(1) Direct support professionals play a critical 
role in the care provided to children and adults with 
intellectual and developmental disabilities. 
(2) Providers of home- and community-based 
services are experiencing difficulty hiring and retain-
ing direct support professionals, with a national 
turnover rate of 45 percent as identified in a 2016 
study by the National Core Indicators. 
(3) High turnover rates can lead to instability 
for individuals receiving services, and this may result 
in individuals not receiving enough personalized care 
to help them reach their goals for independent liv-
ing. 
(4) A discrete occupational category for direct 
support professionals will help States and the Fed-
eral Government— 
(A) better interpret the shortage in the 
labor market of direct support professionals; 
and 
(B) collect data on the high turnover rate 
of direct support professionals. 
(5) The Standard Occupational Classification 
system is designed and maintained solely for statis-
tical purposes, and is used by Federal statistical 
agencies to classify workers and jobs into occupa-
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tional categories for the purpose of collecting, calcu-
lating, analyzing, or disseminating data. 
(6) Occupations in the Standard Occupational 
Classification system are classified based on work 
performed and, in some cases, on the skills, edu-
cation, or training needed to perform the work. 
(7) Establishing a discrete occupational cat-
egory for direct support professionals will— 
(A) correct an inaccurate representation in 
the Standard Occupational Classification sys-
tem; 
(B) recognize these professionals for the 
critical and often times overlooked work that 
they perform for the disabled community, which 
work is different than the work of a home 
health aide or a personal care aide; and 
(C) better align the Standard Occupational 
Classification system with related classification 
systems. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF DIRECT SUPPORT PERSONNEL. 
In this Act, the term ‘‘direct support personnel’’ 
means an individual who, in exchange for compensation, 
provides services to an individual with a disability (as de-
fined in section 3 of the Americans with Disabilities Act 
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of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12102)) that promote such individ-
ual’s independence, including— 
(1) services that enhance independence and 
community inclusion for such individual, including 
traveling with such individual, attending and assist-
ing such individual while visiting friends and family, 
shopping, or socializing; 
(2) services such as coaching and supporting 
such individual in communicating needs, achieving 
self-expression, pursuing personal goals, living inde-
pendently, and participating actively in employment 
or voluntary roles in the community; 
(3) services such as providing assistance with 
activities of daily living (such as feeding, bathing, 
toileting, and ambulation) and with tasks such as 
meal preparation, shopping, light housekeeping, and 
laundry; or 
(4) services that support such individual at 
home, work, school, or any other community setting. 
SEC. 4. REVISION OF STANDARD OCCUPATIONAL CLASSI-
FICATION SYSTEM. 
The Director of the Office of Management and Budg-
et shall, not later than 30 days after the date of enactment 
of this Act, revise the Standard Occupational Classifica-
tion system to establish a separate code (31–1123) for di-
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rect support professionals as a healthcare support occupa-
tion. Such code shall be a subset of 31–1120, which in-
cludes home health aides and personal care aides. 
Æ 
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