New Law Ensures Child Advocacy Centers Can Run Background Checks on Employees

SARATOGA COUNTY — Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, announced that she sponsored and helped pass a new law to ensure both public and private child advocacy centers (CACs) can run background checks on current and prospective employees by using the State Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment (SCR) (Ch. 611 of 2022). 

Under current law, only county-run CACs can access the register, while private and not-for-profit CACs cannot.

“Child advocacy centers are critical resources for young victims of sexual and physical abuse,” said Woerner, in a statement. “Children are the most vulnerable among us, and the bill I sponsored and helped pass into law will ensure that private and not-for-profit CACs are able to conduct thorough background checks on both prospective and current employees to better protect them. It’s imperative that child victims and their family members receive the aid they need in a manner that minimizes trauma, and this law helps to do just that.” 

Child advocacy centers (CACs) must comply with standards set by the state Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) and respond to cases involving child victims of sexual abuse and serious physical abuse. 

To provide the services victims need, centers often rely on employment, contractual or volunteer arrangements with physicians and medical providers trained in forensic pediatrics, mental health professionals and victim advocacy personnel. As these professionals will be in close contact with the children, it is important that CACs be able to properly vet personnel through comprehensive background checks, including through inquiries to the State Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment (SCR). 

Formerly, New York State did not grant equal access to the SCR to all advocacy centers.