STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 1945 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY January 14, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. ROSENTHAL -- read once and referred to the Committee on Higher Education AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to authorizing veterina- rians to provide free veterinary care services to individuals in shel- ters to receive mandatory continuing education credit The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 2 of section 6704-a of the 2 education law is amended by adding a new subparagraph (iii) to read as 3 follows: 4 (iii) Self-instructional coursework may include the provision of free 5 veterinary care services to individuals receiving temporary housing 6 assistance, which shall include but not be limited to, a family shelter, 7 a shelter for adults, a hotel providing temporary emergency shelter, an 8 emergency apartment, a domestic violence shelter, a runaway and homeless 9 youth shelter, or a safe house for refugees, provided that such services 10 be administered at practices, facilities and properties that are appro- 11 priately equipped and staffed to provide such services. The department 12 may offset up to three hours of the requisite number of hours of contin- 13 uing education required pursuant to this paragraph, at a rate of one- 14 half of one hour of continuing education for each hour of free veteri- 15 nary care services. 16 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall 17 have become a law. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD00740-01-5