[NYAPRS Enews] Eagle: State Senate Extends Jonathan's Law

[Harvey Rosenthal]

State Senate Extends Jonathan's Law, Increasing Parents' Access Records

by Sarah Wolff  Brooklyn Daily Eagle  June 25, 2007

 

ALBANY - The New York state Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that will
add a "look-back" period to Jonathan's law, which enables parents to
access records and reports of abuse their children may have suffered
while in the care of state-run facilities for the mentally disabled.

 

If Gov. Elliot Spitzer signs the new bill, it will add a provision to
the existing law allowing families to access records about incidents
that occurred before the law went into effect, as far back as January 1,
2003. A spokesperson for the state Assembly, where the bill originated,
said it had not yet been sent to Spitzer for review.

 

In addition to accessing reports, Jonathan's Law, which was passed in
May, requires state facilities to call parents within 24 hours of any
abuse or mistreatment incident involving their child. It also requires
them to offer to meet with parents to discuss what the facility will do
to address the problem.

 

The new legislation is named for Jonathan Carey, a 13-year-old who died
in February 2007, allegedly as a result of improper restraint techniques
used by state facility employees in Schenectady. Carey was on a trip to
the mall with two state employees from his facility, O.D. Heck
Developmental Center, when the alleged incident occurred. The two
employees have been charged with manslaughter and are awaiting trial.

 

The law was designed to help parents who have placed their children in
New York's mental disability facilities to better "monitor the care
their children receive," Spitzer commented earlier this spring. The
state's mental disability residences serve about 760 children and youths
between the ages of five and 21 each year. There are 53 state-run
residences for children and adults in Brooklyn, according to the New
York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities
(OMRDD). 

 

 

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=13
646 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://kilakwa.net/pipermail/nyaprs_kilakwa.net/attachments/20070626/b01e1d65/attachment.html>