Bill Text: NY A05755 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires school districts to establish a medical hardship waiver policy to grant or deny permission to certain students to use established pick-up and drop-off points on established bus routes.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-05 - referred to education [A05755 Detail]
Download: New_York-2021-A05755-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5755 2021-2022 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY February 24, 2021 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. CUSICK, COLTON, OTIS, McDONOUGH -- Multi-Spon- sored by -- M. of A. SIMON -- read once and referred to the Committee on Education AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to requiring school districts to establish a medical hardship waiver policy to grant or deny permission to certain students to use established pick-up and drop-off points on established bus routes The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 3635 of the education law is 2 amended by adding a new paragraph h to read as follows: 3 h. (i) The board of education or trustees of each school district and 4 the city school district of New York shall develop a medical hardship 5 waiver policy to grant or deny permission to children attending grades 6 kindergarten through eight who live within two miles from the school 7 which they legally attend and for children attending grades nine through 8 twelve who live within three miles from the school which they legally 9 attend to use already established pick-up and/or drop-off points on 10 already established bus routes. 11 (ii) The medical hardship waiver policy established pursuant to 12 subparagraph (i) of this paragraph shall include: 13 (1) a formal request procedure for a parent or guardian to request a 14 medical hardship waiver based upon a serious medical condition suffered 15 by the child, parent or guardian and the resulting hardship in trans- 16 porting the child to and/or from school; 17 (2) a requirement for submission of medical documentation, certified 18 by a physician or other duly authorized health care provider, of a diag- 19 nosis of a serious medical condition with a description of the limita- 20 tions resulting from such diagnosis and the approximate duration that 21 such limitations will be suffered by the child, parent or guardian; EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD01157-01-1A. 5755 2 1 (3) a requirement for submission of documentation of the nature of the 2 hardship including the inability of the child to safely travel to and/or 3 from school without the requested medical hardship waiver or of the 4 inability of the parent or guardian to safely transport the child to 5 and/or from school due to the parent or guardian suffering a serious 6 medical condition; 7 (4) consideration of the cost, if any, that would be incurred by a 8 school district in granting the medical hardship request for such trans- 9 portation; 10 (5) a requirement of a written acceptance or denial of the medical 11 hardship request upon a vote of the school board and that such written 12 acceptance or denial shall be provided to the requesting parent or guar- 13 dian within one hundred eighty days of the submission of the request; 14 and 15 (6) any other provisions or considerations deemed appropriate by the 16 school district. 17 (iii) Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to require school 18 districts to create new bus stops or routes to accommodate such request. 19 (iv) Transportation for a lesser distance than two miles in the case 20 of children attending grades kindergarten through eight or three miles 21 in the case of children attending grades nine through twelve may be 22 provided through an approved medical hardship waiver pursuant to this 23 paragraph without the approval of qualified voters and without any 24 requirement to offer such transportation equally to all children in like 25 circumstances residing in the district. 26 (v) The cost of providing such transportation shall be a charge upon 27 the district and for the purposes of subdivision seven of section thir- 28 ty-six hundred two of this article, such pupils shall be considered 29 nonallowable pupils and the costs of their transportation shall not be 30 aidable. 31 § 2. Paragraph a of subdivision 1 of section 3635 of the education 32 law, as amended by section 11 of part A of chapter 97 of the laws of 33 2011, is amended to read as follows: 34 a. Sufficient transportation facilities (including the operation and 35 maintenance of motor vehicles) shall be provided by the school district 36 for all the children residing within the school district to and from the 37 school they legally attend, who are in need of such transportation 38 because of the remoteness of the school to the child or for the 39 promotion of the best interest of such children. Such transportation 40 shall be provided for all children attending grades kindergarten through 41 eight who live more than two miles from the school which they legally 42 attend or who are granted a waiver pursuant to paragraph h of this 43 subdivision and for all children attending grades nine through twelve 44 who live more than three miles from the school which they legally attend 45 or who are granted a waiver pursuant to paragraph h of this subdivision 46 and shall be provided for each such child up to a distance of fifteen 47 miles, the distances in each case being measured by the nearest avail- 48 able route from home to school. The cost of providing such transporta- 49 tion between two or three miles or pursuant to such a waiver, as the 50 case may be, and fifteen miles shall be considered for the purposes of 51 this chapter to be a charge upon the district and an ordinary contingent 52 expense of the district. Transportation for a lesser distance than two 53 miles in the case of children attending grades kindergarten through 54 eight or three miles in the case of children attending grades nine 55 through twelve and for a greater distance than fifteen miles may be 56 provided by the district with the approval of the qualified voters, and,A. 5755 3 1 if provided, shall be offered equally to all children in like circum- 2 stances residing in the district; provided, however, that this require- 3 ment shall not apply to transportation offered pursuant to section thir- 4 ty-six hundred thirty-five-b of this article or pursuant to paragraph h 5 of this subdivision. 6 § 3. Paragraph d of subdivision 7 of section 3602 of the education 7 law, as amended by section 22 of part C of chapter 57 of the laws of 8 2004, is amended to read as follows: 9 d. In determining approved transportation operating expense for 10 district-owned transportation and approved transportation capital, debt 11 service and lease expense pursuant to paragraphs b, c and e of this 12 subdivision and part two of this article, the commissioner shall make a 13 deduction from the total transportation expense for the transportation 14 of nonallowable pupils, and for that portion of the total annual mileage 15 of district-owned school buses that is not aidable because it is not 16 included in the total annual allowable mileage as defined in section 17 thirty-six hundred twenty-one of this article, provided that such calcu- 18 lations shall be made pursuant to regulations of the commissioner, and 19 further provided that such regulations shall provide for an exclusion of 20 pupil miles for transportation provided on a space-available basis to 21 pupils attending an approved universal prekindergarten program pursuant 22 to section thirty-six hundred two-e of this [article] part as well as 23 pupils transported under a medical hardship waiver pursuant to paragraph 24 h of subdivision one of section thirty-six hundred thirty-five of this 25 article that [does] do not result in additional transportation costs. 26 § 4. The commissioner of education may promulgate such rules and regu- 27 lations as he or she deems necessary to carry out the purposes of this 28 act. 29 § 5. This act shall take effect immediately.
