Office of Children and Family Services

Compliance with the Adoption and Safe Families Act (Follow-Up Review)

New York State’s foster care programs are administered by local social services districts that are overseen by the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS). As a result of the 1997 Federal Adoption and Safe Families Act, certain actions must be taken to protect the safety of children in foster care to make sure that the children are either reunited with their parents or made eligible for adoption as quickly as possible. In our prior audit report 2000-S-2, we selected five local districts and tested their compliance with the Act. While four of the districts fully complied with the Act in the cases we tested, the other district (New York City) often failed to comply with one or more requirements of the Act. We also examined the accuracy of the foster care records maintained by OCFS, and found that the records were often inaccurate. We recommended a number of actions that could be taken by OCFS to strengthen its oversight of local district foster care services. In our follow-up review, we found that all of our recommendations had been implemented.

For a complete copy of Report 2002-F-6 click here.