Good morning,
In October of this year, we had an OPWDD full agency audit. While overall we did well, the state communicated that we must make changes to our hiring process and the DSP evaluation. These changes are required per regulations.
As of this month, we have begun making these changes.
The changes are as follows:
- We must now request a copy of the conditional hire’s High School Diploma/GED or College Diploma. If the conditional hire does not have a Diploma/GED or College Diploma, the hiring specialist will notify the Director of People Services and a decision will be made as to whether the diploma requirement can be waived.
- We must have all conditional hires who will be driving in their position sign an attestation stating they have had no moving violations.
- We also must require written reference checks. For this, a new reference check form has been developed and will be included with the hiring paperwork. The conditional hire can use our form or we will accept a written letter from a previous employer.
- As for the DSP evaluation, changes will be made to the evaluation in the next few weeks and we will send out an announcement with the new form in January of 2024.
For some good news, we have increased the FAPTO to 28 hours per participant for the 2024 calendar year. For staff to be eligible they must have worked for the participant for 3 months or more. I have attached the revised FAPTO policy below for your review.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Laurie Cirillo
Associate Executive Director of Administrative Services
