§ 2807-g. Health workforce retraining program. 1. The commissioner shall, to the extent of funds available therefor pursuant to section twenty-eight hundred seven-l of this article, make grants to eligible organizations to support the training and retraining of health care employees to address changes in the health workforce. Requests for proposals shall be issued by the commissioner within sixty days of the effective date of this section in the first year after it shall take effect, and by the first day of March in each succeeding year. All proposals shall be due not later than sixty days after the issuance of the request for proposals, and all grant awards shall be made not later than one hundred twenty days after the date on which the proposals are due.

2. Grants shall be made on a competitive basis by region, in accordance with the amount raised in the region with preference within regions given to areas and eligible organizations that have experienced or are likely to experience job loss because of changes in the health care system. If, at the conclusion of the regional competitive contract award process, there are excess funds available within any regional allocation, such funds shall be redistributed to regions where there is a shortage of funds available for programs which otherwise qualify for funding pursuant to this section.

3. Eligible organizations shall include health worker unions, general hospitals, long-term care facilities, other health care facilities, health care facilities trade associations, labor-management committees, joint labor-management training funds established pursuant to the provisions of the Federal Taft-Hartley Act, and educational institutions.

4. Eligible programs shall include programs which provide one or more of the following services in connection with training an eligible worker to: (i) obtain a new position, (ii) continue to meet the requirements of an existing position, or (iii) otherwise meet the requirements of the changing health care industry: (a) assessments to help determine training needs; (b) remediation, including preparation in English for speakers or writers of other languages, instruction in basic reading or mathematics, or completion of requirements for a general equivalency diploma (GED); (c) basic skills development; (d) reorientation; and (e) skills and educational enhancement, including, where appropriate, the provision of college level or college degree course work. To the extent that an eligible program is providing services to train eligible workers to obtain a new position or to continue to meet the requirements of an existing position only, reimbursement shall also be available to an eligible organization for the actual cost of any employment or employment-related expenses incurred by the eligible organization in fulfilling the duties and responsibilities of such employees while they are engaged in such training programs.