Senate Bill S7930

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S7930

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation
to psychological assessments of employees who have regular contact
with persons with developmental disabilities

 PURPOSE :

This bill would require all providers of services to persons with
developmental disabilities to have employees, which have regular
contact with such persons, to complete an individualized psychological
assessment.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section one amends the mental hygiene law by adding a new section
16.39 which establishes every provider of services who contracts with
or is approved or otherwise authorized by the office to provide
services to the developmentally disabled shall require the completion
of an individualized psychological assessment of each employee who
will have regular contact with the clients of such provider.

Section two establishes the effective date.

 JUSTIFICATION :

              

The Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) has a
long standing commitment to coordinating and providing essential
services to New Yorkers with developmental disabilities. In order to
provide the utmost care, OPWDD established standards of excellence in
their hiring practices to establish a workforce committed to providing
individualized quality care and services. Through an agency directive,
state employees of OPWDD are required to undergo a psychological
assessment; however, this requirement does not extend to the network
of 750 not-for-profit organizations providing approximately 80 percent
of the services throughout the state. This bill seeks to establish
parity among all systems of providers by requiring a psychological
assessment of all potential employees of not-for-profit organizations
contracted or authorized by OPWDD to provide services to the
developmentally disabled.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

New Bill

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

None noted.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeeding the
date on which it shall have become a law.