Enacts the "licensure incentives and fee-support for testing (LIFT) act"; establishes the social work licensure examination voucher program to provide low-income individuals vouchers to cover the cost of the examination, regardless of the number of examination attempts, required for licensure as a licensed master social worker or licensed clinical social worker.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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9125--A
IN SENATE
February 5, 2026
___________
Introduced by Sens. SUTTON, CHAN, FERNANDEZ, SALAZAR, SEPULVEDA, WEBB --
read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to
the Committee on Higher Education -- committee discharged, bill
amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit-
tee
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to enacting the "licen-
sure incentives and fee-support for testing (LIFT) act"
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "licensure
2 incentives and fee-support for testing (LIFT) act".
3 § 2. The education law is amended by adding a new section 7711 to read
4 as follows:
5 § 7711. Social work licensure examination voucher program. 1. The
6 department shall establish, within the amount available by appropri-
7 ation, a program to provide vouchers to eligible low-income individuals
8 to cover the cost of the examination, regardless of the number of exam-
9 ination attempts, required for licensure as a licensed master social
10 worker or licensed clinical social worker.
11 2. To be eligible for a voucher under this section, an applicant
12 shall: (a) be a resident of the state; (b) be eligible to sit for the
13 licensed master social worker or licensed clinical social worker exam-
14 ination; and (c) demonstrate annual income at or below two hundred fifty
15 percent of the federal poverty level as updated periodically in the
16 federal register by the United States department of health and human
17 services pursuant to subsection two of section nine thousand nine
18 hundred two of title forty-two of the United States code.
19 3. The department shall promulgate rules and regulations necessary to
20 implement the provisions of this section.
21 § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
22 it shall have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD14592-05-6
