Suffolk County lawmakers have announced new legislation to reform Child Protective Services, known as CPS.
Long Island CPS has been criticized in recent weeks after the death of 8-year-old Thomas Valva, who was autistic. The agency was reported to have ignored all signs of abuse.
County Executive Steve Bellone and other lawmakers introduced a series of measures called the Child Protection Services Transformation Act.
“Once these reforms are adopted and fully implemented, CPS will never operate the same way again. And that is appropriate because what happened to Thomas Valva can never happen again.”
The laws include new training requirements along with a limit on the number of cases handled by caseworkers. A separate unit will also be created to focus on handling children with disabilities.
