STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8013
IN SENATE
March 9, 2020
___________
Introduced by Sen. FELDER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on New York City Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to residency requirements
for certain charter schools
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph (b) of subdivision 2 of section 2854 of the
2 education law, as amended by section 3 of subpart A of part B of chapter
3 20 of the laws of 2015, is amended to read as follows:
4 (b) Any child who is qualified under the laws of this state for admis-
5 sion to a public school is qualified for admission to a charter school,
6 provided that in a city with a population of one million or more, such
7 child lives within a five mile radius of such charter school. Applica-
8 tions for admission to a charter school shall be submitted on a uniform
9 application form created by the department and shall be made available
10 by a charter school in languages predominately spoken in the community
11 in which such charter school is located. The school shall enroll each
12 eligible student who submits a timely application by the first day of
13 April each year, unless the number of applications exceeds the capacity
14 of the grade level or building. In such cases, students shall be
15 accepted from among applicants by a random selection process, provided,
16 however, that an enrollment preference shall be provided to pupils
17 returning to the charter school in the second or any subsequent year of
18 operation and pupils residing in the school district in which the char-
19 ter school is located, or in the case of a city with a population of one
20 million or more, pupils residing within a five mile radius of such char-
21 ter school, and siblings of pupils already enrolled in the charter
22 school. Preference may also be provided to children of employees of the
23 charter school or charter management organization, provided that such
24 children of employees may constitute no more than fifteen percent of the
25 charter school's total enrollment. The commissioner shall establish
26 regulations to require that the random selection process conducted
27 pursuant to this paragraph be performed in a transparent and equitable
28 manner and to require that the time and place of the random selection
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD15755-01-0
S. 8013 2
1 process be publicized in a manner consistent with the requirements of
2 section one hundred four of the public officers law and be open to the
3 public. For the purposes of [this paragraph and] paragraph (a) of this
4 subdivision, the school district in which the charter school is located
5 shall mean, for the city school district of the city of New York, the
6 community district in which the charter school is located.
7 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding
8 the date on which it shall have become a law.