NYS Legislature passes Child Victims Act

The New York State Legislature passed the Child Victims Act (CVA) into law Jan. 28.

The Church in New York State had removed its opposition to the Child Victims Act after the legislature expanded the unlimited retroactive window last week to include both private and public institutions, noting that the support for all victims — regardless of where the abuse occurred — had been a critical reason the bishops could not support past versions of the bill. The Senate passed the act unanimously, while the Assembly voted 130-3 in favor.

“I hope this brings some measure of relief and comfort to those who can make use of the CVA’s provisions to seek justice and healing,” said Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger in a statement on the passage of the legislation. “Our efforts at education, prevention and restorative justice must continue as we accompany all survivors and many others in our community who have been wounded by the incidence of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.”

The bill was first proposed in 2006, but was unable to garner majority support in the state Senate, which had been long-controlled by Republicans. It passed overwhelmingly in the Democrat-led Assembly several times. This year, with Senate control flipping to the Democrats, the bill was brought to the floor and passed unanimously in that house as well, sending it to Gov. Cuomo for his signature.

The New York State bishops said in a statement issued by the New York State Catholic Conference: “Sadly, we in the Church know all too well the devastating toll of abuse on survivors, their families, and the extended community. Every Catholic diocese in New York has taken important steps to support survivors of child sexual abuse, including the implementation of reconciliation and compensation programs.

“We are proud that these pioneering programs have not only helped well more than a thousand survivors of clergy abuse in New York, but have also become a model for how to help survivors in other states and in other institutions.”

The Child Victims Act will raise the statute of limitations for individuals to bring civil claims related to child sexual abuse from age 23 to 55. Previously, New York State’s statute of limitations for child sexual abuse was among the most restrictive in the nation.

The new law will increase the criminal statute of limitations for victims from 23 years of age to 28 after the incident of abuse occurred.

Most controversially, it will also provide a one-year window for all survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file a civil complaint against their alleged abuser, regardless of when the abuse took place. In previous versions of the legislation, the window would have applied only to private institutions. The Catholic Conference long argued that this was fundamentally unjust to survivors of public-school abuse. This year, the Conference was successful in getting the legislative sponsors to include public institutions, which led to the bishops dropping their previous opposition.

“We have long called for strengthening the Child Victims Act,” the bishops’ statement added, “and will continue to advocate for the elimination of the criminal statute of limitations, compensation programs for those who prefer it to litigation, and mandatory safe environment training for anyone who works with children, as we have implemented in the eight dioceses throughout New York State.”

In recent years, several Catholic dioceses around the country have filed for bankruptcy in states where a retroactive window has passed, allowing survivors to file lawsuits against the Church for some decade-old cases of abuse. 

The Albany Diocese has provided compensation to approximately 100 survivors of sexual abuse whose cases were beyond the statute of limitations, paying more than $9 million in direct compensation and counseling assistance to survivors. The Independent Mediation Assistance Program, which helped survivors take the first steps toward healing, was the first in the state and one of the first in the nation when introduced in 2004.

Full statement of New York State bishops.