The city\u2019s embattled child-welfare agency would\u00a0have to cough up critical records to city probers so they could finally\u00a0properly probe tragic cases involving kids, according to a newly passed Albany bill.<\/p>\n
The tentative legislation, which Gov. Kathy Hochul has until the end of the year to approve or veto, would clear \u201csignificant\u201d roadblocks to justice by allowing the city\u00a0Department of Investigation\u00a0access to previously\u00a0withheld records<\/a>\u00a0from the Administration from Children\u2019s Services.<\/p>\n \u201cThe state law has really prevented us from fully being able to provide the oversight that DOI provides to every other city agency,\u201d DOI Commissioner Nadia Shihata told The Post in an interview<\/p>\n State Department of Investigation Commissioner Nadia Shihata said she hopes Gov. Kathy Hochul will sign a bill to provide crucial needed transparency when it comes to heinous crimes against children. Gabriella Bass for NY Post<\/p>\n The watchdog department said state laws, as well as \u201cburdensome\u201d delays from the state own Office of Children\u2019s and Family Services, prevented it from conducting investigations<\/a> into 17 of 18 child fatalities last year in which there was previous ACS involvement, according to a blistering report published<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n ACS records are allowed to be withheld from investigators if they resulted in what the agency deemed \u201cunfounded\u201d at the time, a situation that the bill would change.<\/p>\n If DOI also wants to investigate potential sexual misconduct cases involving ACS caseworkers, it currently needs permission from OCFS to access those records.<\/p>\n \u201cAs of now, we often don\u2019t get that information,\u201d Shihata said.<\/p>\n Under the law, DOI would retain the same investigatory powers it has over other city agencies similar to that of district attorney offices.<\/p>\n ACS records are allowed to be withheld from investigators if they resulted in an \u201cunfounded\u201d determination, something that would change if Hochul signs the bill into law. William Farrington\/NY Post<\/p>\n One of the bill\u2019s sponsors, state Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Queens), said he hasn\u2019t heard anyone make a case as to why DOI should be prevented from reviewing how ACS workers handle a case or potential case, especially involving heartbreaking tragedies such as the death of a child.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s actively preventing safety measures from being actively implemented,\u201d Hevesi said of the current law. \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody can really argue this with a straight face. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t expect the governor to, either,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Shihata added, \u201cWe\u2019ve not received any type of pushback publicly related to the passage of the bill, and so we\u2019re really hopeful that the governor will sign it.\u201d<\/p>\n The measure passed unanimously in the Assembly. State Sen. Mark Walczyk (R-Jefferson) was the lone vote against it in the upper chamber.<\/p>\n Hochul\u2019s office declined to indicate her position on the legislation.<\/p>\n The governor\u2019s office would not indicate her position on the legislation. Andrew Schwartz \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n \u201cProtecting the health and safety of all New Yorkers, but especially vulnerable children, is the Governor\u2019s top priority and she will review the legislation,\u201d Hochul rep Nicolette Simmonds wrote in a statement to The Post.<\/p>\n Hevesi said ex-Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 DOI initiated the push for the change and that Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s administration has also been taking the issue \u201cvery seriously.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last [DOI] commissioner was aggressive, but this commissioner came out with a bang and said, \u2018No, no, no, this isn\u2019t cap. We need it right away,\u2019 \u201d he said.<\/p>\n ACS representative Marisa Kaufman wrote in a statement to The Post, \u201cACS appreciates the important oversight role of the Department of Investigation, and we remain committed to holding individuals accountable in any instance of potential employee misconduct.<\/p>\n \u201cACS also remains committed to transparency and accountability in our operations, while safeguarding the confidentiality of the children, youth and families who we serve.\u201d<\/p>\n The state Office of Children and Family Services did not return a Post request for comment Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city\u2019s embattled child-welfare agency would\u00a0have to cough up critical records to city probers so they could finally\u00a0properly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3775,4241,44349,95644,426,57,9,56,63,65,64,58],"class_list":["post-266710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-administration-for-childrens-services","tag-albany","tag-department-of-investigation","tag-foster-system","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}