BILL NUMBER: S2303
SPONSOR: BAILEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the family court act, in relation to probation, investi-
gation and diagnostic assessment of juvenile delinquents or any other
juvenile delinquent whom the court reasonably finds, on the record, to
have a demonstrable need for a remediation of a discernible handicapping
condition
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To enable the court system to identify youth with learning and develop-
mental disabilities at an early intercept point and to enhance the
court's ability to address these problems.
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Among other things, the bill amends the Family Court Act to ensure that
family court judges order a probation investigation and a diagnostic
assessment concerning juveniles with discernible handicapping conditions
prior to dispositional hearings. The diagnostic assessments must be
completed by an interdisciplinary team of several enumerated profes-
sionals, including a psychologist and legal counsel.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
These amendments to the Family Court Act would allow for the creation of
interdisciplinary teams that will accept referrals from family court
judges prior to a dispositional hearing. These amendments will allow
judges to refer matters relating to custody to various state agencies
for placement into programs under protocols and funding provisions
currently in state law. Under current law, family court judges are not
required to have assessments undertaken for a youth suspected of mani-
festing developmental and learning disabilities or mental illness. More-
over, probation departments currently lack the expertise to conduct
referrals or to interpret information gathered for a family court judge.
Recent studies have shown that youth in family court have some kind of
mental-health or developmental issue. Implementation of early inter-
ception programs in areas where they can be used to assist these indi-
viduals would help stop the steady stream of young people that are slip-
ping through the cracks in our court system.
This bill seeks to emphasize the developing role and the capacity of the
probation system in linking treatment, habilitation, rehabilitation, and
education programs to youth at the dispositional hearing stage, where it
is most appropriate. The current process is neither cost nor programmat-
ically effective, since youth become institutionalized within the juve-
nile justice system without receiving employable skills or appropriate
services. The interdisciplinary team will provide the probation system
with the essential tools to reasonably determine the needs of youth for
mental health, developmental, and other related services before they
become caught up in the juvenile justice system.
The cost of the interdisciplinary team would dramatically lessen the
costs to the state for inappropriate placements unwarranted institution-
alization. Funding provisions for such placements are outlined in Chap-
ter 563 of the laws of 1980.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2019-20: Referred to Children and Families
2021-22: Referred to Children and Families
2023-34: Referred to Children and Families
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
To be determined.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeeding the
date on which it shall have become a law.