STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3759
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 29, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. CLEARE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Aging
AN ACT to amend the elder law, in relation to social model adult day
services programs
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 215 of the elder law, paragraph (b) of subdivision
2 1 as amended by chapter 296 of the laws of 2021 and paragraph (c) of
3 subdivision 2 as amended by chapter 63 of the laws of 2022, is amended
4 to read as follows:
5 § 215. Social model adult day services programs. 1. Definitions. As
6 used in this section:
7 (a) "Advisory committee for the aging" shall mean the advisory commit-
8 tee for the aging established pursuant to section two hundred ten of
9 this title.
10 (b) "Social adult day services" shall mean a program providing a vari-
11 ety of long term care services to functionally impaired individuals,
12 whether due to physical or cognitive impairments, in a congregate,
13 community, or home setting and pursuant to a person-centered service
14 plan.
15 (c) "Designated agency" shall mean any agency which is either a unit
16 of county government, the city of New York, or the governing body or
17 council of an Indian tribal reservation, or a private not-for-profit
18 agency organized or existing pursuant to the not-for-profit corporation
19 law, which has been designated as an area agency on aging by the state
20 office for the aging pursuant to the federal older Americans act of
21 1965, as amended.
22 (d) "Functionally impaired" shall mean a person who needs the assist-
23 ance of another person in at least one of the following activities of
24 daily living: toileting, mobility, transferring, or eating; or who needs
25 supervision due to cognitive and/or psycho-social impairment.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08142-01-5
S. 3759 2
1 (e) "Social adult day care" shall mean a program providing a variety
2 of comprehensive services to functionally impaired elderly persons as
3 defined in regulations established by the director.
4 2. Duties of the director. (a) The director is authorized and directed
5 to promulgate rules and regulations, establishing standards and require-
6 ments with regard to the operation of all social adult day care programs
7 [receiving funding pursuant to this article] regardless of whether the
8 program receives funding pursuant to this article, other public funding,
9 or private funding. For a program subject to oversight by both the
10 office pursuant to this section and another state agency, the rules and
11 regulations of the other state agency shall take precedence if there is
12 duplication to the rules and regulations promulgated by the director.
13 The director shall establish a method for a program to notify the office
14 of such duplication. Such standards and requirements shall include, but
15 not be limited to:
16 (1) services to be provided;
17 (2) admission criteria;
18 (3) participant cost-sharing;
19 (4) assessment and enrollment;
20 (5) staffing;
21 (6) monitoring and evaluation of programs; and
22 (7) any other standards or requirements which the director determines
23 to be appropriate.
24 (b) Rules and regulations promulgated by the director pursuant to this
25 subdivision shall also direct how social adult day care will be included
26 in the planning currently required of designated agencies.
27 (c) The director shall develop materials for employees and volunteers
28 of programs providing social adult day services or social adult day care
29 on the signs and symptoms of elder abuse, which shall include identity
30 theft. Such materials shall include, but not be limited to, ways to
31 discuss suspected elder abuse with seniors where abuse is suspected and
32 resources to which seniors may be referred for counseling, shelter, or
33 other assistance.
34 (d) The director shall inspect each social adult day care program
35 prior to operating and no less than once every five years. Such
36 inspection shall ensure that the program has met the standards and
37 requirements established by the director, including but not limited to a
38 determination that the program has the necessary physical capacity to
39 provide services for the number of people enrolled in such program. Upon
40 successful completion of such inspection, the program shall be issued a
41 certificate of inspection by the director. If a program is inspected and
42 does not meet the standards and requirements established by the direc-
43 tor, such program shall be given ninety days to correct any deficiencies
44 as determined by the director.
45 (e) By January first, two thousand thirty-one, and annually thereaft-
46 er, the director shall collect and maintain for inspection by designated
47 agencies the self-certification submitted by each program pursuant to
48 subdivision five of this section.
49 3. Funding for social adult day care programs.
50 (a) Beginning with amounts appropriated in the two thousand five
51 fiscal year, the director shall, within amounts appropriated therefor,
52 make grants available on a competitive basis to not-for-profit or local
53 government operated social adult day care programs for functionally
54 impaired elderly persons, with consideration of regional needs and a
55 broad array of models. Such grants shall equal seventy-five percent of
56 allowable expenditures for approved services pursuant to this section;
S. 3759 3
1 provided however that the director may accept certain in-kind equiv-
2 alents to comprise the required twenty-five percent match; and provided
3 further, in the case of providers which can demonstrate financial need,
4 the director may make grants of up to one hundred percent of allowable
5 expenditures pursuant to this section.
6 (b) Beginning with the first year that the annual increase in amounts
7 appropriated for the purposes of this section shall equal at least five
8 million dollars, for that increase and all increases thereafter, the
9 director shall distribute such increases to designated agencies for the
10 provision of social adult day care programs for functionally impaired
11 elderly persons based on a formula developed by the office which shall
12 consider at least the following: the number of elderly persons in the
13 area; and the number of functionally impaired elderly persons in the
14 area as determined by the office. Base funding established under para-
15 graph (a) of this subdivision shall continue to be distributed as
16 provided in paragraph (a) of this subdivision. Within the amounts appro-
17 priated therefor, designated agencies authorized to provide social adult
18 day care under this section shall be eligible for reimbursement from the
19 state for seventy-five percent of allowable expenditures for approved
20 social adult day care services pursuant to this section up to a level
21 authorized by the director; provided however, that certain in-kind
22 equivalents may comprise the twenty-five percent match.
23 (c) The office may use up to three percent of the total of any funding
24 appropriated pursuant to this section for administration.
25 (d) The designated agency may use up to three percent of the total of
26 any funds provided to the designated agency pursuant to this section for
27 administration.
28 4. Funding eligibility. (a) Funding pursuant to this section shall not
29 be available to social adult day care programs for services provided to
30 elderly persons who are eligible for or receiving comparable services to
31 those defined in this section pursuant to title eighteen, nineteen or
32 twenty of the federal social security act, or any other government
33 program. In addition, funding pursuant to this section shall not
34 supplant any existing public or private funding for social adult day
35 care programs.
36 (b) No social adult day care program shall be eligible to receive
37 funding pursuant to this section or any other public funding for social
38 adult day care programs until they have received a certification of
39 inspection, as defined in paragraph (d) of subdivision two of this
40 section, by the director.
41 (c) Notwithstanding paragraph (b) of this subdivision, any existing
42 social adult day care program receiving funding pursuant to this section
43 or any other public funding prior to December thirty-first, two thousand
44 twenty-five shall be inspected pursuant to paragraph (d) of subdivision
45 two of this section on or before December thirty-first, two thousand
46 twenty-thirty. Until an initial inspection is conducted, an existing
47 social adult day care program receiving funding pursuant to this section
48 or any other public funding shall not require a certificate of
49 inspection to be eligible to receive such funding.
50 (d) A social adult day care program that does not correct deficiencies
51 as required by paragraph (d) of subdivision two of this section may no
52 longer be eligible for funding as determined by the director.
53 5. Self-certification. Beginning January first, two thousand thirty-
54 one, each social adult day care program shall conduct an annual self-
55 certification of its administrative, fiscal, and programmatic oper-
56 ations, including feedback from participants and caregivers and submit
S. 3759 4
1 such self-certification to the director. Failure to submit such self-
2 certification shall result in the program being ineligible to receive
3 public funding.
4 6. Program identification and marketing. No person or entity shall
5 identify or market themselves as providing a social adult day care
6 program unless they meet the requirements of this section.
7 7. Report of director. The director, after consultation with [his or
8 her] such director's advisory committee, affected state agencies, any
9 affected municipal agencies and persons involved in providing social
10 adult day care services, shall make a report, on or before December
11 thirty-first, two thousand five, to the governor, the temporary presi-
12 dent of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the chair of the senate
13 standing committee on aging and the chair of the assembly standing
14 committee on aging on the projected costs and benefits of establishing
15 uniform standards and requirements with regard to operation of social
16 adult day care services in the state. The report shall include the
17 director's findings, recommendations and estimate of the fiscal impli-
18 cations of regulating social adult day care services in the state.
19 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
