1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Recognizing the Role of Direct Support Professionals Act . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Direct support professionals play a critical role in the care provided to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. (2) Providers of home- and community-based services are experiencing difficulty hiring and retaining direct support professionals, with a national turnover rate of 43 percent, as identified in a 2021 study by the National Core Indicators, and full-time vacancy rates increasing by 94 percent between 2019 and 2021. (3) High turnover rates can lead to instability for individuals receiving services, and this may result in individuals not receiving enough personalized care to help them reach their goals for independent living. (4) A discrete occupational category for direct support professionals will help States and the Federal Government— (A) better interpret the shortage in the labor market of direct support professionals; and (B) collect data on the high turnover rate of direct support professionals. (5) The Standard Occupational Classification system is designed and maintained solely for statistical purposes, and is used by Federal statistical agencies to classify workers and jobs into occupational categories for the purpose of collecting, calculating, analyzing, or disseminating data. (6) Occupations in the Standard Occupational Classification system are classified based on work performed and, in some cases, on the skills, education, or training needed to perform the work. (7) Establishing a discrete occupational category for direct support professionals will— (A) correct an inaccurate representation in the Standard Occupational Classification system; (B) recognize these professionals for the critical and often overlooked work that they perform for the disabled community, which work is different than the work of a home health aide or a personal care aide