Bill Text: NY A07769 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced


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

Spectrum: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 31-3)

Status: (Passed) 2023-11-14 - signed chap.629 [A07769 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A07769-Introduced.html



                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          7769

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                      June 7, 2023
                                       ___________

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

        AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to establishing Diwali as
          a school holiday in certain public schools

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

     1    Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 2586-a
     2  to read as follows:
     3    § 2586-a. Diwali as a holiday in the public schools of the city of New
     4  York. The fifteenth day of the eighth month of the  Indian  calendar  in
     5  each  year, known as Diwali, is hereby made and declared to be a holiday
     6  in all the public schools in the city school district in the city of New
     7  York and such public schools shall not be in session on such day.
     8    § 2. Subdivision 2-a of section 3635 of the education law, as  amended
     9  by chapter 424 of the laws of 2005, is amended to read as follows:
    10    2-a. The superintendent of each city school district, in a city having
    11  a  population  in  excess  of one million, shall prepare a public school
    12  calendar and shall notify officials of nonpublic schools to which trans-
    13  portation has been requested not later than the first  day  of  June  in
    14  each year, of the days on which the public schools will be in session in
    15  the following school year. Such school district which provides transpor-
    16  tation  to  nonpublic  schools shall provide such transportation for the
    17  same number of days as the public schools are open but shall not provide
    18  transportation services for more than one hundred eighty  days.    Offi-
    19  cials  of each nonpublic school to which transportation is provided by a
    20  city school district of a city having a  population  in  excess  of  one
    21  million  may  notify such district, not later than the first day of July
    22  of each school year, of a maximum of five days, exclusive of  Saturdays,
    23  Sundays  or  legal holidays upon which public schools are required to be
    24  closed, on which the public schools are scheduled to be  closed,  except
    25  that  in  any year in which the first or last day of Passover and Easter

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD11774-01-3

        A. 7769                             2

     1  Sunday are separated by more than seven days, such officials may  notify
     2  the  district of a maximum of ten days, but such school district will be
     3  required to provide for transportation to such nonpublic school provided
     4  that  such  five  or  ten  additional days, whichever is applicable, are
     5  limited to the following: the Tuesday, Wednesday,  Thursday  and  Friday
     6  after  Labor  Day,  Rosh  Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the week in which public
     7  schools are closed for spring recess,  December  twenty-fourth  and  the
     8  week  between  Christmas day and New Year's day, the Tuesday, Wednesday,
     9  Thursday and Friday after the observance of Washington's  birthday,  the
    10  fifteenth  day  of the eighth month of the Indian calendar in each year,
    11  known as Diwali, and, in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens only, Anni-
    12  versary Day as designated in section twenty-five hundred  eighty-six  of
    13  this chapter.
    14    § 3. This act shall take effect on July 1, 2023.
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