Int. No. 2419
By Council Member Levin
A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to quarterly reporting by the administration for children’s services on the amount of time children spend in the children’s center or temporary placement facilities
Be it enacted by the Council as follows:
Section 1. Chapter 9 of title 21 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 21-918 to read as follows:
§ 21-918 Children’s center and temporary placement facility reporting. a. Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:
Children’s center. The term “children’s center” means the Nicholas Scoppetta Children’s Center or a successor center that is a temporary residence for children coming into foster care until a permanent placement is found.
Temporary placement facility. The term “temporary placement facility” means a facility for children in ACS custody awaiting a longer-term foster care placement. Such temporary placement facility includes but is not limited to rapid intervention centers, youth reception centers, and the children’s center.
b. No later than April 30, 2022, and quarterly thereafter, ACS shall submit to the mayor and the speaker of the council, and shall post conspicuously on the ACS website, a report for the immediately preceding quarter regarding the amount of time children spend in the children’s center or another temporary placement facility. The information in that report shall include and, where applicable, be disaggregated by:
1. The total number of children who spent any time in the children’s center or a temporary placement facility during the reporting period;
2. The number of days spent in the children’s center or temporary placement facility, in accordance with subdivision c;
3. Whether the child spent time in the children’s center or another temporary placement facility;
4. The age of the child;
5. The level of care recommended;
6. The number of children who are placed at the children’s center or temporary placement facility for the first time; and
7. The number of children who are placed at the children’s center or temporary placement facility on two or more occasions. Such information shall be disaggregated by the placement type for the placement immediately preceding the placement of a child at the temporary placement facility.
c. The report required by subdivision b shall disaggregate the number of days spent in the children’s center or temporary placement facility as follows:
1. 0-3 days;
2. 4-7 days;
3. 8-10 days;
4. 11-20 days;
5. 21-30 days;
6. 31-60 days;
7. 61-120 days;
8. 121-180 days; and
9. 181 or more days.
d. No report required by subdivision b of this section shall contain personally identifiable information. If a category contains between one and five children, or contains a number that would allow another category that contains between one and five children to be deduced, the number shall be replaced with a symbol. A category that contains zero shall be reported as zero, unless such reporting would violate any applicable provision of federal, state or local law relating to the privacy of children’s information.
§ 2. This local law takes effect immediately.
JG
LS #17511
9/30/21 5:16 PM