Establishes the Home and Community-Based Services Workforce Standards Board.
SB 1505 establishes the Home and Community-Based Services Workforce Standards Board within the Department of Consumer and Business Services. The board would be charged with studying the home and community-based services workforce and adopting minimum standards intended to improve working conditions for workers who provide long-term care and support in settings such as in-home care, attendant care, supported living, residential care facilities, residential training homes, developmental disability child foster homes, and domiciliary care facilities. The bill defines the covered workforce broadly, while excluding private-pay home care workers and management-level staff such as nurses, physicians, and administrative staff.
The board would have 11 members representing workers, employers, service recipients, and state agencies. Before adopting standards, it must gather labor-market, industry, and stakeholder data; hold public hearings; consult with the Oregon Health Authority, the Home Care Commission, and self-advocates; and evaluate whether proposed standards align with prevailing labor conditions and consumer needs. The bill requires the board to conduct a comprehensive review at least every four years and to report biennially to the Governor and Legislature on its findings, recommendations, and activities.
The bill would create a new state board with rulemaking authority over minimum workforce standards in the home and community-based services sector and would amend ORS 443.517 and ORS 192.670. It would expand the public registry maintained by the Department of Human Services to include workers in the home and community-based services workforce, and it would require public hearings for the board to be accessible through electronic or virtual means when possible. The bill also gives the Bureau of Labor and Industries investigative authority and creates enforcement remedies, including civil actions, administrative complaints, damages, attorney fees, and civil penalties for violations of board standards.
Substantively, the board’s minimum standards must address compensation, training and career pathways, and benefits such as health care, paid family leave, sick leave, and retirement benefits. However, any standard that increases state fiscal obligations, including Medicaid reimbursement rates, must undergo fiscal impact analysis, be reported to the Legislature and Governor, and cannot take effect until funding is appropriated and, if needed, federal CMS approval is obtained. The bill also delays initial standard-setting until after a market study and no earlier than March 1, 2029.
The bill’s framing is strongly supportive of workers and service recipients, emphasizing workforce stability, fair compensation, consumer choice, self-determination, and quality of care. The text suggests an intent to create a collaborative, data-driven process that includes workers, employers, people receiving services, and state agencies. Because there are no recorded committee transcripts or votes in the provided materials, there is no documented floor or committee sentiment beyond the bill’s supportive policy findings and structure.
The main points of potential contention are likely the scope of the board’s authority, the cost of implementing minimum standards, and the effect on Medicaid reimbursement and state budgets. Employers and state fiscal agencies may be concerned that mandated wage, benefit, and training standards could increase operating costs or require higher public reimbursement rates, while worker advocates and service recipients are likely to support stronger standards and enforcement. Another possible area of tension is the bill’s requirement that standards not interfere with self-determination or existing collective bargaining rights, which appears designed to address concerns from disability advocates and labor organizations alike. The bill’s enforcement provisions and civil penalties may also draw scrutiny from providers.