ratios of foster care, preventive and child protective

services, (h) the perspective (attitude, viewpoint, outlook) of

caseworkers serving and clients served in the demonstration project, and

(i) recommendations for expansion of community-based provisions for

child welfare services. For purposes of the report, the data described

above should be compared to the extent possible with non-demonstration

areas.