S 713: Enacts the "unique abilities employment act" relating to the employment of persons with developmental disabilities by school districts.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 713 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE (Prefiled) January 8, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. RHOADS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions AN ACT to amend the civil service law, in relation to the employment of persons with developmental disabilities by school districts The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as 2 the "unique abilities employment act". 3 § 2. The civil service law is amended by adding a new section 55-d to 4 read as follows: 5 § 55-d. Employment of persons with developmental disabilities by 6 school districts. 1. The commission may determine up to seventeen 7 hundred positions in a school district with duties such as can be 8 performed by persons with developmental disabilities, including intel- 9 lectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, autism spectrum 10 disorders, Prader-Willi syndrome and other neurological impairments who 11 are found otherwise qualified to perform satisfactorily the duties of 12 any such position. Positions designated to be filled pursuant to this 13 section may be filled on a full-time or part-time basis. Upon such 14 determination the said positions shall be classified in the noncompet- 15 itive class, and may be filled only by persons who shall have been 16 certified by the employee health service of the department or the office 17 for people with developmental disabilities, as being a person with a 18 developmental disability. The number of persons appointed pursuant to 19 this section shall not exceed seventeen hundred. 20 2. Those employees hired pursuant to subdivision one of this section, 21 shall be afforded the same opportunity to take promotional examinations 22 as provided to employees in the competitive class. 23 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD02648-01-5