S 7375: Relates to the New York state district attorney and indigent legal services attorney loan forgiveness program; allows absence because of uniformed service, maternity/paternity, FMLA, or due to compensable injury to be creditable time.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 7375 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE April 11, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. COONEY -- 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 district attorney and indigent legal services attorney loan forgive- ness program The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Paragraph b of subdivision 2 of section 679-e of the educa- 2 tion law, as amended by section 1 of part VV of chapter 56 of the laws 3 of 2009, is amended to read as follows: 4 b. "Eligible period" means the six-year period after completion of the 5 third year and before the commencement of the tenth year of employment 6 as an eligible attorney. For purposes of this section, all periods of 7 time during which an admitted attorney was employed as an eligible 8 attorney and all periods of time during which a law school graduate 9 awaiting admission to the New York state bar was employed by a prosecut- 10 ing or criminal defense agency as permitted by section four hundred 11 eighty-four of the judiciary law shall be combined. A period of leave 12 without pay, or other periods which an eligible attorney is not in a pay 13 status shall not count toward the completion of required service period 14 reemployment. The service completion date shall be extended by the total 15 time spent in non-pay status. However, absence because of uniformed 16 service with a recognized branch of the United States military, author- 17 ized maternity/paternity, FMLA, or due to compensable injury shall be 18 considered creditable, within the sole discretion of the president, 19 toward the required service period upon reemployment. 20 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall be deemed to 21 have been in full force and effect on and after January 1, 2010. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD05901-01-5