Requires translation of examinations for the license to practice cosmetology into Spanish, French, Russian, or Chinese

4 Co-sponsors

• Adam Clayton Powell IV
• Naomi Rivera
• Grace Meng
• Adriano Espaillat

6 Multi-sponsors

• Vivian Cook
• Marcos Crespo
• Vanessa Gibson
• Richard Gottfried
• Nettie Mayersohn
• Harvey Weisenberg

BILL NUMBER:A9214A

Title of bill

An act to amend the general business law, in relation to requiring translation of examinations for the license to practice cosme- tology into Spanish, Russian, French, or Chinese

Purpose or general idea of the bill

This bill addresses the concerns of the language barrier for many nonspeaking English persons beginning in the cosmetology business and unable to acquire their license due to this language barrier. A translation option will be offered to them at a nominal cost.

Summary of provisions

This bill amends Section 1. Subdivision 3 of section 407 of the general business law, as amended by chapter 509 of the laws of 1992, is amended to read as follows:

3. Examinations shall be in the English Language {and}, shall be trans- lated into French, Spanish, or Chinese if requested by the prospective applicant at the time the application for license is filed, or at the discretion of the secretary, may be translated or transposed into any other language if requested by the prospective applicant and upon satis- factory proof of the need therefore provided that request for such a translated examination is made of the time of the application for license is filled. In the case of disabled persons, provisions for the alternative administration of the examination may be made, provided a request for such procedure is made of secretary a reasonable time in advance of the examination. Examinations shall be held at least quar- terly and shall be given in a least four convenient places in the state.

§ 2. Subdivision 3 of section 409 of the general business law, as amended by section 9 part B of chapter 411 of the laws 1999, is amended as follows:

3. The secretary shall receive a non-refundable fee of fifteen dollars from each person who takes a written examination pursuant to this arti- cle. The Secretary, in his or her discretion, may collect an additional fee from each person who requests the translation of the examination into any language other than the English language pursuant to the subdi- vision three of section four hundred seven of this article, provided that in no event shall the additional fee exceed fifteen dollars. Fees collected pursuant to this article shall be deposited to the credit of the business and licensing services account established pursuant to the provisions of section ninety-seventy of the state finance law.

Justification

Many people in New York State desire to work in and/or own a business in the cosmetology field however the current law for the license to operate in this filed is only offered in English and at the discretion of the secretary in other languages. Taking into consider- ation that New York State is inhabited by people from different nations the law should be changed to assist the predominant languages in this state including Spanish, Chinese and French. This translation would be available for a nominal fee to defer the cost.

Legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.