Bill Text: NY A10616 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Directs the commissioner of education to establish a statewide school safety tip line to permit students and others to report information related to incidents of students causing harm to the physical or mental health of another student or school employee, or a threat of such harm.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-06-20 - referred to education [A10616 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A10616-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          10616

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                      June 20, 2024
                                       ___________

        Introduced by COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Rajkumar) --
          read once and referred to the Committee on Education

        AN  ACT to amend the education law, in relation to establishing a state-
          wide school safety tip line

          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 319 to
     2  read as follows:
     3    §  319.  Statewide  school  safety tip line. 1. The commissioner shall
     4  establish a statewide school safety tip line. The tip line  shall  be  a
     5  statewide telecommunications resource that accepts information via tele-
     6  phone,  text  message, the internet, or any other medium for the purpose
     7  of reporting information related to incidents of students  causing  harm
     8  to  the physical or mental health of another student or school employee,
     9  or a threat of such harm.
    10    2. The commissioner shall promulgate rules and  regulations  necessary
    11  to operate the tip line, including, but not limited to:
    12    (a)  provisions  which protect the personally identifiable information
    13  of the person reporting information but which permit local law  enforce-
    14  ment  or school personnel to follow up on such reports or obtain further
    15  information from the person making the report;
    16    (b) procedures for logging reports received on the tip line;
    17    (c) referral of information to school districts  or  law  enforcement;
    18  and
    19    (d) tracking outcomes of any action taken in response to the referral.
    20    3.  Any  person authorized to receive personally identifiable informa-
    21  tion through the tip line may only disclose  such  information  for  the
    22  purpose  of  making  follow-up contact or obtaining or providing further
    23  information, unless such disclosure is required by another provision  of
    24  law.
    25    4. Nothing in this section shall prevent the department from releasing
    26  aggregated  or  summary  data  for  reporting purposes; or educating the
    27  public about the tip line through narratives of cases,  without  disclo-
    28  sure of personally identifiable information.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD05480-01-3
        A. 10616                            2

     1    5. Every public school building shall display one or more signs adver-
     2  tising  the  tip line that is visible to school employees, students, and
     3  parents or guardians.
     4    6.  The  statewide  tip  line  mandated  under  this section shall not
     5  preclude operation of any other such tip line or other similar  resource
     6  operated regionally or by a school district in this state.
     7    §  2.  This  act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
     8  have become a law.