STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          7573

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                      June 7, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by Sen. KAVANAGH -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules

        AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to declaring Asian  Lunar
          New Year a school holiday

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

     1    Section 1. Subdivision 8 of section 3604  of  the  education  law,  as
     2  amended  by  chapter  605  of  the  laws  of 2019, is amended to read as
     3  follows:
     4    8. No school shall be in session on a Saturday, the first day  of  the
     5  second  lunar  month after the winter solstice in the preceding calendar
     6  year known as Asian Lunar New Year, or a legal holiday,  except  general
     7  election  day,  Washington's birthday and Lincoln's birthday, and except
     8  that driver education classes may be conducted on a  Saturday.  A  defi-
     9  ciency  not  exceeding four days during any school year caused by teach-
    10  ers' attendance upon conferences held by superintendents of  schools  of
    11  city  school  districts  or other school districts employing superinten-
    12  dents of schools shall be excused by the  commissioner,  notwithstanding
    13  any  provision  of  law,  rule  or  regulation to the contrary, a school
    14  district may elect to schedule such conference  days  in  the  last  two
    15  weeks  of August, subject to collective bargaining requirements pursuant
    16  to article fourteen of the civil service law, and  such  days  shall  be
    17  counted  towards  the  required  one  hundred  eighty  days  of session,
    18  provided however, that such scheduling shall not alter the obligation of
    19  the school district to provide transportation to students in  non-public
    20  elementary  and  secondary schools or charter schools. At least two such
    21  conference days during such school year  shall  be  dedicated  to  staff
    22  attendance  upon  conferences  providing  staff  development relating to
    23  implementation of the new high learning standards  and  assessments,  as
    24  adopted by the board of regents.  Notwithstanding any other provision of
    25  law,  rule  or regulation to the contrary, school districts may elect to

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD11775-01-3

        S. 7573                             2

     1  use one or more of such allowable conference days in units of  not  less
     2  than  one  hour each to provide staff development activities relating to
     3  implementation of the new high learning  standards  and  assessments.  A
     4  district  making such election may provide such staff development on any
     5  day during which sessions are allowed and apply such units to satisfy  a
     6  deficiency  in  the  length of one or more daily sessions of instruction
     7  for pupils as specified in regulations of the commissioner. The  commis-
     8  sioner shall assure that such conference days include appropriate school
     9  violence  prevention  and intervention training, and may require that up
    10  to one such conference day be dedicated for such purpose.
    11    § 2.  Subdivision 2-a of section 3635 of the education law, as amended
    12  by chapter 424 of the laws of 2005, is amended to read as follows:
    13    2-a. The superintendent of each city school district, in a city having
    14  a population in excess of one million, shall  prepare  a  public  school
    15  calendar and shall notify officials of nonpublic schools to which trans-
    16  portation  has  been  requested  not later than the first day of June in
    17  each year, of the days on which the public schools will be in session in
    18  the following school year. Such school district which provides transpor-
    19  tation to nonpublic schools shall provide such  transportation  for  the
    20  same number of days as the public schools are open but shall not provide
    21  transportation  services  for  more than one hundred eighty days.  Offi-
    22  cials of each nonpublic school to which transportation is provided by  a
    23  city  school  district  of  a  city having a population in excess of one
    24  million may notify such district, not later than the first day  of  July
    25  of  each school year, of a maximum of five days, exclusive of Saturdays,
    26  Sundays or legal holidays upon which public schools are required  to  be
    27  closed,  on  which the public schools are scheduled to be closed, except
    28  that in any year in which the first or last day of Passover  and  Easter
    29  Sunday  are separated by more than seven days, such officials may notify
    30  the district of a maximum of ten days, but such school district will  be
    31  required to provide for transportation to such nonpublic school provided
    32  that  such  five  or  ten  additional days, whichever is applicable, are
    33  limited to the following: the Tuesday, Wednesday,  Thursday  and  Friday
    34  after  Labor  Day,  Rosh  Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the week in which public
    35  schools are closed for spring recess,  December  twenty-fourth  and  the
    36  week  between  Christmas day and New Year's day, the Tuesday, Wednesday,
    37  Thursday and Friday after the observance of Washington's  birthday,  the
    38  first  day  of  the  second lunar month after the winter solstice in the
    39  preceding calendar year, known as Asian Lunar  New  Year,  and,  in  the
    40  boroughs  of  Brooklyn and Queens only, Anniversary Day as designated in
    41  section twenty-five hundred eighty-six of this chapter.
    42    § 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2023.