Senate Bill S3824

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S3824

 TITLE OF BILL :

An act to amend the labor law, in relation to the preservation of
eligibility for unemployment insurance benefits for persons
participating in training programs leading to becoming a registered
professional nurse or certified teacher


 PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL :

Allows unemployment insurance claimants, attending certain teacher and
nurse training programs to participate in the 599 training program.

 SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS :

Section 1 amends the Labor Law to allow unemployment insurance
claimants, attending forty-eight month training programs designed to
educate the claimant to become a registered professional nurse or a
certified teacher, to participate in the 599 unemployment insurance
program.

Section 2 contains the effective date of the act.

 JUSTIFICATION :
              

Under current law, unemployed workers who participate in the training
programs that require more than twenty-four months to complete are not
allowed to participate in the 599 unemployment insurance program.
Claimants who are approved for the 599 program are not required to be
available for or work while attending an approved training program.
When funding is available, some claimants participating in the 599
program are also entitled to additional unemployment benefits if their
regular benefits expire.

Today, there is a statewide shortage of nurses and teachers. As the
average age of both nurses and teachers keeps increasing, retirement
will cause an even greater shortage in the upcoming years. In
addition, the number of registered nurse graduations has been
declining annually, further contributing to the shortage and
negatively impacting the quality and availability of patient care in
New York State. Also, the number of students graduating with teaching
degrees will be insufficient to refill those positions of teachers who
leave employment in the upcoming years, resulting in schools with
inadequate ratios of qualified teachers per students.

Since most teacher and registered nurse training programs require more
than twenty-four months to complete, unemployment insurance claimants
attending these programs are not eligible to participate in the 599
program. This legislation would provide an incentive for unemployed
workers to enter nurse and teacher training programs.

 PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :
This is a new bill.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :
None.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect immediately.