Int. No. 1374-A

By Council Members Levin, Crowley, Chin, Kallos and Menchaca

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the utilization of preventive services

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 21-917 to read as follows:

§ 21-917 Preventive services quarterly reports. a. Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the term “preventive services” means supportive and rehabilitative services provided, in accordance with title four of the social services law, to children and their families for the purposes of: averting an impairment or disruption of a family which will or could result in the placement of a child in foster care; enabling a child who has been placed in foster care to return to his family at an earlier time than would otherwise be possible; or reducing the likelihood that a child who has been discharged from foster care would return to such care.

b. Beginning with the calendar quarter ending March 31, 2018, and for every calendar quarter thereafter, ACS shall furnish to the speaker of the council and post on ACS’ website, no later than 30 days after the end of each such calendar quarter, a report regarding preventive services rendered during such calendar quarter that includes, at a minimum, the following information:

1. The number of families and the number of children who received preventive services and the average length of enrollment, disaggregated by each program type, for all program types offered within the ACS continuum of preventive services;

2. The number of open slots available for preventive services, disaggregated by each program type, for all program types offered within the ACS continuum of preventive services;

3. The number of children who entered foster care and had been receiving preventive services at the time of removal, six months prior to removal, and 12 months prior to removal;

4.  The number of families and the number of children who received preventive services after a previous final discharge from foster care to reunification;

5. The number of families who received ACS family services unit monitoring and preventive services; and

6. To the extent such data is available to ACS, the number of families who lived in homeless shelters operated by or under contract or similar agreement with the department of homeless services or department of social services/human resources administration while receiving preventive services.

c. No information that is otherwise required to be reported pursuant to this section shall be reported in a manner that would violate any applicable provision of federal, state or local law relating to the privacy of information respecting families or children receiving preventive services or that would interfere with law enforcement investigations or otherwise conflict with the interests of law enforcement. If any category requested contains between 1 and 5 families or children receiving preventive services, or allows another category to be narrowed to between 1 and 5 families or children receiving preventive services, the number shall be replaced with a symbol.

§ 2. This local law takes effect immediately.

AV/ACK

LS #6175                     

11/21/2017 6:26pm