Establishes a council on children and families within the executive department; moves such council from the office of children and family services; defines terms; authorizes the governor to designate the executive director of such council; makes related provisions.
Requires inspections of child day care homes, programs and facilities include the full premises; requires providers of a family day care home or group family day care home to disclose to the office of children and family services all persons who reside in the home where child day care is being provided; requires all providers of child day care to receive training for, provide and maintain onsite opioid antagonists for use during emergencies.
Requires each social services district to maintain a waiting list of eligible families who have applied for child care assistance; requires the local districts to report such list to the office of children and family services who shall then compile such reports and issue one report to the legislature annually; requires the social services districts to collect data regarding the income of families who have applied, were denied and received child care assistance and issue a report to the office of children and family services who shall then compile such reports and issue one report to the legislature annually.
Authorizes and directs the office of children and family services to conduct a study on the family assessment response program; provides for the repeal of such provisions upon expiration thereof.
Limits the experiential qualifications of group teachers for preschool classes and groups teachers for infant or toddler classes to what was required for their educational qualifications.
Allows the court to enter an order regarding a destitute minor freeing the child for adoption and granting guardianship and custody to the commissioner of social services for the purposes of consenting to an adoption; authorizes certain commissioners of public welfare and city public welfare officers to consent to such adoptions.
Relates to reporting of youth placed in foster care settings and recruitment of foster parents; requires information including the total number of youth placed in foster care, the reasons why such youth were placed and the efforts the state has taken to recruit and retain foster parents; provides for the repeal of such provisions upon expiration thereof.
Extends time frame to two years to receive updated mandated reporter training to include guidance on identifying an abused or maltreated child when such child is an individual with an intellectual or developmental disability.
Relates to the sealing and expungement of records in persons in need of supervision cases in family court; carves out certain foster care and preventive service records maintained by social services departments.
Modifies the existing exemption from requiring a determination of what constitutes prima facie evidence of neglect where a parent or guardian engages in substance abuse or substantial manifestation of irrationality but is voluntarily and regularly participating in a recognized rehabilitative program so as to require the parent or guardian to have voluntarily participated in and to have successfully completed such a program and to have been verifiably rehabilitated for an uninterrupted period of one year immediately prior to the hearing date, before such exemption applies.
Establishes the office of the child welfare advocate to provide support to youth, biological parents, kinship caregivers and foster parents including prospective kinship caregivers or foster parents.