Asm. Andrew Hevesi

Enacts the building up immigrant legal defense or BUILD act to provide competitive workforce development and capacity building grants to eligible entities that are seeking to expand access to representation for individuals facing deportation by increasing the workforce and strengthening the legal services infrastructure needed to provide such representation.

Maddy summaryThis bill requires all public schools in New York to include lessons about gambling risks in health education classes for every grade level, from elementary through high school. It mandates that teachers certified in health education integrate age-appropriate instruction on gambling's dangers alongside existing lessons about alcohol, tobacco, and drug misuse. Schools must teach these topics as part of required health courses, with students demonstrating knowledge through tests or projects. The law applies directly to all public K-12 schools and their health curricula, without creating new standalone classes.

Requires certain eligible persons or entities to acquire and possess opioid antagonists for emergency treatment of a person appearing to experience an opioid-related overdose.

Maddy summaryThis New York State bill allows for advance payments of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to qualifying low-income workers, replacing the current system where refunds are issued after annual tax filing. Eligible workers - including those aged 19 or older (down from 25) and without children - will receive four payments: three during the year (20% of the expected credit) and one adjusted payment after the tax year ends. The bill also increases the credit percentage for 2027 and later years (up to 40%), raises the income threshold for phaseout to $24,960 (from $11,610), and includes annual inflation adjustments. Payments will be delivered via direct deposit or electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card.

Requires that public schools provide instruction on climate change, including but not limited to identifying the causes and impacts of climate change on individuals, environments and communities, and learning to evaluate solutions.

Maddy summaryThis bill allows retired members of New York state retirement systems to change their designated beneficiary if that beneficiary has been convicted of a family offense (as defined in state law) and the retired member was the complainant in the case. Retired members have 180 days from the beneficiary's conviction date to submit a written request to the retirement system to make this change. Once received, the retirement system will update the beneficiary or recalculate benefits accordingly. The comptroller must notify retired members about this provision and can create rules to implement it, working with domestic violence and criminal justice agencies.

Maddy summaryThis bill updates New York State's funding mechanism for home health care services to better meet community needs. It allocates annual state funds (based on population or minimum $200,000 per region) to certified home health agencies, targeting underserved areas, high-need populations, and staffing challenges. Key provisions require agencies to demonstrate service to vulnerable groups, support recruitment/retention for nurses and staff, and use funds for technology to improve care delivery. The bill directly affects home health agencies by providing new funding streams to expand access and address rising demand driven by an aging population and complex medical needs.

Creates a computer science course requirement for graduation from high school; directs the department of education to design and implement such program.

Amends the definition of "health care personnel" to define the term "temporary services" as health care services contracted for an initial term of less than twenty-four continuous months; requires a temporary health care services agency to annually submit to the department of health copies of all contracts between the agency and a health care entity to which it assigns or refers health care personnel.

Requires entities receiving state funding for workforce development purposes to annually file a report with the department of labor describing the number of individuals contacted, trained and hired by such entities and the status of such individuals at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months after hiring.