STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 3069 2021-2022 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY January 22, 2021 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. STECK -- read once and referred to the Committee on Education AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to residency requirements for charter schools The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Paragraph (b) of subdivision 2 of section 2854 of the 2 education law, as amended by section 3 of subpart A of part B of chapter 3 20 of the laws of 2015, is amended to read as follows: 4 (b) Any child who is qualified under the laws of this state for admis- 5 sion to a public school is qualified for admission to a charter school, 6 provided that such child lives in the local school district in which the 7 charter school is located. Applications for admission to a charter 8 school shall be submitted on a uniform application form created by the 9 department and shall be made available by a charter school in languages 10 predominately spoken in the community in which such charter school is 11 located. The school shall enroll each eligible student who submits a 12 timely application by the first day of April each year, unless the 13 number of applications exceeds the capacity of the grade level or build- 14 ing. In such cases, students shall be accepted from among applicants by 15 a random selection process, provided, however, that an enrollment pref- 16 erence shall be provided to pupils returning to the charter school in 17 the second or any subsequent year of operation and pupils residing in 18 the school district in which the charter school is located, and siblings 19 of pupils already enrolled in the charter school. Preference may also be 20 provided to children of employees of the charter school or charter 21 management organization, provided that such children of employees may 22 constitute no more than fifteen percent of the charter school's total 23 enrollment. The commissioner shall establish regulations to require that 24 the random selection process conducted pursuant to this paragraph be 25 performed in a transparent and equitable manner and to require that the EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD04035-01-1A. 3069 2 1 time and place of the random selection process be publicized in a manner 2 consistent with the requirements of section one hundred four of the 3 public officers law and be open to the public. For the purposes of this 4 paragraph and paragraph (a) of this subdivision, the school district in 5 which the charter school is located shall mean, for the city school 6 district of the city of New York, the community district in which the 7 charter school is located. 8 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding 9 the date on which it shall have become a law.