Bill Would Show ACS Protection-Order List

By HOWARD MEGDAL

A proposal by Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum that would give child-welfare agencies access to the state's database of protection orders will be introduced by a state legislator later this month.

The move would take scrutiny of potential adoptive and foster parents beyond the Administration for Children's Services' current standard, which is a criminal background check.

'Thoroughly Screen'

"It should go without saying that placing a child in a foster or adoptive home where there is a history of domestic violence is to put a child's life in jeopardy," Ms. Gotbaum told the New York Times. "Yet state law today denies ACS the ability to thoroughly screen for domestic violence when considering foster and adoptive parent applications."

Ms. Gotbaum pointed out that if someone pleads guilty to a violation, charges are dismissed, or if a case is held in civil court, there will be no record of it in a criminal background check.

But the Domestic Violence Registry, established in 1995, records all protection orders, civil and criminal. An order of protection prohibits a person from approaching or harassing the person who files the complaint.

Only law-enforcement officials and court officials currently can access the Registry. The bill introduced by William Scarborough, the Chairman of the State Assembly's Committee on Children and Families, would change that.

ACS Commissioner John B. Mattingly strongly supported the measure.