Justice Center
Every DSP is a mandated reporter — VPCR 1-855-373-2122
Code of Conduct
Signed at hire and annually (Chapter 501 of 2012)
Incidents
Part 624 — immediate notice, IRMA within 24 hours
Core Competencies
NYS DSP Core Competencies + NADSP Code of Ethics since 2016
Medication
AMAP certification + 365-day RN recertification (633.17)
Behavior
633.16 — recurring recert for physical intervention techniques
New York's defining compliance structure is the NYS Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs, created by the Protection of People with Special Needs Act (Chapter 501 of the Laws of 2012). Every director, employee, and volunteer of an OPWDD provider is a "custodian" — and every custodian is a mandated reporter. Suspected abuse or neglect must be reported to the Vulnerable Persons' Central Register (VPCR) at 1-855-373-2122, 24 hours a day. Custodians sign the Justice Center Code of Conduct at hire and every year after, and anyone placed on the Staff Exclusion List (SEL) for serious or repeated abuse or neglect is barred from the field.
14 NYCRR Part 624 classifies events into reportable incidents (abuse and neglect), reportable significant incidents (medication errors with adverse effects, seclusion, missing persons, choking with a known risk), and serious or minor notable occurrences. Staff notify the agency and OPWDD immediately, initial data goes into IRMA within 24 hours (minor notables within 48), and agencies must make incident-management policies known to staff at hire and annually, together with abuse-prevention training under 14 NYCRR 633.8.
New York's rights rules descend directly from the Willowbrook Consent Judgment (1975). 14 NYCRR 633.4 guarantees every person receiving services dignity, privacy, freedom from abuse and unnecessary restraint, control of personal money, visitors, balanced nutrition, and the right to grieve without reprisal — and requires that staff be advised of these rights. Day-to-day support follows the Life Plan, written by the person's CCO Care Manager, which providers translate into a Staff Action Plan their DSPs implement and document.
Unlicensed staff administer medication only as AMAPs — Approved Medication Administration Personnel — after the full OPWDD-approved course and practicum, with recertification by a Registered Nurse every 365 days (14 NYCRR 633.17). Behavior support runs under 14 NYCRR 633.16: plans are written by credentialed Behavioral Intervention Specialists, restrictive interventions require licensed-clinician oversight and committee approval, and staff who use physical intervention techniques hold current certification in their agency's OPWDD-approved crisis curriculum — SCIP-R or PROMOTE — recertified on the cycle OPWDD sets for it.
New to New York's system? See our guide to becoming an OPWDD provider in New York.
Since April 1, 2016, all New York DSPs — state-operated and voluntary — work under the NYS DSP Core Competencies and the NADSP Code of Ethics (16-INF-01). OPWDD's model is competency-based: rather than a single statewide annual hour count, it sets recurring obligations — the annual Code of Conduct, annual incident-management and abuse-prevention training, physical-intervention recertification on its OPWDD-set cycle, the 365-day AMAP recertification — and expects agencies to verify that staff can actually demonstrate the competencies on the job.
DSPlife™ TrainingHub is built for OPWDD, MDHHS, DDD, DBHDD, APD, DODD, DMH/DD/SUS, ODP, HHSC, and DBHDS providers. Its New York library ships with courses your DSPs can complete on their own schedule — from Justice Center mandated reporting and Part 624 incident management to 633.4 rights, the Life Plan and Staff Action Plan, AMAP awareness, and behavior support — logs completion, tracks the annual Code of Conduct, AMAP, and physical-intervention renewal cycles with automatic alerts, and generates audit-ready reports. See the full compliance overview.
Every DSP is a "custodian" under the Protection of People with Special Needs Act — a mandated reporter to the NYS Justice Center — and signs the Justice Center Code of Conduct at hire and annually. Agencies must train staff on abuse prevention and safety (14 NYCRR 633.8) and make incident-management policies known at hire and annually (Part 624). Since April 2016, all New York DSPs also work under the NYS DSP Core Competencies and the NADSP Code of Ethics (16-INF-01).
OPWDD does not impose one fixed statewide hour count on every DSP. Requirements are competency- and cadence-based: the Code of Conduct and incident-management training renew annually, staff who use physical intervention techniques keep certification current in an OPWDD-approved curriculum (633.16 — within the year as the baseline, with longer OPWDD-set cycles for some curricula, e.g. biennial PROMOTE refreshers), and AMAPs are recertified by an RN every 365 days. Your agency’s policies set any additional hour targets.
Only as AMAPs — Approved Medication Administration Personnel — under 14 NYCRR 633.17. AMAP status requires the full OPWDD-approved medication administration course plus a supervised practicum, and recertification by a Registered Nurse every 365 days. Non-AMAP staff may not administer medications; the agency RN defines the exact boundaries of delegated tasks.
Reportable abuse and neglect go to the Justice Center’s Vulnerable Persons’ Central Register, 24 hours a day, at 1-855-373-2122 — every custodian is a mandated reporter. Incidents are also reported up through your agency and OPWDD under Part 624, with initial data entered in IRMA within 24 hours (minor notable occurrences within 48). One situation can trigger more than one duty; the DSP’s job is to report, not investigate.
Both are OPWDD-supported crisis-intervention curricula. SCIP-R is the legacy program still used by many voluntary agencies; PROMOTE is the newer curriculum required in State-Operated programs and used by agencies that have transitioned. Staff who use physical intervention techniques must hold current certification in their agency’s OPWDD-approved curriculum, recertified on the cycle OPWDD sets for it (633.16).
General information, not legal advice. DSPlife™ TrainingHub is not affiliated with the NYS Office for People With Developmental Disabilities or the NYS Justice Center. Confirm current requirements at opwdd.ny.gov, justicecenter.ny.gov, and 14 NYCRR.
Assign the New York OPWDD courses, log completion automatically, and get alerts before the annual Code of Conduct, AMAP recertification, or physical-intervention certification lapses. Free to start — no credit card required.
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