BILL NUMBER: S8290 Revised 10/29/2025
SPONSOR: RYAN C
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to establishing an
early intervention loan repayment program
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To establish a loan repayment program for early intervention providers
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends Article 25 of the public health law to add a new
section 2560 establishing a loan repayment program for Early Inter-
vention providers who agree to serve families in-person in underserved
areas for a period of three consecutive years. This section provides a
comprehensive definition for the term "underserved areas." This section
also provides that loan repayment awards shall only be used to repay the
total qualifying outstanding loan debt of the Early Intervention provid-
er. This section also establishes a distribution scheme for loan repay-
ment for the required three-years of service. In addition, this section
provides that in the event that the three-year commitment is not
fulfilled, the recipient shall be responsible for the repayment of
amounts paid. The Commissioner may postpone, Change, or waive the
service obligation and repayment amounts where there is a compelling
need or hardship. This section also provides for the appointment of a
stakeholder workgroup by the department from recommendations made by the
associations representing Early Intervention providers within three
months of bill approval to streamline the application process for the
loan repayment program. This section further provides for the real
location and distribution of any undistributed funds.
Section 2 provides effective date as April 1, 2024.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
New York's Early Intervention Program serves 70,000 developmentally sand
learning-disabled infants and toddlers, from birth to three years old.
On February 28, 2023, the State Comptroller issued an Audit Report on
the Early Intervention Program (Report 2021-S-25). This report found
that most children eligible for Early Intervention were not able to
receive the necessary services that their evaluations called for. Addi-
tionally, over a quarter of the children who were evaluated and deter-
mined to need Early Intervention services experienced significant delays
before the start of their services. Three thousand eligible children
never received services at all. The Report indicated that minority
communities suffered the most from the lack of services.
Growing waitlists and workforce challenges including inefficient provid-
er capacity are key reasons why services are not always provided in a
timely manner. Since 2019, over 2,500 therapists have left the Early
Intervention Program due to insufficient rates of pay. To alleviate this
issue, this bill would establish a loan forgiveness program for early
intervention providers who work in-person in underserved areas for at
least three consecutive years. Providing loan forgiveness will attract
new early intervention providers to the field and incentivize providers
to work in underserved areas. Without adequate provider capacity, thou-
sands of underserved or wholly unserved children will enter the public
school system with unremedied disabilities and need both preschool
special education services and school age special education services,
the cost of which far exceeds the cost of Early Intervention. To
compound this issue, disabilities requiring early intervention are
almost always time sensitive, and failure to provide Early Intervention
services in a timely manner can have lasting effects on the children who
do not receive such services. This bill is necessary to ensure that
there are enough skilled providers in the Early Intervention field to
ensure that children are not left behind due to a lack of available
services.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A8455 of 2023 and 2024, referred to health
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.