Relates to the establishment of a statewide supervised visitation initiative to support safe and structured parenting time

• Democratic3
• Republican1

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why the sponsor says this is needed

Twenty counties in New York State lack supervised visitation services, a key resource providing safe, supervised contact between children and parents in custody and domestic violence disputes. In a comprehensive report compiled by the Unified Court System's Office of Justice Initi- atives detailed the "serious gap in the availability of programs for professional supervision of visitation." The report found that even in areas that do have supervised visitation programs, the service offerings are so limited as to have length wait-lists and high costs to litigants, as well as limitations on the number of visits they can offer. Families and children have a right to maintain relationships through legal proceedings - especially when Family Court backlogs mean cases can spend months, if not years, in limbo. Cost and limited programming should not be prohibitive to accessing this crucial service. This bill would authorize the Office of Victim Services, in consultation with the Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, to administer supervised visitation throughout the state. It would require counties and New York City to submit annual reports on the need for such services in their area and require OVS to report annually to the legislature and governor data regarding each program's success in meeting local need and recommendations for improvement.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.