What you can self-hire for
Self-hiring applies to particular waiver services rather than to everything in the budget. A person can choose to self-hire staff to deliver Community Habilitation, Supported Employment and Respite.
Employer authority gives you the right to hire, manage and change the staff who support you, and to determine what they are paid. Budget authority — control over how the money is allocated — is a separate thing you can have with or without employer authority. Plenty of families take budget authority and keep agency-provided staff.
Who the employer actually is
You select. The Fiscal Intermediary employs.
You are responsible for selecting and conditionally hiring your staff. The Fiscal Intermediary is the employer of record: it verifies employment eligibility, runs background checks, delivers required training including incident reporting, maintains personnel files, processes timesheets and runs payroll. That division is not a formality — it determines who carries the legal obligations.
The onboarding reality
You find and conditionally hire someone
Your broker and Circle of Support can help recruit and interview.
They complete the Fiscal Intermediary's application
Each FI has its own process. The paperwork is the candidate's responsibility, though the circle can guide them through it — and candidates do fall away at this stage.
Background checks and fingerprinting
The candidate makes their own fingerprinting appointment. This is usually the longest step and the one families forget to plan around.
Required training
The FI is responsible for getting staff the agency-required training, including incident reporting.
They can start
Not before. Hours worked before clearance are a problem for everyone.
There is no central clearance
At present there is no central background check across Fiscal Intermediaries. Someone cleared through one FI generally has to start the whole process again to work for a person using a different FI — fingerprinting included. This matters in two situations: recruiting a staff member who already works for another self-directing family, and changing your own Fiscal Intermediary. Plan for a gap in both cases.
Setting the pay rate
You decide what your staff are paid, within the budget. This is more consequential than families expect, because it is the main lever you control and it cuts both ways.
| Set it too low | Set it too high | A reasonable approach |
|---|---|---|
| You cannot recruit, or you recruit people who leave in three months. Turnover costs more than the rate ever saved, because every replacement restarts clearance. | You run out of hours before the year does, and face a mid-year amendment or a reduction in support at the point it is least convenient. | Find out what Direct Support Professionals are actually paid in your county, set at or slightly above it, then work backwards to how many hours that buys and check it against a real week. |
Recruiting people who stay
This is the hardest part of Self-Direction and the least discussed. A few things families consistently report working:
- Recruit from the person's existing world. Someone who already knows them — a former teaching assistant, a coach, a neighbour's adult child — starts with the relationship already built.
- Be specific in the advertisement. What the person is like, what the work involves, what hours, what pay. Vague adverts attract applicants who leave once they understand the job.
- Have the person involved in choosing. They will be spending more time with this employee than you will.
- Start the clearance conversation early. Tell candidates at interview that there is a background check and fingerprinting and it takes time. People who disappear during clearance usually disappear because nobody warned them.
- Do not build the whole plan on one person. If one staff departure collapses your support, it will eventually collapse.
The question to ask at interview
Not "do you have experience with autism." Ask: what would you do in the first hour if he would not get out of the car? The answer tells you how someone thinks about a real situation, which is what the job consists of.
Managing people, which is also your job now
Employer authority means supervision is yours. That includes the uncomfortable parts: raising performance problems, setting expectations, managing people who may be older than you, and ending an arrangement that is not working. Families who have never managed staff before should say so to their broker and ask for support with it — training on hiring, training and retaining staff is within the broker's remit.
Questions families actually ask
Can I hire a family member as staff?
Sometimes, and the conditions are strict. OPWDD's guidance on relatives delivering services requires, among other things, that the service is not a function ordinarily performed by a family member, that it is necessary and authorised and would otherwise be provided by another qualified provider, and that the relative does not reside in the same residence as the participant. Put the specific relationship and specific service to your Fiscal Intermediary and your Self-Direction Liaison before anyone works a shift.
How long does clearance take?
It varies by Fiscal Intermediary and by how quickly the candidate books fingerprinting. Treat it as weeks rather than days, and start recruiting well before you need someone in post.
What if a staff member does not work out?
You can end the arrangement — employer authority includes changing staff. Talk to your Fiscal Intermediary first, because they are the employer of record and there is a correct process.
Can staff cleared with one family work for another?
If both families use the same Fiscal Intermediary, it is far simpler. Across different FIs there is no central clearance, so the process generally starts again.
Where this comes from
Written from the OPWDD source documents below and reviewed against them on 23 September 2026. OPWDD policy and figures change; confirm anything that affects a decision with your Care Manager or your DDRO Self-Direction Liaison before acting on it.
Keep reading
Not sure where you are in this process?
GRSCorp runs free sessions for New York families on OPWDD services, Self-Direction and what to ask for. We do not sell brokerage — we explain the system so you can choose well.
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