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

New York Senate Bill 7677 (Prior Session Legislation)

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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-Introduced.html

                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                          7677
                    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
        AN ACT to direct the commissioner of health and the commissioner of  the
          office  for people with developmental disabilities to study and report
          on the recruitment and retention of direct support professionals work-
          ing 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
    25  support staff" is essential to safeguard and care for  vulnerable  indi-
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD15398-01-6

        S. 7677                             2
     1  viduals.  In order to attract and retain such a workforce, and to ensure
     2  appropriate recruitment, job  training,  coaching,  motivation  and  the
     3  inculcating of core agency mission values in these front line workers by
     4  agency supervisors and managers as envisioned by the Sundram report, the
     5  Legislature  finds  not  for profit agencies must be given the resources
     6  needed in order to pay these workers and front-line managers and  super-
     7  visors a fair wage consistent with the responsibilities and duties these
     8  individuals perform.
     9    The  Legislature further finds that as a result of fiscal difficulties
    10  the state faced beginning in 2009,  the  State  has  failed  to  provide
    11  appropriate  funding  to  allow not for profit providers to pay the fair
    12  wages these dedicated and skilled professionals  deserve  for  the  work
    13  they do.
    14    The  Legislature  further  finds that in order to begin to address the
    15  wage losses sustained by these dedicated professionals, and in order  to
    16  ensure  these  workers  receive a fair wage commensurate to their skill,
    17  training and heightened responsibilities, and to address the  unaccepta-
    18  bly high vacancy and turnover rates, which disrupts care-giving, lessens
    19  the  quality  of  the lives of those with intellectual and developmental
    20  disabilities, and threatens health and safety, a funding mechanism needs
    21  to be established for DSPs in order to appropriately value the work they
    22  do.
    23    The Legislature further finds it is necessary to quantify the  factors
    24  having  an  adverse  impact  on the ability of providers of supports and
    25  services for people  with  developmental  disabilities  to  recruit  and
    26  retain  qualified staff and on their ability to provide the supports and
    27  services necessary for their health, safety and happiness and  an  iden-
    28  tification of the resources necessary.
    29    § 2. The commissioner of health and the commissioner of the office for
    30  people  with developmental disabilities shall develop and issue a report
    31  enumerating the causes of the high and increasing turnover  and  vacancy
    32  rates  of  Direct  Support Professionals (DSPs) working with people with
    33  intellectual and developmental disabilities. Such report  shall  include
    34  an  assessment of all factors which are causing the vacancy and turnover
    35  rates of providers of supports and services for individuals with  intel-
    36  lectual and developmental disabilities to raise.
    37    § 3. The report shall include identification of resources necessary to
    38  attract  and retain a quality workforce, and the fiscal resources neces-
    39  sary to maintain a quality workforce in sufficient number to assure  the
    40  health  and safety of individuals with developmental disabilities and to
    41  reverse the unacceptably high vacancy and turnover rates.
    42    § 4. On or before November 1, 2016, the commissioner of health and the
    43  commissioner of the office for people  with  developmental  disabilities
    44  shall complete the study conducted pursuant to sections two and three of
    45  this  act  and  shall  thereafter  deliver a copy of the findings of the
    46  study and any legislative recommendations they deem to be necessary,  to
    47  the  governor, the temporary president of the senate, and the speaker of
    48  the assembly.
    49    § 5. This act shall take effect immediately.