A 6681: Requires mental health facilities to have a staff member specifically trained in filing assisted outpatient treatment petitions and to have patients with mental illness not released from such facilities until they have been registered for available services.
What A 6681 does, verified January 8, 2026
The proposed law aims to improve the treatment of individuals with mental illness in New York. The law requires certain facilities, including mental health hospitals and correctional facilities, to have a staff member trained in filing assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) petitions. This staff member will be responsible for counseling individuals with a history of mental illness and ensuring they are registered with available services upon release. The law also ensures that individuals with mental illness are not released from these facilities until they have been counseled and registered with services. This will help to prevent re-arrest and re-incarceration, and provide individuals with the support they need to manage their mental health.
Bill journey
1IntroducedCurrent
2In CommitteePending
3First Chamber FloorPending
4Second ChamberPending
5GovernorPending
6ChapteredPending
Last action: referred to mental health (2026-01-07)Alert me
Quick answers about A 6681
- What is the current status of A 6681?
- As of January 8, 2026, A 6681 is recorded as "Introduced": it has been introduced and is waiting for its first committee hearing or floor vote. The last recorded action, on January 7, 2026, was "referred to mental health".
- Did A 6681 pass?
- Not yet. A 6681 has been introduced and has not passed either house.
- Who wrote A 6681, and where is it now?
- A 6681 was authored by Asm. Michael Tannousis. Its committee of record is Assembly Mental Health. It is filed under MHY, alongside 61 other New York MHY bills this session.
Author and sponsors
Full contact details, staff, and committees with Connect, $16/moUnlockRecent actions2 total · showing 2
| Jan. 07, 2026 | referred to mental health |
| Mar. 06, 2025 | referred to mental health |
Latest bill textIntroduced version, March 7, 2025 · 380 words
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 6681 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY March 7, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. TANNOUSIS -- read once and referred to the Committee on Mental Health AN ACT to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation to requiring certain facilities to have a staff member specifically trained in filing assisted outpatient treatment petitions The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 9.60 of the mental hygiene law is amended by adding 2 a new subdivision (t) to read as follows: 3 (t) (1) The commissioner, in consultation with the commissioner of 4 health and the commissioner of corrections and community supervision, 5 shall require hospitals licensed or operated by the office of mental 6 health operating a program pursuant to subdivision (b) of this section, 7 hospitals subject to the provisions of article twenty-eight of the 8 public health law and correctional facilities as defined in section two 9 of the correction law to have a staff member specifically trained in 10 filing assisted outpatient treatment petitions. 11 (2) When an individual being released from a mental health hospital 12 under section 7.17 of this chapter, a hospital subject to the provisions 13 of article twenty-eight of the public health law, or a correctional 14 facility as defined in section two of the correction law, if such indi- 15 vidual is found to have a history of mental illness, or the individual 16 is determined during a court ordered mandatory evaluation to suffer from 17 mental illness, such individual shall not be released until they have 18 been counseled on and registered with services which shall be available 19 to such individual once they are released. 20 § 2. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall 21 have become a law; provided, however the amendments made to section 9.60 22 of the mental hygiene law made by section one of this act shall not 23 affect the repeal of such section and shall be deemed repealed there- 24 with. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD09711-01-5
Text of A 6681 as introduced, from the official record. Connect Plus keeps every version and highlights what changed.Compare versions