Assembly BillIntroduced
A 6178: Enacts Caylee's law; establishes the crime of failure to report a child's disappearance or death, a class D felony; makes exception where child dies while under the medical care of a licensed physician.
What A 6178 does, verified January 8, 2026
The bill aims to establish a new crime in New York, which requires individuals responsible for a child's care to report the child's death or disappearance within 24 hours to law enforcement. This includes parents, guardians, and caregivers of children under 18 years old. The law would make failure to report a child's death or disappearance a class D felony. The bill also provides an exception for cases where the child dies while receiving medical care from a licensed physician or a death certificate has been issued.
Bill journey
1IntroducedCurrent
2In CommitteePending
3First Chamber FloorPending
4Second ChamberPending
5GovernorPending
6ChapteredPending
Last action: referred to codes (2026-01-07)Alert me
Quick answers about A 6178
- What is the current status of A 6178?
- As of January 8, 2026, A 6178 is recorded as "Introduced": it has been introduced and is waiting for its first committee hearing or floor vote. The last recorded action, on January 7, 2026, was "referred to codes".
- Did A 6178 pass?
- Not yet. A 6178 has been introduced and has not passed either house.
- Who wrote A 6178, and where is it now?
- A 6178 was authored by Asm. Karl Brabenec. Its committee of record is Assembly Codes.
Author and sponsors
Full contact details, staff, and committees with Connect, $16/moUnlockRecent actions2 total · showing 2
| Jan. 07, 2026 | referred to codes |
| Feb. 26, 2025 | referred to codes |
Latest bill textIntroduced version, February 26, 2025 · 370 words
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 6178 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY February 26, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. BRABENEC -- read once and referred to the Commit- tee on Codes AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to establishing the crime of failure to report the death or disappearance of a child The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as 2 "Caylee's law". 3 § 2. The penal law is amended by adding a new section 260.37 to read 4 as follows: 5 § 260.37 Failure to report the death or disappearance of a child. 6 1. A person is guilty of failure to report the death or disappearance 7 of a child when: 8 (a) Such person is the parent, guardian or other person legally 9 charged with the care or custody of a child less than eighteen years old 10 and knowingly or intentionally fails to notify and report to law 11 enforcement within twenty-four hours of the death of such child, regard- 12 less of whether such death was accidental or intentional; or 13 (b) Such person is the parent, guardian or other person legally 14 charged with the care or custody of a child less than eighteen years old 15 and knowingly or intentionally fails to notify and report to law 16 enforcement within twenty-four hours of the disappearance of such child. 17 2. A person is not guilty of the provisions of this section when such 18 person engages in the conduct described in subdivision one of this 19 section and the child dies while under medical care from a duly licensed 20 physician or when a death certificate has been issued for the child. 21 Failure to report the death or disappearance of a child is a class D 22 felony. 23 § 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall 24 have become a law. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD04031-01-5
Text of A 6178 as introduced, from the official record. Connect Plus keeps every version and highlights what changed.Compare versions