New York S 5406: Requires all state and private agencies with mandatory reporters of incidents involving vulnerable people to retrain all staff on reporting to a 9-1-1 operator and the county district attorney's office

Bill Text

STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                          5406
                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions
                    IN SENATE
                                    February 21, 2025
                                       ___________
        Introduced  by Sens. HARCKHAM, GALLIVAN, LANZA -- read twice and ordered
          printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Disabil-
          ities
        AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation  to  requiring  all
          state  and  private  agencies  with  mandatory  reporters of incidents
          involving vulnerable people to retrain all staff  on  reporting  to  a
          9-1-1 operator and the county district attorney's office
          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
     1    Section 1. Section 491 of the social services law, as added by section
     2  1 of part B of chapter 501 of the laws of 2012, paragraph (d) of  subdi-
     3  vision  1  as added by chapter 391 of the laws of 2023, subdivision 4 as
     4  amended by chapter 126 of the laws of 2014 and subdivision 5 as added by
     5  chapter 422 of the laws of 2017, is amended to read as follows:
     6    § 491. Duty to report  incidents.  1.  (a)  Mandated  reporters  shall
     7  report  allegations  of  reportable  incidents  to a 9-1-1 operator, the
     8   the  vulnerable  persons'  centralcounty district attorney's office and
     9  register as established by section four hundred ninety-two of this arti-
    10  cle and in accordance with the requirements set forth therein.
    11    (b)  Allegations of reportable incidents shall be reported immediately
    12  to   thea 9-1-1 operator, the  county  district  attorney's  office  and
    13  vulnerable  persons'  central  register  upon discovery. For purposes of
    14  this article, "discovery" occurs when the mandated reporter witnesses  a
    15  suspected  reportable  incident  or  when  another person, including the
    16  vulnerable person, comes before the mandated reporter  in  the  mandated
    17  reporter's  professional  or official capacity and provides the mandated
    18  reporter with reasonable cause to suspect that the vulnerable person has
    19  been subjected to a reportable incident. A report to the register  shall
    20  include the name, title and contact information of every person known to
    21  the  mandated  reporter  to  have  the  same information as the mandated
    22  reporter concerning the reportable incident. [Nothing in  this  subdivi-
         EXPLANATION--Matter in  (underscored) is new; matter in bracketsitalics
                              [] is old law to be omitted. 
                                                                   LBD01854-01-5

        S. 5406                             2
     1  sion  shall be construed to prohibit a mandated reporter from contacting
     2  or reporting to law enforcement or emergency services  before  or  after
     3  ]reporting to the vulnerable persons' central register.
     4    (c) The substance or content of any psychological, psychiatric, thera-
     5  peutic,  clinical  or  medical reports, evaluations or like materials or
     6  information pertaining to the treatment of a  patient  or  client  of  a
     7  mandatory  reporter who reports a reportable incident of such patient or
     8  client pursuant to this article, must  be  provided  by  such  mandatory
     9  reporter upon request of the justice center for the protection of people
    10  with  special  needs  if  such records are essential for a full investi-
    11  gation of such  allegation,  notwithstanding  any  applicable  privilege
    12  which  would  otherwise bar the disclosure of such materials and records
    13  pursuant to article forty-five of the civil practice law  and  rules  or
    14  other  provision  of  law  except  applicable  federal law governing the
    15  disclosure of patient and related medical records.
    16    (d) Every mandated reporter is required to make a report to the regis-
    17  ter as outlined in paragraph (b) of  this  subdivision  unless  (i)  the
    18  reporter  has  actual  knowledge  that  the reportable incident has been
    19  reported to the register; and (ii) that the reporter has been named as a
    20  person with knowledge of the incident in such prior report.
    21    2. Any person or official required to report allegations of reportable
    22  incidents pursuant to this section may take or cause to be  taken  color
    23  photographs  of  visible  trauma  and  the face of the vulnerable person
    24  named in the report and upon the  consent  of  a  person  authorized  to
    25  consent  to  medical care for the vulnerable person, shall, if medically
    26  indicated, cause to be  performed  a  radiolo