2023 New York Laws › EXC - Executive › Article 19-H - Runaway and Homeless Youth Act of Nineteen Hundred Seventy-Eight › 532-E - Powers and Duties of the Office of Children and Family Services.

§ 532-e. Powers  and  duties  of  the  office  of  children and family
services. The office of children and family services  shall:  1.  visit,
inspect  and  make  periodic  reports  on  the operation and adequacy of
approved runaway programs and transitional  independent  living  support
programs;
2.  certify  residential  facilities  providing care to runaway and/or
homeless youth, provided, however, that no certification shall be issued
or renewed until it can be demonstrated that a program operated pursuant
to this article has consistent with  appropriate  collective  bargaining
agreements and applicable provisions of the civil service law, developed
and implemented a procedure for reviewing and evaluating the backgrounds
of  and  the  information  supplied  by  any  person  applying  to be an
employee, volunteer or  consultant,  which  shall  include  but  not  be
limited to the following requirements: that the applicants set forth his
or  her  employment  history, provide personal and employment references
and sign a sworn statement indicating whether the applicant, to the best
of his or her knowledge, has ever been convicted  of  a  crime  in  this
state or any other jurisdiction;
3.  maintain  a  register  of  approved runaway programs, transitional
independent living support  programs  and  runaway  and  homeless  youth
service coordinators;
4.  submit  to the governor and legislature an annual report detailing
the numbers and characteristics of runaway and otherwise homeless  youth
throughout the state and their problems and service needs;
5.  develop  and  promulgate in consultation with county youth bureaus
and organizations or programs which have  had  past  experience  dealing
with runaway and homeless youth, regulations concerning the coordination
and integration of services available for runaway and otherwise homeless
youth  and  prohibiting  the  disclosure  or  transferal  of any records
containing the identity of individual youth receiving services  pursuant
to this section, without the written consent of the youth;
6.  develop and promulgate regulations in consultation with the office
of temporary and  disability  assistance  concerning  the  provision  of
services  by transitional independent living support programs consistent
with the provisions of this article;
7. require all  employees  of  approved  programs  providing  care  to
runaway  and/or  homeless  youth  to  complete  training as set forth in
regulations promulgated by the office. Such training shall  require  all
employees  of  such  residential  facilities  to  receive instruction as
specified by the office in the regulations, except where an employee has
already received training which would  satisfy  such  requirements,  and
shall,  at  a  minimum,  include  instruction  in  issues  pertaining to
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth with  particular  emphasis
on:
(a) appropriate terminology;
(b)  particular challenges for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
runaway and homeless youth, including why lesbian,  gay,  bisexual,  and
transgender youth are disproportionately homeless;
(c)  how  to address homophobia or transphobia from other youth at the
shelter;
(d) confidentiality in  the  cases  of  lesbian,  gay,  bisexual,  and
transgender youth; and
(e)  how  to  address  the  families  of  lesbian,  gay, bisexual, and
transgender youth; and
8. in conjunction with the  commissioner  of  education,  develop  and
annually  review  a  plan to ensure coordination and access to education
for homeless children, in accordance  with  the  provisions  of  section

thirty-two  hundred nine of the education law, and monitor compliance of
residential programs for runaway and homeless youth with such plan.