STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
10364
IN ASSEMBLY
April 18, 2018
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Introduced by M. of A. NOLAN -- (at request of the State Education
Department) -- read once and referred to the Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to the attendance of
minors upon full day instruction and the conditions under which
districts are entitled to an apportionment of state aid; and repealing
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. Paragraph c of subdivision 1 and subparagraph (i) of para-
2 graph c of subdivision 2 of section 3205 of the education law, paragraph
3 c of subdivision 1 as amended by chapter 518 of the laws of 1993 and
4 subparagraph (i) of paragraph c of subdivision 2 as amended by chapter
5 277 of the laws of 2017, are amended to read as follows:
6 c. For purposes of this article, a minor who becomes six years of age
7 on or before the first of December in any school year shall be required
8 to attend upon full time instruction from the first day that the [appro-
9 priate] public schools are in session [in September of] for such school
10 year, and a minor who becomes six years of age after the first of Decem-
11 ber in any school year shall be required to attend upon full time
12 instruction from the first day of session in the following [September]
13 school year; and, except as otherwise provided in subdivision three of
14 this section, shall be required to remain in attendance until the last
15 day of session in the school year in which the minor becomes sixteen
16 years of age.
17 (i) Minors whose parents elect not to enroll their children in school
18 until the following [September] school year.
19 § 2. Subdivisions 7 and 8 of section 3604 of the education law, subdi-
20 vision 7 as amended by section 3 of part B of chapter 54 of the laws of
21 2016 and subdivision 8 as amended by chapter 260 of the laws of 2012,
22 are amended to read as follows:
23 7. No district shall be entitled to any portion of such school moneys
24 on such apportionment unless the report of the trustees or board of
25 education for the preceding school year shall show that the public
26 schools were actually in session in the district and taught by a quali-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD14821-02-8
A. 10364 2
1 fied teacher or by successive qualified teachers or by qualified teach-
2 ers for not less than one hundred eighty days. The moneys payable to a
3 school district pursuant to section thirty-six hundred nine-a of this
4 chapter in the current year shall be reduced by one one-hundred eight-
5 ieth of the district's total foundation aid for the base year for each
6 day less than one hundred eighty days that the schools of the district
7 were actually in session, except that the commissioner may disregard
8 such reduction[, up to five days,] in the apportionment of public money,
9 (i) for any day on which session had been previously scheduled but the
10 superintendent was required to close the school or schools due to a
11 properly executed declaration of a state or local state of emergency
12 pursuant to article two-B of the executive law or (ii) for up to five
13 days if he or she finds that the schools of the district were not in
14 session for one hundred eighty days because of extraordinarily adverse
15 weather conditions, impairment of heating facilities, insufficiency of
16 water supply, shortage of fuel, lack of electricity, natural gas leak-
17 age, unacceptable levels of chemical substances, a credible threat to
18 student safety as reasonably determined by a lead school official or the
19 destruction of a school building either in whole or in part, and if,
20 further, the commissioner finds that such district cannot make up such
21 days of instruction by using for the secondary grades all scheduled
22 vacation days which occur prior to the first scheduled regents examina-
23 tion day in June, and for the elementary grades all scheduled vacation
24 days which occur prior to the last scheduled regents examination day in
25 June. For the purposes of this subdivision, "scheduled vacation days"
26 shall mean days on which the schools of the district are not in session
27 and for which no prohibition exists in subdivision eight of this section
28 for them to be in session.
29 8. No school shall be in session on a Saturday or a legal holiday,
30 except general election day, Washington's birthday and Lincoln's birth-
31 day, and except that driver education classes may be conducted on a
32 Saturday.
33 8-a. A deficiency not exceeding four days during any school year
34 caused by teachers' attendance upon conferences held by superintendents
35 of schools of city school districts or other school districts employing
36 superintendents of schools shall be excused by the commissioner,
37 notwithstanding any provision of law, rule or regulation to the contra-
38 ry, a school district may elect to schedule such conference days in the
39 last two weeks of August, subject to collective bargaining requirements
40 pursuant to article fourteen of the civil service law, and such days
41 shall be counted towards the required one hundred eighty days of
42 session, provided however, that such scheduling shall not alter the
43 obligation of the school district to provide transportation to students
44 in non-public elementary and secondary schools or charter schools. [The
45 commissioner shall excuse a deficiency not exceeding four days during
46 such school year caused by teachers' attendance upon conferences held by
47 such superintendents, provided that at] At least two such conference
48 days during such school year shall be dedicated to staff attendance upon
49 conferences providing staff development relating to implementation of
50 the new high learning standards and assessments, as adopted by the board
51 of regents. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, rule or regu-
52 lation to the contrary, school districts may elect to use one or more of
53 such allowable conference days in units of not less than one hour each
54 to provide staff development activities relating to implementation of
55 the new high learning standards and assessments. A district making such
56 election may provide such staff development [during the regularly sched-
A. 10364 3
1 uled daily session] on any day during which sessions are allowed and
2 apply such units to satisfy a deficiency in the length of one or more
3 daily sessions of instruction for pupils as specified in regulations of
4 the commissioner. The commissioner shall assure that such conference
5 days include appropriate school violence prevention and intervention
6 training, and may require that up to one such conference day be dedi-
7 cated for such purpose.
8 § 3. Subdivisions 7-a and 7-b of section 3604 of the education law are
9 REPEALED.
10 § 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2018.