Press Room

An Act to update Nicky’s Law ensures that people with intellectual or developmental disabilities are equally protected from abuse at MassHealth day habilitation services as they are in other care settings.

The bill is an adjustment to a law approved in 2020, known as Nicky’s Law, which created a statewide registry of care providers who have had certain allegations of abuse substantiated against them by the Disabled Persons Protection Commission. The original law was designed to flag caretakers who were found to have seriously abused people with intellectual or developmental disabilities so that they cannot be hired in a similar position by another employer.

The details of the legislation are below.

Covering Day Habilitation Participants. Closes an unintended protection gap by expanding the list of employers covered by the Registry of Abusive Care Providers to include day habilitation service providers contracted by MassHealth. Day habilitation programs were covered under Nicky’s Law when the Legislature enacted it in 2020. Since that time, the programs became fully funded by MassHealth and no longer receive funding from the Department of Developmental Services. As a result, the programs are no longer covered by the abuse registry. This bill reinstates day habilitation programs as originally intended.

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