2023 New York Laws › EDN - Education › Title 1 - General Provisions › Article 21 - Vocational Rehabilitation › 1004-A - Sheltered Workshops for Individuals With Developmental Disabilities, Mental Illness or a Severe Physical Handicap.

§ 1004-a.  Sheltered  workshops  for  individuals  with  developmental
  disabilities,  mental  illness  or  a  severe  physical   handicap.   1.
  Declaration  of  purpose. The conditions associated with a developmental
  disability, mental illness and severe physical handicap  are  such  that
  many   young  people,  after  laborious  training  in  the  schools  and
  otherwise, reach the point in their lives where  they  can  and  should,
  under proper and continued guidance, engage in sheltered employment. The
  effects  of  such  employment  are  salutary  in many ways. The affected
  individual is helped to become a contributing  member  of  society.  The
  state is saved the expense of his or her institutionalization in already
  overcrowded  state  schools  and  facilities.  The family retains closer
  contact with him or her and is spared the anxieties naturally  attaching
  to  separation  and institutionalization. All of these factors have also
  been  shown  to  reflect  tangible   benefit   upon   individuals   with
  developmental disabilities, mental illness or a severe physical handicap
  in  improving  his or her overall condition. The purpose of this measure
  is to specifically encourage the development, improvement and  expansion
  of  such sheltered employment facilities by non-profit agencies, so that
  the salutary effects mentioned can be expediently accomplished.
2. Special provisions relating to  individuals  with  a  developmental
  disabilities,  mental  illness or a severe physical handicap in extended
  sheltered employment in workshops. Notwithstanding any  other  provision
  of  this  article,  when  it  shall  appear  to  the satisfaction of the
  department that an individual with a  developmental  disability,  mental
  illness  or  a  severe  physical  handicap over the chronological age of
  seventeen years can reasonably be expected to benefit from, or in his or
  her best interests reasonably requires extended sheltered employment  in
  a workshop as defined in subdivision eight of section ten hundred two of
  this  article,  furnished  by  an  approved non-profit organization, the
  department is authorized to contract  with  such  organization  for  the
  furnishing  of  such  sheltered  employment  to  such  individual with a
  developmental disability, mental illness or a severe physical  handicap;
  and  the  department  is further authorized to expend for such purpose a
  sum or sums not less than one thousand five hundred  dollars  per  annum
  for each such individual with a developmental disability, mental illness
  or a severe physical handicap, for or towards the cost of providing such
  sheltered  employment  for  each  such  individual  with a developmental
  disability, mental illness or a severe physical handicap.
The department shall pay at least quarterly during  the  state  fiscal
  year  such  sums  as  are  authorized  to  such  organizations  for such
  sheltered employment immediately upon the completion of  evaluation  and
  personal adjustment services under the sponsorship of the department.
3.  The  department  shall  maintain  a  register  of  such  nonprofit
  organizations which, after inspection of the  facilities  for  sheltered
  employment  provided  by  them,  it deems qualified to meet the needs of
  such individuals with developmental disabilities, mental  illness  or  a
  severe  physical  handicap.  Such  inspection  shall  also determine the
  eligibility of such  organization  to  receive  the  funds  hereinbefore
  specified.
4.  The  department  is  authorized  to  contract  with such nonprofit
  organizations for the provision of  vocational  rehabilitation  services
  which lead to sheltered employment.
5. The department shall assure that individuals in long-term sheltered
  employment operated by not-for-profit agencies are periodically reviewed
  to  determine  the  feasibility  of  their  employment,  or training for
  employment, in integrated work settings and that maximum efforts  toward
  such employment occur, whenever it is determined to be feasible.
6.  The commissioner is authorized to promulgate such reasonable rules
  and regulations as he may deem necessary or  proper  to  carry  out  the
  provisions of this section.