2012 New York Consolidated Laws
SOS - Social Services
Article 6 - CHILDREN
Title 8 - (440 - 446) STATE CHILD CARE REVIEW SERVICE
442 - Child care review service; establishment, operations and procedure.

 
    §  442.  Child  care  review  service;  establishment,  operations and
  procedure.  1.  The  department,  in  consultation  with  the   advisory
  committee,  shall  establish  and operate a child care review service to
  accomplish the purposes of this title, for all children who are  in  the
  care  of  an  authorized  agency  and shall make such regulations as are
  appropriate to implement this title.
    2. The service shall be implemented with respect to all children under
  the age of twenty-one years for whom an authorized agency  is  providing
  foster  care  as  defined  in  subdivision  (c)  of section one thousand
  eighty-seven of the family court act and  for  whom  an  application  is
  pending to an authorized agency for foster care.
    3.  The  department  is  authorized  to enter into agreements with any
  person, firm, organization or association for the whole or any  part  of
  the  design  or operation of the service as described in this title. Any
  such agreements shall specify that such  person,  firm,  corporation  or
  association  shall safeguard the confidentiality of information received
  or maintained by the service,  in  the  same  manner,  and  will  remain
  subject  to the same confidentiality requirements, as the department. In
  addition,  any  such  agreement  shall  require   such   person,   firm,
  corporation  or  association to comply with other applicable federal and
  state laws protecting the confidentiality of the information received or
  maintained by the service.
    4. The service shall collect, maintain,  update,  and  distribute,  as
  provided  in  this  title,  information  from  each authorized agency to
  further the purpose of this title.
    5. The service may request from any authorized agency, and such agency
  shall submit to the  service  all  information,  including  updating  of
  information,  in the form and manner and at such times as the department
  may require that is appropriate to the purposes  and  operation  of  the
  service.
    6.  Information  to  be  submitted  to  or  collected  by the service,
  pursuant to subdivisions four and five, shall, to the  extent  possible,
  be  in  compatible  form so as to facilitate the making of public policy
  decisions relating to child care programs supported by public funds  and
  administered by various state, local and voluntary agencies.
    7.  In designing the service, the department, in consultation with the
  advisory committee, shall review all  information  reporting  forms  and
  financial  claims forms, and shall make every effort to consolidate and,
  where  appropriate,  eliminate  duplicative  claiming  and   information
  reporting forms in order to develop uniform statewide claiming forms and
  information reporting forms.
    8. Subject to regulations of the department the service shall:
    (a)  prepare  and make available on a regular basis to each authorized
  agency such data as they may require to meet the purposes of this title;
    (b) issue regular reports setting forth aggregate statewide and  local
  statistical data with appropriate analyses, but not including individual
  identifying information; and
    (c)  issue reports as to the capabilities of the service and the types
  of information maintained by the service.
    9. The department in consultation with the  advisory  committee  shall
  prepare  and submit an annual report to the governor and the legislature
  as part of the annual report required to be filed prior to the fifteenth
  day of December of each year by subdivision (d) of section seventeen  of
  this  chapter  on  its  progress in the development and operation of the
  service, including any significant problems encountered  or  anticipated
  in  the  design and operation of the service and any recommendations for
  administrative or legislative changes that would further the purposes of
  this title.

    10. The state child care review service established pursuant  to  this
  title shall design and implement a system to:
    (a) monitor all financial claims made by social services districts for
  each  child in foster care and child and family in receipt of preventive
  services pursuant to title four of this chapter;
    (b) compile and maintain  a  cumulative  record  of  information  with
  respect  to  actions taken on behalf of each individual child throughout
  his or her length of stay in foster care;
    (c) compile and maintain information on actions taken by local  social
  services  districts  to  initiate  judicial  proceedings  as provided by
  section three hundred fifty-eight-a of this chapter and to  comply  with
  judicial orders made pursuant to section one thousand eighty-nine of the
  family  court  act, to refer legally free children to the state adoption
  service pursuant to section three hundred seventy-two-c of this chapter,
  and to comply with the provisions of section four hundred nine-e of this
  article and the  regulations  of  the  office  of  children  and  family
  services promulgated thereunder; and
    (e)  compile  and  maintain  comparative  data for authorized agencies
  including, but not limited to, characteristics and numbers  of  children
  entering  care  and  their  families,  admissions  practices, delineated
  reasons for initial and continued placement or provision  of  preventive
  or  child protective services, length of stay in care, length of time in
  receipt of preventive services or child protective services, foster care
  reentry rates, number of children discharged to parents  and  relatives,
  the  characteristics,  numbers and rates of children leaving foster care
  through adoption, costs  of  care  and  preventive  services  and  other
  information indicative of authorized agency performance.