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Support Our Advocacy!
Help Keep Preferred Source in the Executive Budget!
NYSID thanks Governor Kathy Hochul for including key language for persons with disabilities in her Executive Budget.
In 2022, Governor Hochul and the NYS Legislature enacted the first significant updates to the Preferred Source Program since its inception.
The modernization aligned with making the program compliant with Employment First principles, including competitive integrated employment opportunities. This update will sunset in October 2025.
Here’s how you can help keep those changes in the final budget
1. Download and personalize letters of support:
-
- Letter to Governor Hochul click HERE
- Letter to NYS Legislators click HERE
Find your legislators here:
-
- NYS Senate click HERE
- NYS Assembly click HERE
Email a copy of any letters sent to mobrien@nysid.org.
2. Show your support by sharing social media graphics click HERE
BACKGROUND
The Preferred Source Program (PSP) was created in 1975 after the Willowbrook scandal to provide vocational and rehabilitative training opportunities, living wages and both full and part-time employment to individuals with disabilities.
The 2022 Preferred Source Modernization Act brought New York’s landmark program of job support for persons with disabilities into the 21st Century and marked the first significant updates to the PSP since its inception in 1975.
It opened the door to additional jobs by creating new permanent thresholds for the percentage of a Preferred Source contract that must be performed by disabled, or otherwise qualified, persons to receive Preferred Source status.
The 2022 law also modernized multiple terms within the Preferred Source statute including outdated references to "workshops" and "severely" disabled. And it increased opportunities for competitive integrated employment.
Importantly, on Governor Hochul issued Executive Order 40 in September 2024 committing New York to be an Employment First State and to increase Competitive Integrated Employment for New Yorkers with Disabilities.
In 2024, NYSID contracts were responsible for 6,419 jobs. Of those, 4,758 were held by individuals with disabilities, generating total wages of $82.7 million.
Help Keep Preferred Source in the Executive Budget!
NYSID thanks Governor Kathy Hochul for including key language for persons with disabilities in her Executive Budget.
In 2022, Governor Hochul and the NYS Legislature enacted the first significant updates to the Preferred Source Program since its inception.
The modernization aligned with making the program compliant with Employment First principles, including competitive integrated employment opportunities. This update will sunset in October 2025.
Here’s how you can help keep those changes in the final budget
1. Download and personalize letters of support:
-
- Letter to Governor Hochul click HERE
- Letter to NYS Legislators click HERE
Find your legislators here:
-
- NYS Senate click HERE
- NYS Assembly click HERE
Email a copy of any letters sent to mobrien@nysid.org.
2. Show your support by sharing social media graphics click HERE
BACKGROUND
The Preferred Source Program (PSP) was created in 1975 after the Willowbrook scandal to provide vocational and rehabilitative training opportunities, living wages and both full and part-time employment to individuals with disabilities.
The 2022 Preferred Source Modernization Act brought New York’s landmark program of job support for persons with disabilities into the 21st Century and marked the first significant updates to the PSP since its inception in 1975.
It opened the door to additional jobs by creating new permanent thresholds for the percentage of a Preferred Source contract that must be performed by disabled, or otherwise qualified, persons to receive Preferred Source status.
The 2022 law also modernized multiple terms within the Preferred Source statute including outdated references to "workshops" and "severely" disabled. And it increased opportunities for competitive integrated employment.
Importantly, on Governor Hochul issued Executive Order 40 in September 2024 committing New York to be an Employment First State and to increase Competitive Integrated Employment for New Yorkers with Disabilities.
In 2024, NYSID contracts were responsible for 6,419 jobs. Of those, 4,758 were held by individuals with disabilities, generating total wages of $82.7 million.