As part of this year's budget, the New York State Legislature has added Licensed Creative Arts Therapists (LCATs) as eligible Medicaid providers. °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï has supported this inclusion for the past two years. This represents a significant expansion of access to mental health services for low-and-moderate-income members of the Long Island community.

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Licensed Creative Arts Therapists serve a wide range of patients, including children, older adults, individuals with language barriers, and people who are nonverbal or have difficulty accessing traditional talk therapy. This policy change comes at a time when demand for mental health care continues to grow. Expanding coverage will strengthen New York’s mental health workforce and improve continuity of care for New Yorkers.

Licensed Creative Arts Therapists have educational and licensure requirements equivalent to other professionals licensed to provide psychotherapy, including Licensed Mental Health Counselors, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, and Licensed Psychotherapists. Including licensed creative arts therapists on Medicaid improves access to the already authorized mental health service of psychotherapy

Molloy's graduate program in Music Therapy offers a degree that fulfills educational requirements for licensure as a Creative Arts Therapist (LCAT) in the State of New York. Molloy's Rebecca Center for Music Therapy is recognized worldwide as a multifaceted institution that integrates clinical services, university-based training, research, community outreach, and global education.

°Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï supports improving access to psychotherapy through Licensed Creative Arts Therapists and has joined with others in the LCATs Advocacy Coalition, where the support for these reforms are broad and bipartisan, with nearly 100 labor unions such as 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, colleges and universities including New York University, patient advocates like National Alliance on Mental Illness-NYS, human service agencies, healthcare providers, cultural leaders, and artists expressing support, including public voices such as Billy Joel and Renée Fleming.

In February 2026, the Office of Community and Government Affairs (OCGA) coordinated a delegation of °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï students to Albany for the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU) Advocacy Day. This annual event is a cornerstone of the Office’s efforts to engage students in public policy and advocate for greater access to higher education through enhanced financial aid.

Led by OCGA Director Neal Lewis, the six-student delegation took part in advocacy meetings with state legislators, passionately making the case for expanding Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) eligibility to include graduate students, full funding aid to private, non-profit colleges and universities (Bundy Aid), and the creation of a New York State student loan program. TAP for graduate students was eliminated in 2011. These changes would mitigate recent reductions to and limitations placed on federal student loan programs, and help maintain access to higher education for students who would otherwise struggle to afford it. 

Molloy’s participation was a collaborative effort supported by Student Affairs, Molloy Student Government, and CSTEP, reinforcing the university’s commitment to leadership development and civic engagement. In addition to the impact of their advocacy, students gained hands-on experience with the legislative process and a deeper understanding of how public funding decisions are made. Their personal stories left an impression on lawmakers and highlighted the real-life impact of state funding decisions on student success.

In February 2025, the Office of Community and Government Affairs (OCGA) coordinated °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï’s largest-ever student delegation to Albany for the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU) Advocacy Day. This annual event is a cornerstone of the Office’s efforts to engage students in public policy and advocate for greater access to higher education through enhanced financial aid.

Molloy News: Molloy Students Speak Up for Higher Education Funding

Led by OCGA Director Neal Lewis, the nine-student delegation took part in advocacy meetings with state legislators, passionately making the case for expanding Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) eligibility to include both part-time and graduate students. These changes would help remove significant financial barriers for nontraditional students, many of whom balance jobs and family responsibilities while pursuing their degrees.

Shortly after the Advocacy Day, legislation to expand TAP was agreed on and passed.

• This was the first reform of TAP in 25 years.
• The minimum TAP funding increased from $500 to $1,000
• The family income threshold for TAP recipients was increased from $80,000 to $125,000. 

Students also advocated for: Restoring cuts and increasing investment in opportunity programs such as HEOP, STEP/CSTEP, and LPP; expanding the Opportunity Promise Scholarship to include students in New York’s independent sector; fully restoring funding to Bundy Aid, which is still essential to ensuring college affordability.

Molloy’s participation was a collaborative effort supported by Student Affairs, Molloy Student Government, and CSTEP, reinforcing the university’s commitment to leadership development and civic engagement. In addition to the impact of their advocacy, students gained hands-on experience with the legislative process and a deeper understanding of how public funding decisions are made. Their personal stories left an impression on lawmakers and highlighted the real-life impact of state funding decisions on student success.

The day served as both an advocacy success and a meaningful learning opportunity—one that strengthened Molloy’s voice in statewide policy discussions and empowered students to become agents of change.

The OCGA is engaged in outreach to the community and Long Island businesses to determine how newly-designed, flexible, non-degree, credential courses can meet the needs of employers and job-seekers.

On September 30th, 2025, °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï held a Talent Solutions Summit for leaders in business, labor, and education to discuss how to best educate workers for the needs of the region's economy today and in years to come. 

The federal government has proposed a rule that excludes advanced degrees in nursing and other healthcare fields from the list of professional degrees. The result is that graduate students in those fields will be limited to less than half as much potential loan funding as allowed for degrees on the restrictive list, based on a list of examples created in 1965.

Department of Education's proposed rule omits post-baccalaureate nursing degrees such as Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), or PhD in Nursing from the list of professional degrees. Degrees required for other healthcare professions, such as physician assistant and speech-language pathologist, are similarly excluded.

The United States is facing a shortage of healthcare workers. It is not reasonable to limit the pool of talent going into these fields by imposing a lower cap on their federal student loans.

For more details, see this PDF.

The public comment period for the proposed rule that excludes graduate nursing programs from the definition of 'professional degrees' is open until March 2, 2026. You can submit your comments on the Regulations.gov website: