NCJ Number
135606
Date Published
1992
Length
44 pages
Annotation
This report of the New York State Senate Standing Committee on Child Care describes significant 1991 New York State legislation that affects children.
Abstract
Activities of the Senate Standing Committee on Child Care for 1991 focused upon adoption, foster care, and adolescent issues. In the area of adoption, the legislature enacted and the governor signed into law committee legislation to encourage single-parent adoptions and streamline proceedings for the adoption of abandoned children in foster care. New statutes that affect abused and neglected children give courts the authority to videotape interviews of sexually abused children, require the State's child abuse hotline to accept phone calls even when an alleged perpetrator cannot be identified, shorten child abuse investigations by requiring local protective units to complete their work within 60 rather than 90 days, and ensure that due process rights are observed and appellate courts are given full information in deciding on stays of orders to return abused children to their families. New foster care legislation will allow social services districts to place certain foster children in mental hygiene facilities. Legislation that affects adolescents will give counties permanent authority to offer adjustment services to teenagers who might otherwise be adjudicated and placed in foster care as persons in need of supervision. Appended budget appropriations that affect children, group home foster care for adolescents hearing, and institutional child abuse hearing are included.