Residential care facilities for the elderly: categorization of citations

The change makes abuse findings easier for residents, families, and the public to identify in state licensing and enforcement records.

What the law does ​

• Requires the State Department of Social Services to assign an abuse category when it cites a residential care facility for the elderly for an abuse-related deficiency.
• Creates categories for physical abuse, sexual abuse, abandonment, financial exploitation or abuse, involuntary seclusion or isolation, mental abuse or suffering, and neglect.
• Requires the department to display categorized citations in its public-facing transparency, licensing, or enforcement databases.
• Preserves the department’s existing authority to impose civil penalties and does not change the proof required to substantiate abuse.
• Makes the category itself nonappealable, while preserving appeals of the underlying citation, violation finding, or civil penalty and requiring database updates if an appeal changes or overturns the finding.

Who it affects ​

• Licensed residential care facilities for the elderly and their licensees.
• Elderly residents of those facilities and their families.
• The State Department of Social Services.