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The old New York State provisions allowed a PINS petition to be brought up to the day before the 16th birthday of a male and up to the day before the 18th birthday of a female. In 1972, a court decision determined the age differences to be "discriminatory" based on gender bias and made the age limit 16 for both. Since the court decision in effect declared Article 7 of the Family Court Act unconstitutional 28 years ago, attempts have been made to have the legislature raise the age limit of eligibility to apply for a PINS petition to 18 for both boys and girls.
Until December 19, 2000, the NYS Family Court Act and Social Services Law read that boys under 16 and girls under 18 could be deemed PINS-eligible and/or could be returned home by police if it was believed the child ran away for no cause...in other words, to avoid parental guidance. In the 1972, NYS Appeals Court ruled those sections of law discriminatory again, based on gender bias, the age of 16 for both boys and girls is what has been used ever since.... even though the law was never rewritten. While some nominal support was forthcoming, a bill never emerged from the Assembly Committee on Children and Families to be voted on by the Assembly membership.
There have been bills under consideration ever since then, sponsored by a number of different legislators to rewrite that law. Some of these bills were trying to raise the age to 18 for both, and some just wanted to rewrite the law as 16 for both, just so the law agreed with the age that was being used by courts and police. There was never any movement on these bills in the Assembly, however, until we began a coordinated effort in late 1998. The advent of the Internet has helped a great deal, but it also took a dedicated group of parents and other advocates to stay the course until our goal was achieved.
On Thursday June 15, 2000 at 11:50 PM., bill A1131b passed the assembly floor!
TO ALL ASSEMBLY MEMBERS, FROM FAMILIES OF NEW YORK WE THANK YOU!
The Senate has passed their version of the bill every year for at least the past 4 years, and did so again in April 2000. Finally our efforts--which included many trips to Albany to meet with Assembly members and attend hearings and press conferences, countless phone calls, newspaper articles, television and radio interviews--the bill began moving in the Assembly in early May of 2000. The Assembly amended the bill to include a section of Social Services law, and the Senate promptly matched that change and voted again unanimously to pass the amended version a few days later. Finally, on June 15, 2000, at a few minutes before midnight, with 11 PRAFAC members present, the Assembly passed their bill (that matches the Senate's word for word) by a vote of 142 to 1 and rose to give PRAFAC a standing ovation! Then, after a long wait for it to be delivered to the governor for his decision, the bill was delivered to him on December 15. On December 19 at a public signing ceremony attended by a number of PRAFAC members, Governor Pataki signed the bill into law! Assemblyman Kaufman spoke at the ceremony, saying that he has called this the "Family Reunification Act". The new law will take effect on JULY 1, 2002.
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