Bureau of Special Hearings

Brief Description

The Bureau of Special Hearings of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services provides the forum for citizens to challenge a wide variety of decisions made by local and state social services officials. Hearings are held in a variety of areas such as foster care removals, enforcement of day care regulations and laws, enforcement of laws and regulations relating to family homes for adults, adoption applications, reimbursement of local social services districts for foster care expenditures, and issues relating to decisions made by the Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped. In addition, a significant portion of the past and current hearings' volume involves hearings arising out of the operations of the State Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment (“SCR”). Specifically, these hearings involve two aspects. First, there are hearing requests to amend or expunge/seal “indicated” reports of child abuse and maltreatment [Social Services Law § 422(8)]. Second, there are hearings involving the rights of subjects of “indicated” reports seeking employment in the child care field to have a hearing before a prospective employer is provided information as a result of a clearance request” (Social Services Law § 424-a). Prior to a hearing, a subject of a report has the right to an administrative review conducted by the SCR, which is a review of documentation in the case to determine whether substantial evidence exists to support the investigator’s determination.

Location of Bureau Offices and Hearing Locations

NYC Office of the Director

Steven M. Connolly, Director, Bureau of Special Hearings NYS OCFS Perry Duryea State Office Building 250 Veteran’s Highway, Suite 2A-20 Hauppauge, NY 11788 Work: 631-24-2503; Cell: 914-552-3754 e-mail: [email protected]

HARLEM OFFICE

New York State Office of Children & Family Services Bureau of Special Hearings Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building 163 W. 125th Street, 14th Floor New York, NY 10027 General #: 212-961-4408 Fax: 212-961-5898

Hearings for this geographic area are held at the following locations:

NYC (all five boroughs) – The Harlem Office

Nassau County – Nassau County Department of Social Services, Social Services Administration Building, County Seat Drive, 3rd Floor, Mineola, New York

Suffolk County - County Department of Social Services, 125 Comac Street, Ronkonkoma, New York

Albany and Surrounding Counties

The Albany Office for the Bureau covers hearings in 24 counties, and the City of Albany. The counties consist of: Rockland, Westchester, Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, Sullivan, Ulster, Columbia, Greene, Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Montgomery, Fulton, Saratoga, Warren, Washington, Hamilton, Essex, Franklin, and Clinton.

RENSSELAER OFFICE - The Albany office is the central office of operations for the Bureau and is located:

New York State Office of Children and Family Services Bureau of Special Hearings 52 Washington Street, Room 225 North, Rensselaer, New York 12144 General #: 518-474-6022 Fax: 518-474-9218

SPRING VALLEY New York State Office of Children and Family Services Bureau of Special Hearings 11 Perlman Drive – 2nd Floor Spring Valley, NY 10977 Phone: 845-708-2440 Fax: 845-708-2443

Syracuse and Surrounding Areas

The Syracuse Office for the Bureau covers hearings in 21 counties, and the City of Syracuse. The 21 counties are: Broome, Tioga, Chemung, Steuben, Cortland, Chenango, Tompkin, Schuyler, Cayuga, Seneca, Yates, Onondaga, Madison, Ontario, Wayne, Oswego, Oneida, Herkimer, Lewis, Jefferson, and St. Lawrence.

SYRACUSE OFFICE – This Bureau office is located at:

New York State Office of Children & Family Services Bureau of Special Hearings 333 East Washington Street, Syracuse, N.Y. 13202 General #: 315-428-3276 Fax #: 315-428-3265

Rochester, Buffalo & Surrounding Counties

The Rochester and Buffalo offices cover hearings in 10 counties, the City of Rochester, and City of Buffalo. The counties include: Alleghany, Cattaragus, Chautaqua, Livingston, Wyoming, Erie, Genesee, Monroe, Orleans, and Niagara.

ROCHESTER OFFICE New York State Office of Children & Family Services Bureau of Special Hearings One Monroe Square 259 Monroe Avenue, Room 310, Rochester, New York 14607 General #: 585-238-8175 Fax: 716-238-8169

Buffalo/Rochester Special Hearings Telephone Extensions BUFFALO OFFICE

New York State Office of Children & Family Services Bureau of Special Hearings Elliott Square Building, 295 Main Street, Room 533 Buffalo, New York 14203 General #: 716-847-7179 Fax: 716-847-3096

TYPES OF HEARINGS CONDUCTED BY OCFS

The Bureau of Special Hearings covers hearings in the following substantive areas:

Amendment to/Sealing of Child Abuse or Maltreatment Reports- Hearings held pursuant to Social Services Law § 422(8) in which “indicated” subjects of reports of child abuse and maltreatment seek to overturn determinations of local social services district staff and/or state personnel (in the case of abuse in an institutional setting) to “indicate” reports. Indicate means a report made to the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment (SCR) where an investigation determines that some credible evidence of the alleged abuse or maltreatment exists (SSL Section 422(12)). Hearing Regulations: 18 NYCRR Part 434

Employment Data Base Checks - Hearings held pursuant to § 424-a of the Social Services Law in which applicants for employment, licensure or approval for certain positions relating to the care of children or disabled adults seek to preclude the release of information regarding any indicated child abuse or maltreatment reports. Hearing Regulations: 18 NYCRR Part 434

Foster Care Removal – Hearings held pursuant to Section 400 of the SSL in which foster parents challenge determinations by authorized agencies to remove children in foster care from the homes of foster parents. 18 NYCRR 443.5(c) and 443.7(i)(4); Article 3 of the State Administrative Procedures Act (SAPA)

Adoption Eligibility – Hearings held pursuant to Section 372-e of the SSL to contest denials of applications of persons seeking to become adoptive parents. 18 NYCRR 421.15(g)(7); Article 3 of the State Administrative Procedures Act (SAPA)

Adoption Subsidy – Hearings held pursuant to Section 455 of the SSL in which adoptive parents challenge: the determination to deny an adoption subsidy; the determination to discontinue an adoption subsidy; or the mount of adoption subsidy payments being provided to the parent(s). Hearing Regulations: 18 NYCRR 421.24(g)

Kinship Guardianship Assistance – Hearings held pursuant to Section 458-f of the SSL in which prospective kinship guardian(s) or kinship guardian(s) challenge: the determination to deny an application for kinship guardianship assistance payments; the determination to discontinue kinship guardianship assistance payments; or the amount of kinship guardianship assistance payments being provided to the kinship guardian(s). Hearing Regulations: 18 NYCRR 436.10 THE FOLLOWING HEARINGS ARE CONDUCTED BY OTDA ON BEHALF OF OCFS PURSUANT TO A MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

Day Care - Hearings held pursuant to Section 22 of the SSL and Parts 358 and 415 of the Social Services regulations to challenge determinations by social services districts to deny, reduce or terminate day care subsidy payments, or to challenge the adequacy of such payments.

Foster Care Payments - Hearings held pursuant to Section 22 of the SSL and Part 358 of the Social Services regulations to challenge determinations by social services districts to deny requests by foster parents for foster boarding home payments at a rate higher than the rate being received by the foster parents; to deny voluntary foster care placement services for natural parents; or to challenge the adequacy of such payments or services.

Homemaker Services - Hearings held pursuant to Section 22 of the SSL and Part 358 of the Social Services regulations to challenge determinations by social services districts to deny, reduce or terminate homemaker services for adults and children, or to challenge the adequacy of services authorized.

Protective/Preventive Services - Hearings held pursuant to Section 22 of the SSL and Part 358 of the Social Services regulations to challenge determinations by social services districts to deny, reduce or terminate adult or child protective or preventive services, or to challenge the adequacy of services authorized.

Transitional Child Care - Hearings held pursuant to Section 22 of the SSL and Part 358 of the Social Services regulations to challenge determinations by social services districts to deny, reduce or terminate transitional child care payments, or to challenge the adequacy of such payments.

Use of Technology to Maximize Efficiency

Transmittal of Scheduling Notices and Issued Decisions

The Bureau of Special Hearings now transmits to the Local Districts all scheduling notices via email to persons identified by the Local Districts as requiring to receive such notices. By so doing, the Bureau saves staff time and money by avoiding printing out hard copy letters, making copies and mailing out in envelopes. The Local Districts receive the benefit of receiving the notices immediately rather than wait several days for mail to arrive and they too save on staff time by not having support staff have to receive and open mail and then distribute to those who should receive the notices.

The same is true for issued decisions. All such decisions are converted to PDF, password protected and emailed to individuals identified by the Local Districts to receive such issued decisions. Again, time and money are saved on both the Bureau end and the Local Districts end. And the issued decisions are sent and received immediately rather than days it would take to mail out.

Video Hearings As part of a continuing effort by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (“OCFS) and the Bureau of Special Hearings (“BSH”) to promote due process by expediting hearings and maximizing efficiency of the hearing process, BSH has moved forward with the implementation of Video Hearing (“VH”) technology to be used to conduct hearings across the State. The use of such technology will enable Administrative Law Judges (“ALJ”) of BSH to conduct hearings in a more expedited manner, by significantly reducing the current time expended on travel and overnight accommodations for hearings conducted in remote locations from BSH Offices. By reducing travel and overnights, ALJs will also have significantly more time to draft hearing decisions, address adjournment requests, and handle other hearings issues. All such time savings will benefit hearing participants, including local districts by having hearings scheduled more promptly and hearing determinations rendered more expeditiously.

BSH has equipped most local districts with video conference equipment (which also includes an All-In-One Scanner, Printer, Fax Machine to be used to transmit exhibits during the hearings to the ALJs from the remote video hearing sites) in the hearing rooms used for BSH hearings and has equipped every ALJ with a desk top video set up. The ALJ have conduct the hearing using a small, remote control operated video camera and a large, high definition, color, TV monitor connected to existing Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) communications networks. Video Hearing (“VH”) equipment will enable ALJs located at any VH equipped site to direct the conduct of hearings with Appellants, representatives, translators and/or witnesses located at any other video conference-equipped site. VH sites include Administrative Law Judge Desktop video-conferencing set ups, OCFS hearing room video set ups, and County hearing room sites with video equipment. The goal of OCFS and BSH is to commence video hearings in all local districts where ALJs are currently required to travel to once the equipment is installed and where conducting such hearings by video will serve the intended dual purposes of promoting due process by expediting hearings while saving valuable time and money.