What's happening
This bill requires the Department of Education to study and annually report on the ethnicity and multilingual status of all licensed social workers in New York.
Why it matters
Improves understanding of workforce diversity. By requiring the collection and publication of detailed data on the ethnicity and multilingual abilities of social workers, this bill helps identify gaps in representation and language access among licensed professionals.
Supports better service delivery. Knowing the linguistic and cultural backgrounds of social workers can inform policies and recruitment strategies, helping to ensure that social services are responsive to the needs of New York’s diverse communities.
Enables data-driven policymaking. Annual reporting for five years creates a consistent dataset that can be used to measure progress, address disparities, and guide decisions about education, licensing, and workforce development in the social work field.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Track Social Worker Diversity
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Referred to higher education
- Referred to higher education
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
87
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE (Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
Introduced by Sens. SEPULVEDA, FERNANDEZ -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Higher Education
AN ACT requiring the department of education to study and report on the self-identified ethnicity and multilingual status of all licensed social workers
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The department of education shall prepare a comprehensive study and report on the self-identified ethnicity and multilingual status of all licensed social workers. Such data shall be collected during the licensure and re-registration process of such individuals and then compiled in an easily readable format.
§ 2. The commissioner of education shall provide such report to the governor, the temporary president of the senate and the speaker of the assembly no later than one year after the effective date of this act. Such report shall be updated and delivered annually for a total of five years.
§ 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00652-01-5
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act requiring the department of education to study and report on the self-identified ethnicity and multilingual status of all licensed social workers
Purpose
This purpose of this bill is to increase the amount of information that we have regarding the demographic and linguistic break-downs of social workers.
Summary of provisions
Section I. Mandates the department of education to prepare a comprehen- sive study and report on the self-identified ethnicity and multilingual status of all licensed social workers.
Section 2. Indicates that the report should be completed within a year and given to the Governor, temporary president of the Senate, and Speak- er of the Assembly.
Section 3. Sets the effective date. This act shall take effect imme- diately.
Justification
A study and report on the self-identified study and report on self-iden- tified ethnicity and multilingual status would expand the states know- ledge of the different communities that our social workers are being pulled from. There is a connection between the services offered by the state and cultural and linguistic accessibility to those services.
A study would allow us to know if we are correctly and thoroughly serv- ing our community with social services. A study would allow us to iden- tify demographic imbalances that may hinder the communication between our social workers and New Yorkers in need of the service.
Legislative history
S. 462 of 2023-24; Referred to Higher Education;
S.626 of 2022: Referred to Higher Education;
S.626 of 2021: Referred to Higher Education;
S.1771 of 2020: Referred to Higher Education;
S.1771 of 2019: Referred to Higher Education;
S.8482 of 2018: Referred to Higher Education;
A.9924 of 2016: Referred to Higher Education
Fiscal implications
To be determined.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.