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History
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- 1st report cal.820
- Referred to children and families
- Referred to children and families
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Limits the number of cases a foster care worker may have under her supervision at any one time to 16 cases
In Assembly Committee · Children And Families · Sponsor Annette Robinson
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the social services law, in relation to limitations on the number of cases handled by child welfare personnel
Purpose
This bill will limit the number of cases that a foster care caseworker can have at anyone time to sixteen cases.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 amends section 409-g of the social services law to limit the number of cases on a foster care worker's caseload to a maximum of 16.
Section 2 provides for an effective date of 60 days after the bill becomes law.
Existing law
Currently there are no limits on the number of cases that a foster care worker can have on the case load.
Justification
According to the Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies (COFCCA), caseworkers in New York State handle an average of 25-30 cases at a time. This overload of cases seriously undermines the effectiveness of their work, keeps them from providing adequate services to the families they serve, and places the foster children in harm's way. There have been a number of recent cases where foster children have languished in the system because of the worker's inability to get the cases in order. Most of the time the reason for this is not the caseworker's ineptness, but the overwhelming number of services they need to coordinate for so many families. According to the National Association of Social Workers (NA8W) the maximum number of cases a foster care worker can adequately serve is 16.
Legislative history
2003/04: S.5705/A.3798 A.1984/S.3160 of 2006-08
Fiscal implications
To be determined.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have become a law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.