Section 398-D. Child welfare services community demonstration projects

1.
  The legislature finds that the centralized delivery of child  protective
  services,   preventive  services,  adoption  services  and  foster  care
  services in a social service district with a population of more than two
  million hinders their effective delivery  and  adds  unnecessary  costs.
  Numerous  studies have recommended that such services serve small areas,
  be located in such areas, and be integrated. Such relocation will:  give
  caseworkers greater knowledge of their assigned community, the residents
  of that community and  the  availability  of  community-based  services;
  increase  the  availability  of  caseworkers;  reduce  travel  time  for
  caseworkers; enable children in foster  care  to  remain  in  their  own
  communities  and schools and maintain their friendships; enable children
  in foster care to have greater visitation with  their  parents;  provide
  for  more  effective  delivery  of  preventive  services;  and  expedite
  adoptions and otherwise reduce the amount  of  time  children  spend  in
  foster care.
    The  relocation  of  child  welfare  service delivery to the community
  sites will strengthen efforts to provide a wide range of community-based
  early intervention programs including, but not limited to,  school-based
  health  clinics  and  community  schools, thereby ensuring the continued
  development of a critical mass of community services.
    2. No later than March first, nineteen hundred  ninety-six,  a  social
  service  district  with  a  population  in  excess  of two million shall
  implement at least three demonstration projects for a period of at least
  two years to provide child welfare services  on  a  community  level  to
  improve  the  delivery of child welfare services, increase adoptions and
  reduce the rate of foster care placements.    These  projects  shall  be
  located  in  and  serve community school districts which have high rates
  of:  children at risk of becoming a part  of  the  foster  care  system,
  poverty,  households  on  public  assistance,  juvenile delinquency, and
  unemployment. Such  projects  shall  provide  foster  care,  preventive,
  adoption and child protective services as required by this article.
    3.  In  proposed  demonstration  areas, child welfare services must be
  coordinated with community schools, school  health  clinics,  and  other
  relevant programs to provide and administer the most efficient services.
  In one demonstration area, the district shall use a caseworker to client
  ratio equal to the preferred national average of one to fourteen.
    4.  A report evaluating such projects shall be presented no later than
  June  first,  nineteen  hundred  ninety-eight,  to  the  governor,   the
  department  and the respective chairpersons of the assembly children and
  families committee, the senate  children  and  families  committee,  the
  assembly  ways  and  means  committee, and the senate finance committee.
  Such report shall include:
    (a) the number  of  children  and  families  who  received  preventive
  services,  child  protective services and foster care, (b) the number of
  delinquent and incarcerated youth in the demonstration projects, (c) the
  length of an average foster care placement, (d) the number of  completed
  adoptions  for  youth  residing within the demonstration area, including
  their  age,  gender,  race,  ethnicity  and  religion,  (e)  the   gross
  expenditures  for  foster  care,  compared to the gross expenditures for
  child protective, preventive and adoption services, (f) changes  in  the
  quality  and  quantity  of  time  spent by caseworkers with clients, (g)
  staffing  ratios  of  foster  care,  preventive  and  child   protective
  services,   (h)   the  perspective  (attitude,  viewpoint,  outlook)  of
  caseworkers serving and clients served in the demonstration project, and
  (i) recommendations for  expansion  of  community-based  provisions  for
  child  welfare services.  For purposes of the report, the data described

  above should be compared to the extent possible  with  non-demonstration
  areas.