When Governor Hochul recently announced the launch of EXPRESS NY I paid close attention. Because for those of us delivering mental health and child welfare services across New York, regulatory reform is not theoretical. It affects care every single day.
At Northern Rivers Family of Services, we support children in foster care, families navigating crisis, young people struggling with mental health challenges, and adults working toward recovery. Our staff show up every day to do that work. And alongside the clinical care and counseling, they also navigate a system layered with regulation.
Oversight matters. Accountability matters. But over time, layers of duplicative requirements have built up across agencies and systems. The result is friction that often adds cost and delay without improving outcomes.
I have sat with a hiring manager who had the right candidate ready to start working with vulnerable children, only to wait weeks because nearly identical background checks were not portable across state systems. I have watched care managers reenter the same information into multiple platforms because databases do not communicate. I have seen families asked to repeat painful histories in separate assessments that do not recognize one another.
Those delays are not just administrative inconveniences. They affect people.
When a clinician is delayed in starting work, appointments are postponed. When paperwork multiplies, time with a child shrinks. When licensing renewals stall, programs move more slowly than they should.
That is why the conversation around EXPRESS NY feels timely and important.
At Northern Rivers, we have been advancing what we call a “Less Red Tape” agenda. It includes practical ideas that align closely with the Governor’s initiative: creating a portable clearance passport so employees are not cleared multiple times by different agencies; adopting standardized core assessments so families do not have to retell their trauma; modernizing audits to reduce duplication while preserving accountability; expanding telehealth where it has proven effective; and aligning licensing processes to eliminate unnecessary delay.
These are not calls for deregulation. They are calls for precision. For smarter oversight. For removing processes that add burden without adding value.
In many cases, reform would actually strengthen accountability. Shared data systems can reduce conflicting interpretations. Standardized criteria can improve consistency. A risk-based audit approach can focus attention where it is truly needed.
Regulatory reform, done well, can both protect the public and improve efficiency.
But there is another reality that providers across New York are confronting. Even the most efficient system depends on people.
Human services is a workforce-driven sector. Mental health clinicians, caseworkers, peer advocates, direct support professionals…these are the individuals who translate policy into care. And across the state, that workforce is under strain.
Turnover remains high. Many professionals with degrees earn significantly less than their counterparts in state roles. And when inflation rises faster than funding adjustments, real wages decline.
That is why many providers, including ours, believe that a 2.7 percent targeted inflationary adjustment (one that simply keeps pace with inflation) is part of the broader reform conversation. Not as an expansion. Not as a windfall. But as a stabilizing measure.
When experienced staff leave, children lose trusted caregivers. Families face delays. Programs stretch thinner. Recruiting and retraining new staff carries its own costs.
Efficiency and workforce stability are not competing priorities. They reinforce one another. A streamlined system frees up resources. A stable workforce ensures those resources translate into better outcomes.
EXPRESS NY opens the door to an important question: how do we make government work better in ways that are measurable and meaningful?
From the provider perspective, the answer starts with listening to those who operate within the system every day. We know where the friction points are. We know where processes overlap unnecessarily. We know where modernization could make a tangible difference.
Ultimately, regulatory reform should do one thing above all: improve outcomes for people.
If cutting red tape means a child is seen sooner, a family tells their story once instead of three times, a clinician stays in their role, or a service launches faster, then that is reform worth pursuing.
I am encouraged that this moment creates space for that conversation. The opportunity now is to turn that conversation into practical, durable change that strengthens both efficiency and care across New York.
William Gettman is chief executive officer of Northern Rivers Family of Services, where he leads a broad network of programs supporting children, families, and adults across New York through behavioral health, child welfare, and community-based services.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.
