New York Senate Bill S00164 Latest Draft

   
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 164 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE (Prefiled) January 8, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. RAMOS -- 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 creating the child care professionals loan forgiveness incentive program The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 605 of the education law is amended by adding a new 2 subdivision 13 to read as follows: 3 13. New York state child care professionals loan forgiveness incentive 4 program. a. Purpose. The president shall grant student loan forgiveness 5 awards for the purpose of increasing the number of child care profes- 6 sionals employed in New York state. Such awards shall be made on a 7 competitive basis to applicants who have graduated from an institution 8 of higher education approved or registered by the regents. 9 b. Eligibility. (1) To be eligible to receive an award pursuant to 10 this subdivision, an applicant must be a resident of New York state who 11 has graduated from an institution of higher education and has an 12 outstanding student loan debt. 13 (2) Such awards shall be made annually to eligible applicants who, 14 prior to accepting such awards, engaged in twelve months of service as a 15 child care professional in a child day care facility licensed or regis- 16 tered pursuant to the social services law or the administrative code of 17 the city of New York and such awards shall not exceed an amount of twen- 18 ty-five thousand dollars and shall be made to such applicants, pursuant 19 to the following schedule: 20 (i) twenty percent to be awarded upon the completion of the first 21 year; 22 (ii) twenty percent to be awarded upon the completion of the second 23 year; EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD00676-01-5 
 S. 164 2 1 (iii) twenty percent to be awarded upon the completion of the third 2 year; 3 (iv) twenty percent to be awarded upon the completion of the fourth 4 year; and 5 (v) twenty percent to be awarded upon the completion of the fifth 6 year. 7 (3) Recipients of such awards shall be eligible to apply for other 8 awards established under this chapter. 9 c. Duration. Such awards shall be made annually, for no more than five 10 years, to applicants who remain eligible under this subdivision and who 11 are certified as such by the corporation. 12 d. Amount. The corporation shall grant such awards within the amounts 13 appropriated for such purpose and based on the availability of funds in 14 an amount not to exceed the total cost of the completion of such degree 15 programs. Cost of completion of such degrees shall include: tuition at 16 an institution of higher education approved or registered by the regents 17 and other required or reasonable student fees. 18 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.