Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities

Suitability of Direct Care Workers

People with developmental disabilities may be cared for by the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD). The suitability of direct care workers hired by OMRDD is to be assessed by the regional offices that hire the workers. For example, the regional offices are expected to perform criminal background checks and certain other types of assessments. We examined OMRDD’s oversight of regional office hiring practices and found that some improvements were needed, as the regional offices did not always perform the required criminal background checks and other assessment procedures when they hired direct care workers. We recommended OMRDD oversee the regional offices more closely and consider expanding its criminal background checks to include criminal history information from outside New York State.

For a complete copy of Report 2003-S-50 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.