What's happening
This bill requires child protective services to document each home visit with photographs of the child, including date, time, and location data.
Why it matters
Enhances accountability for child protective services. by requiring photographic documentation of each in-person home visit, making it harder for caseworkers to falsify or omit records of their contact with children.
Provides an objective record of the child's condition and presence. at each visit, which can help verify the child’s well-being over time and could be critical evidence if abuse or neglect is later alleged.
Mandates the use of technology (e.g., tablets with geolocation and timestamp features). to ensure that photographs are accurately dated and linked to the visit location, aiming to reduce the risk of fraud or mistaken identity.
Raises potential privacy and ethical considerations. for children and families involved with child protective services, as regular photographic documentation of minors becomes a standard part of case records that are subject to supervisor review.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Photograph All Child Welfare Visits
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to children and families
- Returned to senate
- Died in assembly
- Referred to children and families
- Delivered to assembly
- Passed senateVote 51–12
- Ordered to third reading cal.2068
- Committee discharged and committed to rules
- 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.
Photograph All CPS Home Visits
In Assembly Committee · Social Services · Sponsor Nicole Malliotakis
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
6324
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
May 11, 2017
Introduced by Sen. GOLDEN -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Children and Families
AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to requiring child protective services to document home visits with photographs
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as "Marchella Pierce's Law".
§ 2. Subdivision 3 of section 421 of the social services law, as amended by chapter 718 of the laws of 1986, paragraph (a) as amended by chapter 110 of the laws of 1989 and the closing paragraph as amended by chapter 320 of the laws of 1990, is amended to read as follows:
3. promulgate regulations setting forth requirements for the performance by local social services departments of the duties and powers imposed and conferred upon them by the provisions of this title and of article ten of the family court act. Such regulations shall establish uniform requirements for the investigation of reports of child abuse or maltreatment under this title. The department shall also issue guidelines which shall set forth the circumstances or conditions under which:
(a) personal contact shall be made with the child named in the report and any other children in the same household, including interviewing such child or children absent the subject of the report whenever possible and appropriate;
(b) photographs of visible physical injuries or trauma of children who may be the victims of abuse or maltreatment shall be taken or arranged for;
(c) medical examination of a child who may be a victim of abuse or maltreatment and documentation of findings of such examination, shall be required.
The department shall promulgate regulations to establish standards for intervention, criteria for case closings, criteria for determining
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11749-01-7
S. 6324 2
whether or not to initiate a child protective proceeding, and criteria for the formulation of treatment plans and for the delivery of child protective services including specification of the services to be classified as child protective services, which shall also apply to any society for the prevention of cruelty to children which has entered into a currently valid contract with a local department of social services to investigate child abuse or maltreatment reports. The department shall promulgate regulations establishing minimum standards and practices for the delivery of child protective services in connection with monitoring and supervising respondents and their families as ordered by a family court pursuant to section ten hundred thirty-nine and paragraphs (i), (iii), (iv) and (v) of subdivision (a) of section ten hundred fifty-two of the family court act. The department shall require that every caseworker, child protective services employee or any person acting pursuant to a contract for services with a local social services department who has contact with a child as part of a treatment plan or supervision and monitoring, document each such contact with a photograph taken of the child during such visit or contact using a tablet or comparable device. Such photograph shall be part of the confidential case record for such child and shall be subject to periodic review by the supervisor of the case. Such photograph must be of sufficient quality to clearly identify the child, and contain accurate data with regard to the time and date of the photograph. The supervising authority may require, to the extent practicable, that the caseworker utilize technology allowing for the geographic documentation of said visit. Such regulations required under this subdivision shall also require local child protective services to comply with notification requirements of the family court act in connection with such monitoring and supervisory responsibilities.
§ 3. Section 372 of the social services law is amended by adding a new subdivision 4-c to read as follows:
4-c. The records maintained pursuant to this section by any caseworker, child protective services employee or authorized agency as defined in section three hundred seventy-one of this title who has contact with a foster child as part of a treatment plan or supervision and monitoring, shall document each such contact with a photograph taken of the child during such visit or contact consistent with the requirements set forth in subdivision three of section four hundred twenty-one of this article.
§ 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the social services law, in relation to requiring child protective services to document home visits with photographs
Purpose
To provide greater accountability and safety regarding caseworker visits to children in the child protective services and foster care system.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 of the bill provides that this bill shall be known and cited as "Marchella Pierce's Law."
Read the full memo (706 words)
Section 2 amends section 421(3) of the Social Services Law, which relates to the regulations that the Department of Social Services is required to promulgate concerning the investigation of child abuse. This section of the bill requires the Department of Social Services to promulgate additional regulations to require caseworkers to perform certain paperwork in connection with their visitation of children under protective Supervision. Specifically, the regulations must require each caseworker to document each such visit with a written report detailing the apparent physical and emotional condition of the child. Section 2 of the bill further requires the Department of Social Services to issue regulations to establish minimum standards and practices for the accurate and timely filing of this documentation in confidential case records, including safeguards to prevent the manipulation of these records.
Section 3 of the bill adds a new subdivision 4-c to section 372 of the Social Services Law to provide that the documentation described in section 2 of the bill shall also be kept and filed by caseworkers involved in the supervision or monitoring of foster children.
Section 4 provides that this bill shall take effect immediately.
Existing law
Current law requires the Department of Social Services to issue regulations concerning the supervision and monitoring of abused children. These regulations must include guidelines for when children must undergo medical examination and when visibly injured children must be photographed. Current law, however, does not require that caseworkers document every contact they have with a child. Nor does it require that the regulations promulgated by the Department of Social Services contain safeguards to ensure that the documentation contained in case records is safe from manipulation.
Justification
Our child protective services system was designed to afford protection through monitoring of abused or neglected children or children at risk from abuse and neglect. Trained caseworkers are required to make routine visits to such children in their homes or in the foster care system to ensure that their protection. Sadly, even under the watch of CPS, children "fall through the cracks," resulting in substantial harm and sometimes death.
A 2012 case involving the death of Marchelia Pierce, a medically fragile child in Brooklyn, highlighted the lack of adequate safeguards in the supervision of at risk children. Prosecutors charged the Administration of Children's Services (ACS) caseworker in Marchella's death, alleging that he should have noticed the child's injuries and malnourishment and that he changed records after her death to make it seem like he visited her family when he did not make the visits for months leading up to her death - months in which she was starved and abused by her mother. In many ways, Marchella's case resembles the tragedy of Nixmary Brown, a seven year-old Brooklyn girl killed by her mother and stepfather in 2006 while she was being monitored by ACS.
These cases highlight the need for legislation to provide closer oversight of child protective caseworkers. Specifically, legislation is needed to ensure that the very small minority of caseworkers who fail to live up to the high professional standards of child protective agencies do not allow neglected and abused children to suffer. This bill achieves that goal by requiring the Department of Social Services to issue additional regulations requiring caseworkers to document every contact they have with a child under agency supervision. Such documentation shall consist of a description of the child's apparent physical and emotional condition. This bill also requires regulations to be promulgated requiring the timely and accurate filing of such documentation in case files, as well as safeguards to prevent the manipulation of case files-such as was alleged to have occurred in Marchella Pierce's case.
Legislative history
New bill
Fiscal implications
None to the State.
Effective date
This bill shall apply immediately and shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.