2023 New York Laws › EDN - Education › Title 1 - General Provisions › Article 21 - Vocational Rehabilitation › 1004 - Powers and Duties of the Education Department.

§ 1004. Powers and duties of the education department.
The  education  department  shall  have  the  responsibility of and is
  hereby authorized:
1. To adopt and promulgate such rules and regulations  and  take  such
  action as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this article.
2.  To  provide vocational rehabilitation services directly or through
  public or private instrumentalities for handicapped  persons  (excepting
  blind  persons and, with respect to physical restoration services, those
  persons who are entitled to  such  services  pursuant  to  the  workers'
  compensation  law  and  the  volunteer  firefighters' benefit law) whose
  vocational  rehabilitation  the   department   determines   after   full
  investigation  may  be  satisfactorily  achieved.  In  the course of its
  investigation of an  individual  applicant's  vocational  rehabilitation
  potential  the  department  may  conduct  an extended evaluation program
  including utilization of such vocational rehabilitation services  as  it
  deems necessary.
3.  To  enter  into reciprocal agreements with other states to provide
  for the vocational rehabilitation of handicapped persons.
4.  To  engage  in  and  contract   for   the   making   of   studies,
  investigations,  demonstrations, research and reports, and the provision
  of training and instruction (including the establishment and maintenance
  of fellowships and traineeships with such stipends and allowances as may
  be deemed necessary) the assessment of existing facilities and  services
  and  the  evaluation of present and future requirements, including plans
  for the purposes enumerated above  in  matters  relating  to  vocational
  rehabilitation.
5.  To  arrange  and  pay  part of the cost of projects leading to the
  construction  of  workshops  and  rehabilitation  facilities   and   the
  extension   and   improvement   or   the   establishment  of  vocational
  rehabilitation  services  for   handicapped   persons,   including   the
  furnishing  of  equipment or the furnishing of funds for the purchase of
  equipment  and  supplies,  personnel  and  other  necessary  and  proper
  expenses  in  the construction, establishment, improvement, continuation
  or extension of rehabilitation  facilities  and  workshops  operated  by
  public or nonprofit organizations and agencies.
6. To cooperate in the operation of this article with the state agency
  or   agencies  administering  the  state's  public  assistance  program,
  workmen's  compensation  program,  the  departments  of  health,  mental
  hygiene,  the  federal  agencies  charged with the administration of the
  federal social security act and the federal fair labor standards act  or
  other  appropriate federal legislation and with other public and private
  agencies providing services related to  vocational  rehabilitation,  and
  with  the state system of public employment offices in the state, making
  maximum  feasible  utilization  of  the  job  placement  and  employment
  counseling  services  and other services and facilities of such offices,
  and to issue such certifications as are required or indicated thereby.
7. Within its discretion, to consider financial  need  of  handicapped
  individuals  for  the  purposes  of  determining  the  extent  of  their
  respective participation  in  the  costs  of  vocational  rehabilitation
  services  and to promulgate rules and regulations establishing financial
  need as a condition to the availability of any of the services specified
  in paragraph a of subdivision five of section one thousand two  of  this
  chapter except that no economic need test will be applied as a condition
  for  furnishing  the  following  vocational rehabilitation services: (a)
  evaluation, including diagnostic and related  services;  (b)  counseling
  and guidance; and (c) placement.
8.  To  supervise  and  monitor service centers for independent living
  pursuant to article twenty-three-A of this chapter.
9. To contract with not-for-profit organizations for the provision  of
  supported  employment  services,  as  defined  in  subdivision twelve of
  section ten hundred two of this article, to  individuals  having  severe
  disabilities defined in subdivision fourteen of section one thousand two
  of  this  article  in  integrated  work settings. The commissioner shall
  ensure that funds provided pursuant to this subdivision are not used for
  the provision of services that are the  responsibility  of  other  state
  agencies  pursuant  to the plan developed pursuant to subdivision two of
  section one thousand four-b of this article. Services shall be  provided
  at  a  cost  not  to  exceed that which is necessary and reasonable, and
  shall include  short-term  intensive  and  extended  support  mechanisms
  within  an  integrated  work  setting.  The  commissioner  shall require
  service providers to develop appropriate  policies  and  procedures  for
  directing  their  supported  employment  programs,  and  to provide such
  reports as the commissioner deems to be appropriate.