Most NY funeral home owners have never had to think about whether their disciplinary record matters. Under S7690, a bill that hit the Senate Floor Calendar on April 29 and is one procedural step from a vote, it suddenly does. So does whether you have ever hosted a part-time resident, whether your firm has had a single formal compliance issue in the past five years, and whether the person you intend to hand your firm to has a clean record of their own. The bill restructures who is allowed to train new funeral directors in New York and how that training is documented. If you are planning a succession in the next decade -- or trying to hire your way out of the workforce shortage right now -- the rules are about to change underneath you.
The headline question is not academic. It is the question that determines whether your firm has a future after you stop practicing. Five years of clean disciplinary record. Capacity capped at two residents per firm. Full-time only. Five-year lock-out for any firm with a recent formal action. We get into the specific situations below.
The political context, briefly: this is the second time the bill has reached this point. The Senate passed S7690 once already -- on June 11, 2025, by 55-4. It went to the Assembly, sat in the Assembly Health Committee for seven months without a hearing, and died on January 7, 2026 when the session ended. It got returned to the Senate, re-referred, cleared Health Committee 12-0-1 in February, cleared Finance 18-0 on April 28, and is now back on the floor. The Senate will pass it again. The Assembly is the gate. The Assembly companion bill is A7630 (Jeffrey Dinowitz), and it is sitting in Assembly Health right now -- exactly as it sat last session.
Here is what the public record shows for S7690 across the last twelve months:
| Date | Action |
|---|---|
| 2025-04-30 | Introduced in Senate, referred to Health |
| 2025-06-09 | Reported out of Health, ordered to Third Reading |
| 2025-06-11 | PASSED SENATE 55-4 |
| 2025-06-11 | Delivered to Assembly, referred to Assembly Health |
| 2026-01-07 | DIED IN ASSEMBLY (session end, zero committee action) |
| 2026-01-07 | Returned to Senate, re-referred to Senate Health |
| 2026-02-24 | Reported out of Senate Health 12-0-1, committed to Finance |
| 2026-04-28 | Reported out of Finance 18-0 -- 1st Report Cal. 852 |
| 2026-04-29 | 2nd Report Cal. -- on Senate Floor Calendar |
The Senate has produced four affirmative votes in twelve months: a 55-4 floor vote, a 14-2 Rules vote, a 12-0 Health Committee vote, and an 18-0 Finance vote. Every Senate body that has touched this bill has moved it forward, often unanimously.
The Assembly side has produced zero votes. A7630 was referred to Assembly Health on April 1, 2025. It sat there for nine months with no hearing, no markup, no committee vote. It was re-referred to Assembly Health on January 7, 2026 when the new session opened. It has been there for almost four months now. Still no hearing, no markup, no committee vote.
The first thing to know: NYSFDA wrote this bill. The official sponsor's memo cites NYSFDA's "Task Force on Reforming Funeral Service Education" and the "Funeral Service 2020" Task Force as the source of the proposal, and points to Iowa's funeral service internship program as the model. So the question for a subscriber is not "what is NYSFDA's position?" -- the bill is the position. The question is whether the Assembly will let it pass.
The bill is short -- seven pages -- but it changes a lot. It amends sections 3400, 3401, and 3421 of the Public Health Law and adds two new sections (3421-a, 3421-b). Effective 180 days after enactment.
1. New "preceptor" framework. The current "supervisor" model is replaced by a DOH-certified preceptor. To qualify as a preceptor, you must:
Your firm has to clear its own bar: no formal disciplinary action in past 5 years, and no more than 2 ever since first registered. A recent compliance incident locks your firm out of training new directors until the 5-year clock runs. If you intend to train successors, this is the moment to pull your disciplinary record from DOH and find out where you stand.
2. Capacity caps, in writing. The bill makes resident-per-firm limits explicit:
Multi-preceptor arrangements (up to three preceptors per resident, one designated primary) are now permitted with DOH approval. This is designed for residents who need more case volume or broader experience than one firm can provide.
3. New 100-hour student "discernment" period. Before the third semester of mortuary school, students must complete at least 100 hours at one or more licensed funeral firms, under direct physical supervision of a clean-record director at a clean-record firm. The stated rationale, taken straight from the memo: "many students are yet undecided about this career, even after enrollment in school, but do not know that until they start working in a funeral home -- well after they have completed their education and taken the required national and state tests." For directors, this means earlier visibility into who is actually serious about the work.
4. The residency itself becomes a structured curriculum. Today, the one-year residency is broadly defined. S7690 enumerates it. During the year, the resident must complete (under direct preceptor supervision):
| Activity | Minimum |
|---|---|
| Transfers of human remains | 12 |
| Embalmings (with 10 enumerated sub-steps) | 12 |
| Preparations for viewing (dress, cosmetize, casket) | 12 |
| Cremation procedure assists | required |
| Family arrangements (with sub-tasks) | 25 |
| Visitations | 12 |
| Funerals or memorial services directed | 25 |
The resident must be full-time with the firm -- no part-time residencies. The first five embalmings, five arrangements, and five services must be done in the physical presence of the preceptor. The first six embalming cases plus the first twelve funeral case reports must be completed and submitted by the end of the sixth month.
The preceptor must read, comment on, and sign every one of those 12 embalming reports and every one of the 25 funeral case reports.
5. New documentation cadence. Quarterly written reports from both resident and preceptor, due within 10 days of each quarter's end. End-of-residency confidential evaluations from both directions: preceptor evaluates resident, resident evaluates preceptor, both submitted to DOH separately. Final 12-month report goes to DOH for approval before licensure.
6. New DOH powers. The Department gets explicit rule-making authority over residency and preceptor standards, can require additional CE or college courses, can require additional case reports, and can extend a residency up to 12 additional months. DOH can move a resident to a different preceptor if the current supervision is "detrimental." A preceptor who fails to file the final evaluation triggers an investigation, with possible loss of preceptor status, discipline, or both.
7. The driver's-license clause. A firm may require a resident to have a driver's license, but only if driving is reasonably expected as part of the job and alternative transportation (rideshare, transit, carpool, bicycling, walking are listed by name) would not be comparable in time or cost to the employer. Blanket "must drive" rules will not survive. Lawyers will read this paragraph.
Two practical questions to answer this week:
1. Are you eligible to be a preceptor under the bill as written? Pull your disciplinary record. Pull your firm's. Check both 5-year windows and the lifetime caps.
2. What is your firm's training capacity under the new caps? If you do fewer than 100 cases a year, you can train one resident. If you do 100 or more, you can train up to two. Multi-location operators planning successor pipelines should map this against their staffing plans now, not after enactment.
The full bill text and PDF are on the NY Senate site: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S7690. The PDF download is https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/bills/2025/S7690.
If you read the section above and thought "interesting, but how does this hit my P&L," here is the honest answer. S7690 changes who you can hire to replace yourself, what your training capacity is, and creates a new five-year disciplinary memory that locks people out. Most readers fit one of five situations. Find yours.
Situation 1: You are within ten years of retirement and do not have a designated successor.
This is the most common situation among NY funeral home owners and the one with the most material exposure. Under S7690, the person you train to replace you must serve a structured one-year residency under a DOH-certified preceptor. You must be that preceptor, or you must hand the trainee to someone else who qualifies. To qualify yourself, you need five years of clean disciplinary record at the moment of certification and a clean firm record. If you have not started the conversation about who succeeds you, the new framework adds 12 to 18 months of structured residency to your timeline before that successor can be licensed -- not a soft handoff with informal training. The practical implication: identify your candidate now and start the documentation discipline that the bill will codify, so the transition does not slip a year when the bill becomes law.
Situation 2: You or your firm has any disciplinary action on record in the past five years.
This is the silent killer in the bill. The clean-record requirements (no formal disciplinary action in past 5 years for either you or the firm; lifetime cap of 2 actions for individuals) lock affected directors out of training new licensees until their clock runs. If you received a DOH letter for any reason in the past five years, you may not be able to be a preceptor. If your firm had a single OSHA citation or a consumer complaint that resulted in formal action, the firm may be locked out independently. The bill does not define "formal disciplinary action" with precision -- meaning DOH gets to draw that line through implementing regulations. The material implication: pull your firm's and your individual disciplinary records this month. If you find anything in the past five years, you need to know whether your firm can train successors at all under the new framework.
Situation 3: You operate multiple locations or a single high-volume firm doing 100+ cases per year.
Capacity caps become real: maximum two registered residents per firm, ever. If you run a multi-location operation and were planning to train more than two licensees across locations simultaneously, that is now structurally impossible inside one firm. The workaround the bill provides is multi-preceptor arrangements -- one primary preceptor coordinates a resident who works across firms, with up to two additional preceptors at other firms. This is workable but legally complicated. The implication: if your succession plan involves training three or more residents at once, you need to design the multi-preceptor structure now and get it pre-approved by DOH before the bill takes effect.
Situation 4: You currently host part-time residents or have a flexible residency model.
Part-time residency goes away. The bill requires the resident to "serve on a full-time work schedule with the funeral firm." If you have someone working a residency 20 or 30 hours a week while finishing school, attending to a family business, or holding a second job, that arrangement is no longer compliant. The implication: any active part-time residency needs to be either converted to full-time before the new rules apply, or completed before the effective date. You also need to plan for hiring residents only as full-time positions going forward, which changes both your hiring math and your candidate pool.
Situation 5: You are currently hosting a registered resident under the existing rules.
Grandfather rules are not specified in the bill text. The effective date is 180 days after enactment, but the bill is silent on whether residencies in progress at that moment are governed by the old framework, the new one, or a transition. The implication: if your resident is mid-cycle when the bill becomes law, your documentation discipline needs to support both regimes -- because DOH can choose to apply the new reporting and supervision requirements to in-flight residencies if its implementing regulations say so. Start now: read, comment on, and sign every embalming and funeral case report your resident produces. Submit quarterly progress notes. Treat the new framework as if it already applies.
This is where the Assembly action becomes concrete. The five situations above translate into specific asks. If you are going to call your Assembly member -- and we recommend you do, because the bill is moving and the Assembly is the gate -- the call should not be "support S7690." It should be a clarification request tied to your situation.
If you are in Situation 1 or 2 (succession exposure or clean-record exposure): Your ask is "What is the definition of formal disciplinary action under A7630, and is there a transition period for directors with otherwise clean records who had isolated incidents more than three years ago?" That question forces the Assembly office to engage with the substance of the bill, and the answer is something you actually need.
If you are in Situation 3 (multi-location): Your ask is "Does the two-resident-per-firm cap apply per license holder, per registered firm, or per physical location?" There are three possible answers and each has different implications for multi-location operators. The bill text is ambiguous and DOH will have to interpret.
If you are in Situation 4 or 5 (part-time or in-progress): Your ask is "What is the effective date and how does it apply to active residencies and existing part-time arrangements?" Even a polite acknowledgment from the office that they will look into it puts a marker down.
In all five cases, the political fact your call carries is the same: the NYSFDA wrote this bill, the Senate passed it 55-4 last year, and the Assembly Health Committee killed it without a hearing. You are calling because you support the substance and want clarity on the implementation. That framing is harder for staff to dismiss than a generic "support" or "oppose."
Find your Assembly member: https://nyassembly.gov/mem/search/
Assembly Health Committee membership: https://nyassembly.gov/comm/?sec=mem&id=29
Watch the committee agenda: https://nyassembly.gov/comm/?sec=agen&id=29
If A7630 is not on an Assembly Health agenda by late May, the bill is on the same trajectory as last year. June adjournment is the cliff. If you do nothing else this month, do this: pull your disciplinary record and identify which situation above describes your firm. Call before the bill arrives in the Assembly, not after.
| Bill | Title | Status | Last Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| S7690 | Residency Overhaul (Senate) | In In Assembly Comm (Health) | REFERRED TO HEALTH (May 13) |
| A7630 | Residency Overhaul (Assembly) | In In Assembly Comm (Health) | REFERRED TO HEALTH (Jan 7) |
| S9112 | Licensed Funeral Arranger Act | In Senate Committee (Health) | Referred to Health (Feb 3) |
| A10095 | Licensed Funeral Arranger (Assembly) | In Assembly Committee (Health) | Referred to Health (Jan 30) |
| S8152 | 4-Year Apprenticeship | STRICKEN | Enacting clause stricken (Jun 9, 2025) |
| A5172 | 4-Year Apprenticeship (Assembly) | In Assembly Committee (Health) | Referred to Health (Jan 7) |
On S7690: The next procedural step is a move from Order of the Second Report to Third Reading, where floor votes happen. The Senate's May 4 calendar (the next session day) was published April 30 and contains 346 entries, with 293 already on Third Reading. S7690 could be moved to Third Reading at any session. There is no advance public schedule for which bills get called.
On A7630: Has not moved in the new session. This is the bill that determines whether S7690 becomes law. Watch the Assembly Health Committee agenda at https://nyassembly.gov/comm/?sec=agen&id=29.
On S9112 / A10095 (Licensed Funeral Arranger): Both still in Health committees. With S7690 occupying Senate floor attention and A7630 occupying any oxygen the Assembly might give to funeral legislation, these are unlikely to see committee movement before mid-May.
On S8152 / A5172 (Apprenticeship): Senate version remains stricken. Assembly version A5172 is in Assembly Health alongside A7630. No movement.
The Federal Register published a Submission for OMB Review notice on April 29, 2026 -- routine collection-authority renewal under existing FTC Funeral Rule reporting, not a rule change. Notice text: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/04/29/2026-08294/submission-for-omb-review-comment-request. No action required, but worth knowing it is in the queue if you get a compliance inquiry that references the underlying authority.
The Funeral Director's Brief is a weekly regulatory briefing for New York funeral directors. Questions? Reply to this email.
Subscribe: https://funeraldirectorsbrief.com
Free during our launch period. Join funeral directors across New York.