Foster parents, who receive no salary for their services, are extremely vulnerable to lawsuits.

The Coalition supports implementation of a liability and property damage insurance package to protect foster parents from liability for acts of the child in care and for suits brought by the biological parent, the child, or others arising out of the foster parent/child relationship. We have been exploring available options for liability insurance for NYS foster parents and found that there are currently no comprehensive liability policies available for purchase in New York State. 

Immunity from Liability When Applying the Reasonable and Prudent Parenting Standard

The purpose of this Administrative Directive (ADM) is to advise local departments of social services (LDSSs) and voluntary authorized agencies (VAs) of provisions of Part M of Chapter 54 of the Laws of 2016 (Chapter 54), which provide immunity from liability to foster parents, designated congregate care staff, VAs and LDSSs in regard to the application of the reasonable and prudent parent standard (the standard).

Current and Prospective Foster Parents:

Foster parents must apply the standard when deciding whether or not to allow a child in foster care to participate in age or developmentally appropriate extracurricular, enrichment, cultural, or social activities.

Foster parents who had been certified or approved prior to the effective date of the standard (September 1, 2015) must complete, in its entirety, a training on the standardthat has been approved and issued by OCFS.8

Prior to receiving certification or approval as foster parents, prospective foster parents must complete, in its entirety, a training on the standard that has been approved and issued by OCFS.

This training must be completed once, unless otherwise instructed.

a. Such training must have been completed prior to the event that led to the injury of the child in order for the foster parent, VA or LDSS to apply the immunity protection set forth in Chapter 54. As such, documentation that OCFS approved and issued training on the standard was completed in its entirety and when such training was completed is highly important not only to the foster parent, but also to the LDSS or VA. Given statute of limitations standards involving injuries to minors, it could be years before litigation arises. As such, OCFS strongly recommends the following:

For the purpose of this ADM, the term “caregivers” refers to foster parents or employees of a child care facility that are designated to apply the standard.

i. The LDSS or VA provide the prospective foster parent(s) with a certificate of completion of the training, maintain a copy of the certificate in the foster parent’s file, and record the training in the Foster and Adoptive Home Development (FAD) part ofCONNECTIONS. Specifically, on the F/A Home Member Training List/Detail window as “Applying the Reasonable and Prudent Parent Standard Training”

ii. LDSSs and VAs maintain a record of which current and prospectivefoster parents have been trained to apply the standard.

We have previously conducted a statewide survey to collect additional data and are currently working with an agent to explore the development of a future package of liability coverage for NYS foster parents.