Bill Text: NY S07677 | 2015-2016 | General Assembly | Amended

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Bill Title: Directs the commissioner of the office for people with developmental disabilities to study and report on the recruitment and retention of direct support professionals working with people with developmental disabilities by November 1, 2016.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-06-15 - SUBSTITUTED BY A10409 [S07677 Detail]

Download: New_York-2015-S07677-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                         7677--A
                    IN SENATE
                                      May 12, 2016
                                       ___________
        Introduced  by  Sen.  ORTT  --  read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Mental Health and Develop-
          mental Disabilities -- committee  discharged,  bill  amended,  ordered
          reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
        AN ACT to direct the commissioner of the office for people with develop-
          mental  disabilities  to  study  and  report  on  the  recruitment and
          retention of direct support professionals  working  with  people  with
          developmental disabilities
          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
     1    Section 1. Legislative findings. The  Legislature  hereby  finds  that
     2  Direct  Support  Professionals  (DSPs) are the lynchpin of the system of
     3  supports for people with developmental disabilities. These dedicated and
     4  skilled direct support professionals allow more than 100,000 New Yorkers
     5  to lead safe, fulfilling lives.  More than 90% of all funding to support
     6  the salaries of these highly trained professionals comes  from  Medicaid
     7  or other state funds.
     8    The  Legislature  further  finds  the current funding for these highly
     9  trained professionals is insufficient to pay a fair wage  for  the  work
    10  these skilled professionals do, leaving these dedicated workers in short
    11  supply.    Recent  surveys  by voluntary agencies employing these valued
    12  professionals indicate a high and  increasing  statewide  vacancy  rate,
    13  high  and  increasing  staff  turnover  rates  and increasing difficulty
    14  recruiting and retaining these valuable employees.
    15    The Legislature further  finds  that  women  and  minorities  are  the
    16  cornerstone  of  the  direct  support professional workforce in New York
    17  State. According to recent surveys, 73 percent of direct care staff  are
    18  women and 56.5 percent are either African-American, black or of Hispanic
    19  and  Latino  origin.  It  is critically important that these skilled and
    20  dedicated professionals receive the fair wage they deserve, for the work
    21  they do.
    22    The Legislature further finds that in his April 2012 Report to  Gover-
    23  nor  Cuomo,  Clarence Sundram, the Governor's Special Advisor on Vulner-
    24  able Persons, found that "a strong, well trained  and  committed  direct
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD15398-02-6
        S. 7677--A                          2
     1  support  staff"  is essential to safeguard and care for vulnerable indi-
     2  viduals. In order to attract and retain such a workforce, and to  ensure
     3  appropriate  recruitment,  job  training,  coaching,  motivation and the
     4  inculcating of core agency mission values in these front line workers by
     5  agency supervisors and managers as envisioned by the Sundram report, the
     6  Legislature  finds  not  for profit agencies must be given the resources
     7  needed in order to pay these workers and front-line managers and  super-
     8  visors a fair wage consistent with the responsibilities and duties these
     9  individuals perform.
    10    The  Legislature further finds that as a result of fiscal difficulties
    11  the state faced beginning in 2009,  the  state  has  failed  to  provide
    12  appropriate  funding  to  allow not for profit providers to pay the fair
    13  wages these dedicated and skilled professionals  deserve  for  the  work
    14  they do.
    15    The  Legislature  further  finds that in order to begin to address the
    16  wage losses sustained by these dedicated professionals, and in order  to
    17  ensure  these  workers  receive a fair wage commensurate to their skill,
    18  training and heightened responsibilities, and to address the  unaccepta-
    19  bly high vacancy and turnover rates, which disrupts care-giving, lessens
    20  the  quality  of  the lives of those with intellectual and developmental
    21  disabilities, and threatens health and safety, a funding mechanism needs
    22  to be established for DSPs in order to appropriately value the work they
    23  do.
    24    The Legislature further finds it is necessary to quantify the  factors
    25  having  an  adverse  impact  on the ability of providers of supports and
    26  services for people  with  developmental  disabilities  to  recruit  and
    27  retain  qualified staff and on their ability to provide the supports and
    28  services necessary for their health, safety and happiness and  an  iden-
    29  tification of the resources necessary.
    30    §  2.  The  commissioner  of  the office for people with developmental
    31  disabilities shall develop and issue a report enumerating the causes  of
    32  the  high  and  increasing  turnover and vacancy rates of Direct Support
    33  Professionals (DSPs) working with people with intellectual and  develop-
    34  mental  disabilities.  Such  report  shall  include an assessment of all
    35  factors which are causing the vacancy and turnover rates of providers of
    36  supports and services for individuals  with  intellectual  and  develop-
    37  mental disabilities to raise.
    38    § 3. The report shall include identification of resources necessary to
    39  attract  and retain a quality workforce, and the fiscal resources neces-
    40  sary to maintain a quality workforce in sufficient number to assure  the
    41  health  and safety of individuals with developmental disabilities and to
    42  reverse the unacceptably high vacancy and turnover rates.
    43    § 4. On or before November 1, 2016, the commissioner of the office for
    44  people  with  developmental  disabilities  shall  complete   the   study
    45  conducted pursuant to sections two and three of this act and shall ther-
    46  eafter  deliver  a copy of the findings of the study and any legislative
    47  recommendations he or she deems to be necessary, to  the  governor,  the
    48  temporary president of the senate, and the speaker of the assembly.
    49    § 5. This act shall take effect immediately.