New York Senate Bill S02247 Latest Draft

   
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 2247 2023-2024 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE January 19, 2023 ___________ Introduced by Sen. WEIK -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Investigations and Govern- ment Operations AN ACT to amend the civil rights law, in relation to requiring certain healthcare facilities to develop plans to provide reasonable accommo- dations for service animals The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 47-b of the civil rights law is amended by adding a 2 new subdivision 8 to read as follows: 3 8. Each hospital or healthcare facility that provides emergency 4 services shall develop a plan to provide a reasonable accommodation for 5 service animals brought into such facility during an emergency or any 6 time that a patient needs medical treatment and such service animal 7 cannot be with such patient. Such reasonable accommodation shall 8 include, but not be limited to, a space or area to house such service 9 animal until such time as a family member, designated person, or service 10 animal agency can collect such service animal or such service animal can 11 be reunited with the patient at the hospital or healthcare facility. For 12 purposes of this subdivision, "service animal" shall mean any animal 13 that has been partnered with a person who has a disability and has been 14 trained or is being trained, by a qualified person, to aid or guide a 15 person with a disability. 16 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after 17 it shall have become a law. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD04981-01-3