Social Services Law § 393 · Title 1. Care and Protection of Children
Consideration of blindness during guardianship, custody or adoption proceedings
Text — Law content up to date as of October 2, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
* § 393. Consideration of blindness during guardianship, custody or adoption proceedings. 1. The department may not deny, decide or oppose a petition or request for guardianship, custody or visitation under this article solely on the basis that the petitioner, parent, guardian or custodian is blind. The blindness of the petitioner, parent, guardian or custodian shall be considered relevant only to the extent that the blindness affects the best interests of the child whose guardianship, custody or visitation is the subject of the petition.
2. The department shall not seek custody or guardianship of a child solely because the child's parent, guardian or custodian is blind. The blindness of the parent, guardian or custodian shall be considered relevant only to the extent that the blindness affects the best interests of the child whose guardianship, custody or visitation is the subject of the petition.
3. As used in this section, "blind" or "blindness" means:
a. vision that is 20/200 or less in the best corrected eye; or
b. vision that subtends an angle of not greater than twenty degrees in the best corrected eye.
* NB There are 2 § 393's
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 2, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/SOS393%2A2
- Text hash
- sha256 fcd5a1e085d421aa09644de1140ef7de7c2fdc55feb5214d6bef7ca2c7412539
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
- The Senate's note "There are 2 § 393's": the Legislature enacted more than one unit under that number; each is printed.
- The Legislature enacted more than one section numbered 393; this is number 2 as the Senate prints them.
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.