Full Text of HR0272 100th General Assembly
HR0272 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Direct support professionals are the primary | 3 | | providers of publicly-funded long-term support and services | 4 | | for individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities; | 5 | | and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, The Congressional Budget Office has found that the | 7 | | demand for direct support professionals will grow rapidly in | 8 | | the coming decade; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, In recent years, community-based providers | 10 | | serving children and adults with intellectual/developmental | 11 | | disabilities have expressed growing concerns about the | 12 | | inability to recruit and retain direct support professionals | 13 | | despite increasing demand for services; and | 14 | | WHEREAS, Governor Bruce Rauner, through a proclamation | 15 | | issued on August 24, 2016, acknowledged that there is a | 16 | | documented critical and growing shortage of direct support | 17 | | professionals throughout the United States; and | 18 | | WHEREAS, The United States Department of Labor's Bureau of | 19 | | Labor Statistics (BLS) is the principal federal agency for | 20 | | measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price | 21 | | changes in the economy; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, Policymakers at the federal and State levels make | 2 | | frequent use of BLS data and analytics to identify trends in | 3 | | employment, productivity, price indexes, and compensation; and | 4 | | WHEREAS, The BLS recently looked at the data it collects | 5 | | for wages, total compensation, and job openings for two direct | 6 | | care occupations: home health aides and personal care aides; | 7 | | this look was organized to better understand wages, total | 8 | | compensation, and job openings for these direct care positions | 9 | | as posited against eight alternative occupations with similar | 10 | | educational level requirements and short-term training | 11 | | requirements; and | 12 | | WHEREAS, While there is a standard occupational | 13 | | classification for both home health aides and personal care | 14 | | aides, there is not separate standard occupational | 15 | | classification for direct support professionals; and | 16 | | WHEREAS, As there is overlap with respect to educational | 17 | | and training requirements among home health aides, personal | 18 | | care aides, and direct support professionals, there are clear | 19 | | differences in occupation responsibilities, modalities of | 20 | | employment, and populations served and supported; and | 21 | | WHEREAS, Factoring direct support professionals in with |
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| 1 | | home health aides and personal care aides does not provide | 2 | | policymakers at both the federal and State levels with accurate | 3 | | data on the key indicators for direct support professionals of | 4 | | wages, total compensation, job openings, and turnover; and | 5 | | WHEREAS, In August of 2016, a United States Government | 6 | | Accountability Office Report on the Long-Term Care Workforce to | 7 | | the Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Health Care, Benefits, and | 8 | | Administrative Rules, Committee on Government Oversight and | 9 | | Government Reform indicated there are gaps in existing federal | 10 | | data that make it difficult to know what the current workforce | 11 | | numbers are and to predict future trends regarding supply and | 12 | | demand; and
| 13 | | WHEREAS, In the report, it was specifically noted that | 14 | | "According to BLS officials, due to the National Compensation | 15 | | Survey's small sample size, benefits data are limited to direct | 16 | | care workers in all industries and cannot be broken down by | 17 | | occupation or specific industry"; and
| 18 | | WHEREAS, In the same report, it was noted that "Unless the | 19 | | Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) takes | 20 | | actions to overcome data limitations in order to make | 21 | | projections of supply and demand, the ability of policymakers | 22 | | and other stakeholders to develop appropriate workforce | 23 | | strategies to ensure a sufficient number of qualified direct |
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| 1 | | care workers will continue to be hampered"; and | 2 | | WHEREAS, The need to capture accurate data at the federal | 3 | | level to ensure government has the information it needs to | 4 | | build the direct support professional workforce is at its | 5 | | highest need; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, By designating the Direct Support Professional as | 7 | | its own standard occupational classification, the BLS will be | 8 | | in a position to capture much more precise and accurate data | 9 | | specific to the profession; this in turn will assist federal | 10 | | and State policymakers to inform the public of the current | 11 | | status of the workforce, impact policymaking on direct support | 12 | | professional issues, which will include potential changes by | 13 | | the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and other | 14 | | federal agencies as they recognize the need for focus on this | 15 | | workforce, and potentially impact federal resources legislated | 16 | | by the United States Congress for direct support professional | 17 | | initiatives, and potentially increasing the amount of people | 18 | | employed in the State; therefore, be it
| 19 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 20 | | HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | 21 | | urge the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor | 22 | | Statistics to designate the Direct Support Professional as its | 23 | | own standard occupational classification so that more accurate |
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| 1 | | and precise data on this workforce can be captured and analyzed | 2 | | on an ongoing basis; and be it further
| 3 | | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 4 | | delivered to the Secretary of the United States Department of | 5 | | Labor.
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