Relates to a study on the recruitment and retention of direct support professionals working with people with developmental disabilities

1 Co-sponsor

• Joseph E. Robach

Title of bill

An act to direct 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

Purpose

The bill is intended to identify the causes of the high vacancy rates and high turnover rates being experiences by non-profit providers of supports and services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and to identify the resources necessary to maintain a quality workforce and reverse the trend toward increased vacancies and turnover in the direct support professional field.

Summary of provisions

Section 1 of the bill includes legislative findings

Section 2 of the bill requires the Commissioner of Health and the Commissioner of OPWDD to develop and issue a report identifying the causes of the increasingly high vacancy and turnover rates for direct support professionals (DSPs) working with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Section 3 of the bill requires the report to include the identification of resources necessary to attract and retain a quality workforce for DSPs working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Section 4 of the bill requires the commissioners to deliver the study to the governor and Legislative leaders by November 1, 2016

Section 5 provides for an immediate effective date

Justification

Recent surveys by voluntary agencies employing direct support professionals serving individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities indicate a high and increasing statewide vacancy rate, high and increasing staff turnover rates and increasing difficulty recruiting and retaining these valuable and essential professionals.

Current funding for these highly trained professionals is insufficient to pay a fair wage for the work these skilled professionals do, leaving these dedicated professionals in short supply.

Women and minorities are the cornerstone of the direct support professional workforce in New York State. According to recent surveys, 73 percent of direct care staff are women and 56.5 percent are either African-American, black or have Hispanic and Latino origin. It is critically important these skilled and dedicated professionals receive the fair wage they deserve for the work they do.

In order to ensure these workers receive a fair wage commensurate to the skill, training and heightened responsibilities these workers take on, and to address the unacceptably high vacancy and turnover rates, which disrupt care-giving, lessens the quality of the lives of those with developmental disabilities, and threatens health and safety, a funding mechanism needs to be established for DSPs, in order to appropriately value the work they do.

In order to quantify the factors having an adverse impact on the ability of providers of supports and services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to recruit and retain qualified staff and pay a fair wage for the work DSPs do, a study of the factors leading to the current unacceptably high vacancy rates and turn over rates needs to be performed and the resources necessary to reverse these trends needs to be identified, in order to allow state policy makers to provide sufficient state funds to support these individuals as part of the FY18 State budget process.

Legislative history

New Bill

Fiscal implications

To be determined

Local fiscal implications

None

Effective date

Immediately