Nassau County Department of Social Services |
NCDSS Home | ||
|
1. PREVENTIVE SERVICESA. Mandated Preventive ServicesUnit 311
516-227-8344
Concrete, casework counseling and referral services are provided by contracted agencies to avert placements of children outside their homes, enhance family preservation, and/or expedite reunification of children in care with their biological families. In-house unit manages these cases.
B. Teen and Parenting ServicesUnit 312
516-227-8408
Casework counseling and referral services are provided directly to eligible pregnant and parenting adolescents and young adults in order to facilitate self-sufficiency and ultimate economic independence. If the plan of choice is foster care or adoption for a newborn, placement is effected.
C. Title XX General ServicesUnit 314
516-227-8411
Services provided to eligible families with children, where there is no risk of foster care placement, include casework counseling; advocacy; arrangements for homemaking, budgeting day care, and/or patient care aide; and custody and/or other field assessments as requested by other areas of the Department, other agencies, or via the Interstate Compact. Unit is responsible for all Interstate Compact transactions.
D. PINS Diversion Program516-227-8769
The PINS Diversion Program coordinates services with other county departments and community based agencies to serve children under the age of 18 years. If your child exhibits any of the following, your family might benefit from the PINS Diversion Program: chronic truancy, drug and/or alcohol abuse, violence towards self or others, gang involvement/affiliation, violating curfew and/or disruptive behaviors in the home, school or community.
Professionals engage with families and work towards resolving behavioral issues, before filing a PINS petition. This is a voluntary program, however, a family must participate in diversion services before court intervention can be sought.
Diversion services could include: family counseling, individual counseling, group therapy, drug and/or alcohol treatment (inpatient or outpatient), mental health services, psychological testing, anger management classes, educational services, and/or alternative school programs.
Frequently Ask Questions - New PINS Law http://www.ocfs.state.ny.us/main/legal/legislation/pins/faqs_pins_law.pdf
2. FOSTER CARE SERVICESA. Foster and Adoptive Resource DevelopmentUnit 215 516-227-8291And HomefindingUnit 214
516-227-8284
These units recruit, train, study, approve/certify, develop, retain, and re-approve/re-certify foster and adoptive families. To inquire about becoming a foster and/or adoptive parent, please call 516-227-8279. Our Department's Mentoring Program is headquarted in Unit 214. For information about Mentoring, please call 516-227-8282.
B. Foster Care
Unit 217 516-227-8300
Unit 221 516-227-7774 Unit 222 516-227-7808 Unit 223 516-227-8331 Unit 224 516-227-8337 Direct and/or referral services are extended to place into foster care children referred by Preventive Services, Child Protective Services, the Department's Information, Resource and Referral Unit, or the Courts. These units work intensively with the children and their foster parents to stabilize the placements, to assure that all of the children's needs are being met, and to establish productive birth-parent/child visits. These units also extend immediate concrete, casework counseling and referral services directly to birth parents in an attempt to reunite them as soon as possible with their children and to lessen the time the children spend in foster care. Those children and families not reunited quickly, despite intensive efforts, receive continued concrete, casework counseling, and referral services as long as extended foster care is necessary. Ultimately, these units effect the safe reunification of children with their birth families, free for adoption children who cannot be safely returned to their birth families, or refer older teens for Independent Living services where neither reunification nor adoption are possible.
Unit 310 516-227-8394 This unit coordinates contracted agencies' foster home and group care services for court placed PINS youngsters who require therapeutic foster care and/or residential services due to their higher levels of needs and/or a social behaviors.
D. Independent Living/MentoringUnit 225
516-227-8346
The unit provides ongoing concrete, casework counseling and referral services for those youngsters in care who will neither be reunited with their birth families nor be adopted. These older teens are provided with opportunities to develop independent living skills with emphasis on education and/or vocation and to establish permanent family connections.
E. Review and Support Unit 218/321
516-227-8419
A. AdoptionUnit 211
516 - 227-8271
Concrete, casework counseling, and referral services are provided directly provided to children freed for adoption and their foster and/or adoptive families until adoptions are legalized. This unit effects adoption subsidiaries where appropriate and prepares the documentation required for the legalization process.
B. Institutional Liaison/Adoption SubsidyUnit 212/216
516-227-8277
Direct and referral services are provided to match children with adoptive families in cases where the foster family is not adopting, to maintain the Prospective Adoptive Parent's Registry; to register freed children with the NYSAS Adoption Registry and with Children Awaiting Parents (CAP) Book, to administer the Subsidized Adoption Program, to respond to the Adoption Information Registry and to handle post-legalization issues. The supervisor also serves as our Department's liaison with all purchase-of-service contract agencies.
| ||
|
Foster and Adoptive Home Resource Development RELATED LINKS |
|||
|
Nassau County Home | DSS Home | Directory | What We Do | Links | | Abandoned Infant Protection Act | Adult Services | AIDS Services Coordinator | | Child Protective Services | Child Support Enforcement | Community Outreach | Day Care | Deadbeat Parent List | | Domestic Violence | Emergency Services | Employment for Temporary Assistance Clients | | Food Stamps | Fraud | Home Energy Assistance Program | Housing and Homeless Prevention | | Human Resources | Information, Resource and Referral Services | Medicaid | | Medicaid Managed Care | Services to Children and Families | | Temporary Assistance | Volunteer Services | | Juvenile Detention Center | |
|||