S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
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                                  4261

                       2009-2010 Regular Sessions

                          I N  A S S E M B L Y

                            February 2, 2009
                               ___________

Introduced  by  M. of A. CROUCH, MOLINARO -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of
  A. CALHOUN, McDONOUGH, TOWNSEND, WALKER -- read once and  referred  to
  the Committee on Education

AN  ACT  to  amend the education law, in relation to exemptions from the
  reduction of school aid

  THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  Section  1.  Subdivision  7  of  section 3604 of the education law, as
amended by section 31 of part B of chapter 57 of the laws  of  2007,  is
amended to read as follows:
  7.  No district shall be entitled to any portion of such school moneys
on such apportionment unless the report of  the  trustees  or  board  of
education  for  the  preceding  school  year  shall show that the public
schools were actually in session in the district and taught by a  quali-
fied  teacher or by successive qualified teachers or by qualified teach-
ers for not less than one hundred eighty days. The moneys payable  to  a
school  district  pursuant  to section thirty-six hundred nine-a of this
[chapter] PART in the current year shall be reduced by  one  one-hundred
eightieth  of the district's total foundation aid for each day less than
one hundred eighty days that the schools of the district  were  actually
in  session,  except that the commissioner may disregard such reduction,
up to five days, in the apportionment of public money, if he finds  that
the  schools  of the district were not in session for one hundred eighty
days because of extraordinarily adverse weather  conditions,  impairment
of  heating facilities, insufficiency of water supply, shortage of fuel,
lack of electricity, natural gas leakage, unacceptable levels of  chemi-
cal  substances,  [or]  the  destruction  of a school building either in
whole or in part,  OR  OTHER  EMERGENCY  SITUATIONS  THAT  REQUIRED  THE
SCHOOL'S  CLOSURE FOR THE HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELL-BEING OF ITS STAFF AND
STUDENTS, and if, further, the commissioner  finds  that  such  district
cannot  make  up  such  days  of  instruction by using for the secondary

 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                           LBD06889-01-9
              

A. 4261                             2

grades all scheduled vacation days which occur prior to the first sched-
uled regents examination day in June, and for the elementary grades  all
scheduled  vacation days which occur prior to the last scheduled regents
examination  day  in June. For the purposes of this subdivision, "sched-
uled vacation days" shall mean days on which the schools of the district
are not in session and for which no prohibition  exists  in  subdivision
eight of this section for them to be in session.
  S 2. This act shall take effect immediately.