New York Codes, Rules and Regulations
Title 18 - DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES
Chapter II - Regulations of the Department of Social Services
Subchapter C - Social Services
Article 1 - Provision of Social Services-general
Part 402 - Organizational Requirements for Social Services
Section 402.2 - Staffing
Universal Citation: 18 NY Comp Codes Rules and Regs § 402.2
Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 12, March 26, 2025
(a) Professional staff.
There must be adequate numbers of full-time personnel with suitable qualifications to plan, develop, and supervise social services and to provide specialized services to families and individuals.
(b) Paraprofessional staff.
Provision must be made for the recruitment, training and effective use of paraprofessional staff in the programs of services to families and individuals, including part-time or full-time employment of persons in receipt of public assistance and other persons with low income. The term paraprofessional as used in this subdivision, means a person with less than college education, a high school graduate, or a person with little or no formal education.
(c) Volunteers.
Provision must be made for the recruitment, training and effective use of volunteers who represent various age groups. Senior citizens and young persons must be included.
(d) Staff development.
There must be a training program for staff development on a continuing, progressive, and comprehensive basis for all staff responsible for the provision of services.
(e) Review and evaluation.
(1) Consistent with any appropriate
collective bargaining agreement(s) and applicable provisions of the Civil
Service Law, each local social services district must establish a procedure to
review and evaluate the backgrounds of and information supplied by applicants
for professional, paraprofessional and volunteer positions who will have the
potential for regular and substantial contact with children being cared for by
the district. As part of this procedure, the social services district must
require such applicants to submit all of the following information:
(i) a statement or summary of each
applicant's employment history, including but not limited to any relevant
child-caring experience;
(ii) the
names, addresses and, where available, telephone numbers of references who can
verify the applicant's employment history, work record and
qualifications;
(iii) the names,
addresses and telephone numbers of at least three personal references, other
than relatives, who can attest to the applicant's character, habits, reputation
and personal qualifications; and
(iv) a sworn statement by the applicant
indicating whether, to the best of such applicant's knowledge, the applicant
has ever been convicted of a crime in New York State or any other
jurisdiction.
(2) If an
applicant discloses in the sworn statement furnished in accordance with
subparagraph (1)(iv) of this subdivision that he or she has been convicted of a
crime, the local social services district must determine, in accordance with
guidelines developed and disseminated by the department, whether to hire any
such applicant or use such applicant as a volunteer, except that any local
district which had guidelines for the review of persons with conviction records
in use prior to January 1, 1986 may continue to use the district guidelines for
the required determination. If the district determines that it will hire the
applicant or use the applicant as a volunteer, the district must maintain a
written record, as part of the application file or employment or other
personnel record of such person, of the reason(s) why such person was
determined to be appropriate and acceptable as an employee or
volunteer.
(3) Each local social
services district must inquire of the department whether any person who is
actively being considered for employment or any individual or any person who is
employed by any individual, corporation, partnership or association which
provides goods or services to the district and who will have the potential for
regular and substantial contact with children being cared for by the district
is the subject of an indicated report of child abuse or maltreatment on file
with the State Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment. The local
district may make such an inquiry to the department regarding any current
employee or a person who is being considered for use as a volunteer or for
hiring as a consultant and who has or will have the potential for regular and
substantial contact with children being cared for by the district. An inquiry
regarding any current employee may be made only once in any six-month period.
Inquiries made pursuant to this paragraph will be subject to the following
provisions:
(i) Prior to making an inquiry to
the department, the social services district must notify, in the form
prescribed by the department, the person who will be the subject of the inquiry
that an inquiry will be made to determine whether such person is the subject of
an indicated report of child abuse or maltreatment on file with the State
Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment.
(ii)
(a)
Except as set forth in clause (b) of this subparagraph, a
social services district may not permit a person hired by the district or a
person who is employed by an individual, corporation, partnership or
association which provides goods or services to the district to have contact
with children in the care of the district prior to obtaining the result of the
inquiry required by this paragraph.
(b) An employee of a social services district
or an employee of a provider of goods and services to the social services
district may have contact with children cared for by the district prior to the
receipt by the district of the result of the inquiry required by this paragraph
only where such employee is visually observed or audibly monitored by an
existing staff member of the district. Such employee must be in the physical
presence of an existing staff member for whom:
(1) the result of an inquiry required by
section
424-a of
the Social Services Law has been received by the social services district and
the district hired the existing staff member with knowledge of the result of
the inquiry; or
(2) an inquiry was
not made because such staff member was hired before the effective date of
section
424-a of
the Social Services Law.
(iii)
(a)
When the person who is the subject of the inquiry is an applicant for
employment, the department will charge a five dollar fee when it conducts a
search of its records within the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and
Maltreatment to determine whether such applicant is the subject of an indicated
report.
(b) The required fee must
accompany the inquiry form submitted to the department or, for an inquiry
submitted by a social services district, the district may elect to have the fee
subtracted from its claims for reimbursement submitted pursuant to section
601.1 of this Title.
(c) Fees must be paid by agency business
check, certified check, postal or bank money order, teller's check or cashier's
check made payable to "New York State Department of Social Services". For
social services districts electing to have the fees subtracted from their
claims for reimbursement submitted pursuant to section
601.1 of this Title, the fees will
be subtracted quarterly to match the number of inquiries made. Personal checks
and cash are not acceptable forms of payment.
(iv) If the applicant, employee or other
person about whom the agency has made an inquiry is found to be the subject of
an indicated report of child abuse or maltreatment, the district must
determine, on the basis of information it has available and in accordance with
guidelines developed and disseminated by the department, whether to hire,
retain or use the person as an employee, volunteer or consultant or to permit
the person providing goods or services to have access to children being cared
for by the district, except that any district which had guidelines for the
review of persons who are subjects of indicated reports of child abuse or
maltreatment in use prior to January 1, 1986 may continue to use the district
guidelines in making the required determination. Whenever such person is hired,
retained, used or given access to children, the district must maintain a
written record, as part of the application file or employment or other
personnel record of such person, of the specific reason(s) why such person was
determined to be appropriate and acceptable as an employee, volunteer,
consultant, or provider of goods or services with access to children being
cared for by the district.
(v) If a
denial of an application for employment or a decision not to retain a current
employee, use a volunteer, hire a consultant, or permit a person providing
goods or services to have access to children who are being cared for by the
district is based in whole or in part on the existence of an indicated report
of child abuse or maltreatment, the district must provide a written statement
to the applicant, employee or other person indicating whether such denial or
decision as based in whole or in part on the existence of the indicated report
of child abuse or maltreatment and, if so, the reasons for such denial or
decision. If the denial or decision is based in whole or in part on the
indicated report, the notice of denial or decision must also include, in the
form prescribed by the department, written notification to the applicant,
employee, volunteer, consultant, or other person that:
(a) he/she has a right, pursuant to section
424-a of
the Social Services Law, to request a hearing before the department regarding
the record maintained by the State Central Register of Child Abuse and
Maltreatment;
(b) a request for
such a hearing must be made within 90 days of the receipt of the notice
indicating that the denial or decision was based in whole or in part on the
existence of the indicated report; and
(c) the sole issue at any such hearing will
be whether the applicant, employee, volunteer, consultant, or other person who
is the subject of the indicated report has been shown by a fair preponderance
of the evidence to have committed the act or acts of child abuse or
maltreatment giving rise to the indicated report.
(vi) If in a hearing held pursuant to a
request made in accordance with subparagraph (iv) of this paragraph and section
424-a of
the Social Services Law the department fails to show by a fair preponderance of
the evidence that the applicant, employee, volunteer, consultant, or other
person committed the act or acts upon which the indicated report is based, the
department will notify the local social services district which made the
inquiry to the department that, pursuant to the hearing decision, its decision
to deny the application, discharge the employee, not to use the volunteer, hire
the person as a consultant, or not to allow the person to have access to
children which was based on the indicated report should be reconsidered. Upon
receiving such notification from the department, the district should review its
decision without considering the indicated report.
(4) Each social services district under this
section is required to check applicants for employment and volunteer positions
as well as contractors and consultants, with the Vulnerable Persons' Central
Register maintained by the Justice Center for the Protection of People with
Special Needs, as required by section
495 of the
Social Services Law, before determining whether to hire or otherwise allow any
person to be an employee, administrator, consultant, intern, volunteer or
contractor who will have the potential for regular and substantial contact with
a services recipient.
Disclaimer: These regulations may not be the most recent version. New York may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.
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