Amendment #558 to H3400

DCF - Fair Hearings To Ensure Due Process

Representatives Khan of Newton, Donato of Medford, Fernandes of Milford, Devers of Lawrence, Sannicandro of Ashland, Hecht of Watertown, Walsh of Framingham, O'Day of West Boylston, Farley-Bouvier of Pittsfield, Balser of Newton, Gregoire of Marlborough, Gordon of Bedford, Ehrlich of Marblehead, Cariddi of North Adams, Lawn of Watertown, Garballey of Arlington, Fox of Boston, Rogers of Cambridge, Andrews of Orange, McMurtry of Dedham and Ferguson of Holden move to amend the bill in section 2, item 4800-0015, in line 30, by inserting after “auditor” the following: “; provided, that, notwithstanding any general or special law or regulation to the contrary,  the department shall maintain a timely, independent and fair administrative hearing system and shall immediately implement fair hearing procedures under which adjudicatory decisions are issued within 120 days of any request for a fair hearing; provided further, that if a decision is not issued within the 120 day period, the departmental decision being appealed shall be deemed reversed, unless the commissioner certifies that such reversal would place a child in immediate danger and provides substantiation for that certification; provided further, that the department shall impose no categorical limit on how many departmental witnesses may be subpoenaed by appellants and the exercise of the right to subpoena witnesses shall not excuse compliance with the 120 day deadline for issuing administrative hearing decisions; provided further, that in appeals of initial departmental decisions, the burden of proof shall be on the department to show that its decision was reasonable based on the entirety of the record; provided further, that appellants’ requests for their records in advance of departmental fair hearings shall be governed by 110 CMR 12.09; provided further that the department shall make copies of its fair hearing decisions available to the public after removal of identifying information; provided further, that beginning on August 15, 2013, the department shall report quarterly to the house and senate committees on ways and means and the joint committee on children, families and persons with disabilities on the department's policy and plan for eliminating its backlog of administrative hearing requests; provided further, that each quarterly report shall: (i) include a benchmark for the number of fair hearing requests to be closed in the upcoming quarter; and (ii) identify the number of fair hearing requests that are pending and the number of fair hearing requests that are pending for more than 180 days as of the conclusion of the most recent quarter; provided further, that not less than $152,000 shall be expended to maintain additional staff added in FY 2013 to the fair hearing unit to assist the department in eliminating the department's fair hearing backlog;”.