S 2662: Establishes the New York state dental faculty loan forgiveness incentive program.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 2662 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE January 22, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. COMRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Higher Education AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to the New York state dental faculty loan forgiveness incentive program The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 679-k 2 to read as follows: 3 § 679-k. New York state dental faculty loan forgiveness incentive 4 program. 1. Purpose. a. Process. The president shall grant student loan 5 forgiveness awards for the purpose of increasing the number of educators 6 and adjunct clinical faculty teaching in the field of dental education 7 in New York state. Such awards shall be made on a competitive basis as 8 promulgated by the corporation through rules and regulations, to appli- 9 cants who are licensed dentists with previous clinical experience in 10 dentistry who have completed coursework that qualifies them as dental 11 faculty or adjunct clinical faculty. The president may contract with a 12 third party for purposes of administering the competitive process 13 required under this paragraph. 14 b. Eligibility. To be eligible for an award pursuant to this section, 15 applicants shall: 16 (i) be licensed as a dentist; 17 (ii) have an outstanding student loan debt from a dental degree 18 program; 19 (iii) have taken coursework that qualified them as dental faculty or 20 adjunct clinical faculty; 21 (iv) be employed as a faculty member at a dental school located in New 22 York state; and 23 (v) comply with subdivision five of section six hundred sixty-one of 24 this part. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD03668-01-5 
 S. 2662 2 1 c. Award. An award of forty thousand dollars shall be made annually 2 to recipients who have provided classroom or clinical instruction of not 3 less than twelve academic credit hours, or its equivalent, as dental 4 faculty or in clinical teaching service in the academic year preceding 5 the granting of the award, provided that no recipient shall receive 6 cumulative awards, pursuant to this section, in excess of one hundred 7 sixty thousand dollars. 8 d. Other awards. Award recipients shall be eligible to apply for other 9 awards. 10 e. Curriculum development. The president shall contract with a third 11 party for purposes of developing a uniform curriculum on academic 12 dentistry, which shall serve as the basis for the coursework required 13 under paragraph a of subdivision one of this section. Notwithstanding 14 any contrary provision of this section, sections one hundred twelve and 15 one hundred sixty-three of the state finance law, or any other provision 16 of law, such contract shall be awarded to an association representing 17 the New York state academic dental centers without a competitive bid or 18 request for proposal process. 19 2. Duration. Loan forgiveness awards shall be made annually to appli- 20 cants whom the corporation has certified are eligible to receive such 21 awards and have provided dental faculty or clinical dental faculty 22 services required pursuant to this article; provided that no award shall 23 be granted for more than four years. 24 3. Amount. The corporation shall grant such awards within the amounts 25 appropriated for such purpose and based on availability of funds in an 26 amount not to exceed the total cost of the student loan debt. 27 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.