New York State senate 2025-2026 bill s513
What's at stake for Kincare coalition's stake holders? Who's interests are they really protecting?
In recent history, a bill has surfaced in the New York State Assembly. Sponsored since the 2017 - 2018 legislative session by assembly Woman Carrie Woerner, it's original intent was mainly to adopt the "harm" standard. There was also language inserted which would deter law suites brought on by bad faith, by allowing judges to place court fees on the grandparent if this was found to be the case.
The Assembly portion of the bill has been referred to the Assembly Judiciary Committee. Although, the bill has been sponsored by Assembly Women Woerner throughout it's introduction, the senate portion of the bill has gone through a number of sponsoring hands and has recently been taken over by Senator Anthony Palumbo and was referred to the Senate Children & Families Committee.
In the last four legislative sessions, the bill was slightly changed, however, the major component, "HARM" remained the same.
It has come to our attention, there is a major player who has been pushing their weight in attempt to dictate how they feel the law should be written in order to protect who's interests? We'll provide the facts and let you be the judge.
The newly revised bill will soon be introduced around late January of 2005.
NYS Kincare Coalition / Kinship Navigator involvement in NYS
NYS Kincare Coalition has recently decided to change their website, however, before they did, their opening statement mentioned Kinship Care refers to grandparents, relatives, and family friends raising children when parents are unable to.’ Un fortunately, we can not screenshot what it said, however we are in receipt of and email sent to a member of the organization by a parent who is currently being sued and is aggressively fighting to change the law. Luckily She had quoted the statement and received an acknowledgement in return.
To the left, just incase it disappears, we have saved a screenshot of a document where Kinship Navigator provides a detailed description of how a grandparents can go about petitioning the court in order to gain access to a "FIT" parent's children. Here's a LINK
To the right, is another document, again, coaching grandparents how to petition the court against "FIT" parents. In the email we've obtained, the question asked was " Could you clarify your position on amending NYS DLR 72 to specify conditions under which grandparents should be able to care for and/or visit with children, particularly when parents are unfit and unable to care for their children? Your website explicitly states ‘ Kinship Care refers to grandparents, relatives, and family friends raising children when parents are unable to.’ If this is your organization’s mission, why are you opposed to introducing the harm standard in the grandparent visitation statute?"
Here's is the response that was received. " Thanks for reaching out. We are currently working with Senator Rivera's office regarding bill language to best represent the interests of children, parents and grandparents in this bill. We appreciate your partnership in protecting all three parties with regards to visitation - our stance on kinship care is in regards to when the parents are unable to parent. Visitation is a different matter, in the best interests of the children, and not opposed to parents raising children at all. " Below are the pdf versions of the documents provided to the public by Kinship navigator. Let's not mistake, both kinship Navigator and NYS Kincare Coalition are working hand in hand in this matter and both names are on the memo of opposition up above. Link