BILL NUMBER: S5998B
SPONSOR: SKOUFIS
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the domestic relations law and the family court act, in
relation to establishing "Kyra's Law"
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To protect children by ensuring courts promote the safety of children in
child custody and visitation proceedings.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1: Identifies the name of this legislation as "Kyra's Law."
Section 2: Legislative intent.
Section 3: Amends subdivision 1 of section 240 of the domestic relations
law to require courts to consider allegations of domestic violence or
child abuse presented to the court, and requires that the court uses
such information as the basis for setting limitations or conditions on a
party's custody, visitation or contact with a child, as appropriate. The
factors considered by the court shall be in writing or on record. This
section also requires the court to consider limitations or conditions
placed on a party's custody or visitation with a child as a significant
factor when determining, in a temporary order of custody or visitation,
whether to award sole or joint custody or visitation that is unsuper-
vised or without sufficient protections of the child's safety to a party
against whom such limitations or conditions apply.
Section 4: Amends the domestic relations law to create a new section
240-e which defines the terms "coercive control" and "victims of domes-
tic violence." It outlines what information a court must review prior to
issuing a final determination of custody or visitation, and requires the
chief administrator of the court to promulgate comprehensive training on
topics necessary to conduct a review of allegations of domestic violence
or child abuse as part of OCA's annual judicial training.
Section 5: Amends subdivision (a) of section 70 of the domestic
relations law to ensure that the same protections as noted above are in
place regardless of whether the parents of the child have ever been
married.
Section 6: Amends section 651 of the Family Court Act to require the
Office of Court Administration to update petitions to initiate custody
and visitation proceedings in a manner to permit petitioners to identify
allegations of child abuse or domestic violence.
Section 7: Amends section 651 of the Family Court Act to ensure that the
same protections as noted above are in place for custody and visitation
proceedings in Family Court.
Sections 8 and 9: Amend section 249 of the Family Court Act to ensure
the court appoints an attorney to represent a child in any proceeding
under article 6 when allegations of domestic violence or child abuse
have been made.
Section 10: Sets the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
This legislation, known as "Kyra's Law," recognizes that the safety of
children is an integral element of their best interests. The bill
retains "the best interests of the child" standard while directing that
judicial decisions regarding custody of and access to children promote
the safety of children as a threshold matter.
Kyra Franchetti, a toddler, was ordered by the court to have unsuper-
vised visits with her father, despite repeated reports and eyewitness
accounts of his anger and rage issues, suicidal ideation, stalking and
history of coercive tactics and abuse. During two years of child custody
hearings, Kyra Franchetti's mother repeatedly pleaded with the court to
acknowledge the risk of harm to Kyra. In July, 2016, Kyra was on an
unsupervised, court-ordered visit with her abusive father in Virginia
when he shot Kyra to death while she slept. He then set his house on
fire and killed himself. Kyra was only 2 years old.
Too often, courts throughout the United States discount or minimize the
risks posed in cases where domestic violence is present, dismissing
allegations of domestic violence or child abuse as an attempt by one
parent to win custody from the other. Too many abusers who used coercive
power and control tactics against their intimate partners go so far as
to use their children as pawns, even harming or murdering them, to try
to maintain control over or devastate their former partners. Tragically,
numerous children in New York have been injured or murdered at the hands
of a parent seeking to cause pain and trauma to their intimate partner.
This bill would require Family and Supreme courts to review allegations
of domestic violence or child abuse prior to issuing temporary or final
orders of custody or visitation. Such assessment would include, but not
be limited to, considering a party's history of domestic violence, child
abuse, incidents involving harm; police reports, including domestic
incident reports, and other known risk factors.
The bill also requires the court to consider several factors, including
a party's history of domestic violence, child abuse, or incidents
involving harm to a child; police reports, such as domestic incident
reports or orders of protection; commission of family offenses; whether
either party has used or threatened to use a weapon or dangerous instru-
ment; threats to harm or kill the child, the other parent, others or
companion animals; whether either party is using coercive control to
limit the other party's autonomy; sexual abuse or other sexual offenses
against the child or other parent; and other factors.
Research finds that courts have often erred in awarding child custody or
visitation to abusers due to the debunked theory that when parents
allege that a child is not safe with the offending parent, they are
doing so illegitimately to alienate the child from such parent. In fact,
cross-claims of such alienation virtually double the courts' rejection
of parents' abuse claims, causing non-offending parents to lose custody
to the parent accused of abuse. When a party alleges the presence of
domestic violence or child abuse, this bill would prohibit the court
from finding that protective behaviors to safeguard the child that were
engaged in by the party making such allegations constitute failure to
support the child's relationship with the offending party.
To ensure courts are well-equipped to conduct reviews of allegations of
domestic violence or child abuse, this bill would expand current judi-
cial training requirements to include referees and other hearing offi-
cers, as well as judges, and would require such individuals to obtain
comprehensive training on topics necessary to conduct a review of alle-
gations of in domestic violence and child abuse, followed by supple-
mental training every two years. The chief administrator of the courts
would promulgate such training, which would be developed and offered by
the Office of Court Administration. Such training would be part of the
annual mandatory training administered by the Office of Court Adminis-
tration.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
Senate
2021-2022: S07425A, Recommitted to Rules
2023: S3170C, Reported and Committed to Codes
2024: S3170C, Amended and Recommitted to Judiciary
Assembly
2021-2022: A5398A, Amended and Recommitted to Judiciary
2023-2024: A3346-C, Amended and Recommitted to Judiciary
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
Undetermined.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
The 270th day after it shall have become law; effective immediately, the
addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary
for the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized
to made and completed on or before such effective date.

Statutes affected:
S5998: 70 domestic relations law
S5998A: 70 domestic relations law
S5998B: 70 domestic relations law