Bill Text: NY A00628 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

New York Assembly Bill 628

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

Bill Title: Establishes Diwali as a school holiday in public schools in the city of New York.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 42-1)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-12 - reference changed to education [A00628 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A00628-Introduced.html




                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                           628

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    January 10, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced by M. of A. RAJKUMAR -- read once and referred to the Commit-
          tee on Education

        AN  ACT  to amend the education law, in relation to certain school holi-
          days; and to repeal certain provisions of such law relating thereto

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.  Legislative intent. The legislature hereby finds that the
     2  festival of Diwali is celebrated by a growing number of Hindu, Buddhist,
     3  Jain and Sikh residents, including Native New Yorkers and  residents  of
     4  the  city  of  New  York hailing from several countries including India,
     5  Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Guyana, Trinidad and Toba-
     6  go and Sri Lanka. In recognition of the importance of this  festival  to
     7  these  residents,  it  is  the legislature's intent that this act allows
     8  Diwali to be designated as a school holiday in the city school  district
     9  of the city of New York while continuing to allow the district to ensure
    10  that schools are in session for 180 days.
    11    § 2. Section 2586 of the education law is REPEALED.
    12    §  3. Subdivision 2-a of section 3635 of the education law, as amended
    13  by chapter 424 of the laws of 2005, is amended to read as follows:
    14    2-a. The superintendent of each city school district, in a city having
    15  a population in excess of one million, shall  prepare  a  public  school
    16  calendar and shall notify officials of nonpublic schools to which trans-
    17  portation  has  been  requested  not later than the first day of June in
    18  each year, of the days on which the public schools will be in session in
    19  the following school year. Such school district which provides transpor-
    20  tation to nonpublic schools shall provide such  transportation  for  the
    21  same number of days as the public schools are open but shall not provide
    22  transportation  services  for  more than one hundred eighty days.  Offi-
    23  cials of each nonpublic school to which transportation is provided by  a
    24  city  school  district  of  a  city having a population in excess of one
    25  million may notify such district, not later than the first day  of  July

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD02941-01-3
        A. 628                              2

     1  of  each school year, of a maximum of five days, exclusive of Saturdays,
     2  Sundays or legal holidays upon which public schools are required  to  be
     3  closed,  on  which the public schools are scheduled to be closed, except
     4  that  in  any year in which the first or last day of Passover and Easter
     5  Sunday are separated by more than seven days, such officials may  notify
     6  the  district of a maximum of ten days, but such school district will be
     7  required to provide for transportation to such nonpublic school provided
     8  that such five or ten additional  days,  whichever  is  applicable,  are
     9  limited  to  the  following: the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
    10  after Labor Day, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the  week  in  which  public
    11  schools  are  closed  for  spring recess, December twenty-fourth and the
    12  week between Christmas day and New Year's day, and the Tuesday,  Wednes-
    13  day, Thursday and Friday after the observance of Washington's birthday[,
    14  and,  in  the  boroughs  of Brooklyn and Queens only, Anniversary Day as
    15  designated in section twenty-five hundred eighty-six of this chapter].
    16    § 4. This act shall take effect on the first of July  next  succeeding
    17  the date on which it shall have become a law.