New York Senate Bill S03760

New York 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 1/29/25
• Refer: 1/29/25
• Refer: 1/7/26

Caption

Expands the definition of mental health care provider for the purposes of the penal law; expands the conditions under which a person is deemed incapable of consent.

Summary

This bill amends New York’s Penal Law to broaden who is treated as a “mental health care provider” for purposes of sex offense provisions. The definition would no longer be limited to a short list of licensed professions; instead, it would cover anyone who is licensed, required to be licensed, holds themself out as licensed, or provides services as if licensed in specified behavioral health and medical fields, including medicine, nursing, psychology, social work, mental health counseling, marriage and family therapy, creative arts therapy, and psychoanalysis. The bill also expands the circumstances in which a client or patient is deemed incapable of consent when the actor is a health care provider or mental health care provider. Under the amended language, the incapacity rule would apply not only when sexual conduct occurs during a treatment session, consultation, interview, or examination, but also when treatment is continuing in nature and the conduct occurs during the course of treatment. The bill takes effect 90 days after becoming law.

Impact

The bill would broaden the reach of Penal Law sections governing rape in the third degree, aggravated sexual abuse in the fourth degree, and sexual abuse in the third degree by enlarging the category of covered providers and expanding when consent is legally unavailable in provider-patient relationships. It would affect criminal liability for conduct involving patients or clients and could apply to a wider range of licensed, registered, and misrepresented practitioners in health and behavioral health settings, including professions newly referenced through the Education Law.

Sentiment

The available record shows no committee transcript or recorded votes, so there is no direct evidence of debate or opposition in the materials provided. Based on the bill’s text and caption, the measure appears to be framed as a protective expansion of sexual offense safeguards in therapeutic and medical settings, suggesting a generally public-safety-oriented purpose rather than a controversial policy shift in the record provided.

Contention

The main point of potential contention is the breadth of the expanded definition of “mental health care provider,” which reaches beyond traditional mental health professions to include multiple licensed or purportedly licensed practitioners and additional Education Law articles. Another possible issue is the extension of incapacity to consent during the “course of treatment” for continuing care, which could raise questions about how broadly the criminal law should regulate provider-patient interactions and how continuing treatment would be defined in practice. No specific opposing viewpoints are documented in the provided materials.