Bill Text: NY A09143 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: Creates the New York state private not-for-profit special education schools revolving loan fund to provide zero interest loans to private not-for-profit special education schools in NYC to cover a portion of tuition costs for up to two years; appropriates two hundred million dollars.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 18-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-03-04 - print number 9143b [A09143 Detail]
Download: New_York-2021-A09143-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 9143--B IN ASSEMBLY January 31, 2022 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. CYMBROWITZ, BURDICK, BENEDETTO, ABBATE, HEVESI, SAYEGH, COLTON, TAPIA, EICHENSTEIN, SIMON, DAVILA, L. ROSENTHAL, COOK, ROZIC -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. BRAUNSTEIN -- read once and referred to the Committee on Education -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit- tee -- again reported from said committee with amendments, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to creating the New York state private not-for-profit special education schools revolving loan fund; and making an appropriation therefor 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 4409 2 to read as follows: 3 § 4409. Revolving loan fund for private not-for-profit special educa- 4 tion schools. 1. There is hereby established a fund to be known as the 5 New York state private not-for-profit special education schools revolv- 6 ing loan fund. Such fund shall consist of moneys made available pursuant 7 to appropriation and any other sources in order to provide support to 8 private not-for-profit schools for special education students of school 9 age approved pursuant to section forty-four hundred four of this arti- 10 cle. The fund shall be administered by the department; provided, howev- 11 er, that the commissioner may enter into an agreement with a bank or 12 trust company to administer loans under this section. 13 2. (a) Loans under this section shall be interest free, except as 14 otherwise provided in this subdivision. A school shall be allowed to 15 submit one loan request application every two years. The lending period 16 shall be a maximum of twenty-four months. A school shall submit to the 17 department a loan repayment schedule detailing how the full amount will 18 be repaid within the final ninety days of the twenty-four month loan 19 period and complete all payments as per that schedule. If a school fails 20 to comply with such schedule it will not receive any new funding until 21 the loan is fully repaid. An interest rate of six percent per annum 22 shall be charged for each month that a loan payment is in arrears. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD11685-11-2A. 9143--B 2 1 (b) All new loan request applications shall be submitted no later than 2 the last day of the twenty-first month in the twenty-four month loan 3 period. The comptroller shall determine if available funds can satisfy 4 the loan requests of all such eligible applications by the first of 5 August of that year. If it is determined that available funds cannot 6 satisfy all eligible loan request applications, each eligible school 7 shall be assigned an amount reduced proportionally. Each school that 8 applied shall be notified of their eligibility and the dollar amount 9 available to them by August twentieth of that year. 10 3. A private not-for-profit special education school shall meet the 11 following requirements to be eligible to be approved for a loan under 12 this section: 13 (a) A school shall be incorporated in New York state. 14 (b) A school must have a current enrollment with at least fifty 15 percent of students having an individualized education program (IEP) as 16 defined in 20 U.S.C. § 1414(d). 17 4. The loan amount to a school shall be limited to a maximum of one 18 hundred percent of the total amount of pending tuition payments in the 19 prior year pursuant to subdivision four of section forty-four hundred 20 four of this article and the total amount of the school district agreed 21 tuition settlement offers in the prior year. 22 5. For a pending payment or school district agreed tuition settlement 23 offer to qualify for inclusion in the loan amount calculation: 24 (a) the private not-for-profit special education school must have 25 accepted the student without collecting any tuition from the parents 26 with the intent of seeking a tuition settlement pursuant to section 27 forty-four hundred four of this article. A refundable deposit is not 28 considered tuition; and 29 (b) the payment must be on behalf of a student with an IEP as defined 30 in 20 U.S.C. § 1414(d). 31 6. The school district settlement offer or hearing decision for one 32 year of tuition must be for a minimum of forty thousand dollars. 33 § 2. The sum of two hundred million dollars ($200,000,000), or so much 34 thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated to the New York 35 state private not-for-profit special education schools revolving loan 36 fund and made immediately available, for the purpose of carrying out the 37 provisions of this act. 38 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.