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 ยง 402.2
Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 39, September 25, 2024
(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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