Bill Text: NY S03397 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

---

Bill Title: Establishes a maximum temperature in school buildings and indoor facilities; provides a definition of extreme heat condition days and the standard to measure room temperature.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 15-8)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - REFERRED TO EDUCATION [S03397 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S03397-Introduced.html

---

                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          3397

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                    January 31, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sens. SKOUFIS, ADDABBO, GOUNARDES, HOYLMAN-SIGAL, LANZA,
          PARKER, THOMAS, WEIK -- read  twice  and  ordered  printed,  and  when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Education

        AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to establishing a maximum
          temperature in school buildings and indoor facilities

          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 409-n
     2  to read as follows:
     3    § 409-n. Maximum temperatures in school buildings and facilities.  All
     4  common, union free, central, central high schools, city school districts
     5  and  boards  of  cooperative educational services shall develop a policy
     6  for ensuring the health  and  safety  of  students,  faculty  and  other
     7  employees, including, but not limited to, kitchen and cafeteria workers,
     8  on extreme heat condition days. For the purpose of this section, extreme
     9  heat  condition days shall be defined as days when the occupiable educa-
    10  tional and support services spaces are found to be eighty-two degrees or
    11  greater Fahrenheit. For the purpose of this  section,  support  services
    12  spaces  shall  include, but not be limited to, kitchen areas used in the
    13  preparation of food for consumption by students.   For  the  purpose  of
    14  this  section,  room temperature shall be measured at a shaded location,
    15  three feet above the floor near the center of the room. Schools shall be
    16  required to take action to relieve  heat  related  discomfort  when  the
    17  occupied space temperature reaches eighty-two degrees Fahrenheit. Educa-
    18  tional  and  support  services spaces cannot be occupied if room temper-
    19  ature reaches eighty-eight degrees Fahrenheit.
    20    § 2. Paragraph a of subdivision 3 of section 2801-a of  the  education
    21  law,  as  amended  by  section  1 of part B of chapter 54 of the laws of
    22  2016, is amended to read as follows:
    23    a. policies  and  procedures  for  response  to  emergency  situations
    24  including  extreme  heat conditions, such as those requiring evacuation,

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD02813-01-3
        S. 3397                             2

     1  sheltering, and lock-down. These policies shall include, at  a  minimum,
     2  evacuation  routes, shelter sites, and procedures for addressing medical
     3  needs, transportation and emergency notification of parents and  guardi-
     4  ans;
     5    § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
     6  it shall have become a law.