Assembly Bill A9878

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

                                  9878

                          I N  A S S E M B L Y

                             April 19, 2012
                               ___________

Introduced  by  M. of A. MENG -- read once and referred to the Committee
  on Education

AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to establishing the Asian
  Lunar New Year school holiday and removing Anniversary  Day  from  the
  list of school holidays

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

  Section 1.  Section 2586 of the education law is REPEALED  and  a  new
section 2586 is added to read as follows:
  S  2586.  ASIAN  LUNAR  SCHOOL  HOLIDAY. 1. THE DAY OF THE ASIAN LUNAR
CALENDAR DESIGNATED AS THE FIRST DAY OF A NEW YEAR AND COMMONLY KNOWN AS
"ASIAN LUNAR NEW YEAR'S DAY" SHALL BE A SCHOOL HOLIDAY  FOR  ALL  PUBLIC
SCHOOLS IN A QUALIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT.
  2.  A  QUALIFIED  SCHOOL DISTRICT, FOR PURPOSES OF THIS SECTION, SHALL
INCLUDE A CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT OF A CITY  HAVING  A  POPULATION  OF  ONE
MILLION  OR  MORE INHABITANTS AND HAVING AN ASIAN POPULATION EQUAL TO OR
GREATER THAN SEVEN AND ONE-HALF PERCENT THEREOF. THE  ASIAN  POPULATION,
FOR  PURPOSES  OF  THIS SECTION, SHALL INCLUDE THOSE PERSONS, ADULTS AND
CHILDREN, WHO ARE FULLY OR PARTIALLY OF ASIAN DESCENT AND SHALL  INCLUDE
ALL  THOSE  PERSONS  AND ETHNIC GROUPS IDENTIFIED AS ASIAN BY THE UNITED
STATES CENSUS BUREAU FOR PURPOSES  OF  THE  YEAR  TWO  THOUSAND  FEDERAL
DECENNIAL CENSUS.
  3. THE SCHOOL AUTHORITIES OF EVERY QUALIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT ARE HERE-
BY  AUTHORIZED  AND  DIRECTED  TO  CAUSE  ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS WITHIN SUCH
DISTRICT TO BE CLOSED ON ASIAN LUNAR NEW YEAR DAY.
  S 2. Section 3604 of the education law is  amended  by  adding  a  new
subdivision 7-a to read as follows:
  7-A.  NOTWITHSTANDING  ANY OTHER PROVISION OF LAW, FOR PURPOSES OF ANY
CALCULATION UNDER SUBDIVISION  SEVEN  OR  EIGHT  OF  THIS  SECTION,  THE
COMMISSIONER  SHALL DISREGARD ANY REDUCTION RESULTING FROM OBSERVANCE OF
THE ASIAN LUNAR NEW YEAR AND, IF NECESSARY, SUCH OBSERVED HOLIDAY  SHALL
BE CALCULATED AS A SESSION DAY.
  S  3. Subdivision 2-a of section 3635 of the education law, as amended
by chapter 424 of the laws of 2005, is amended to read as follows:

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

                                                           LBD15069-01-2

A. 9878                             2

  2-a. The superintendent of each city school district, in a city having
a population in excess of one million, shall  prepare  a  public  school
calendar and shall notify officials of nonpublic schools to which trans-
portation  has  been  requested  not later than the first day of June in
each year, of the days on which the public schools will be in session in
the following school year. Such school district which provides transpor-
tation  to  nonpublic  schools shall provide such transportation for the
same number of days as the public schools are open but shall not provide
transportation services for more than one hundred eighty  days.    Offi-
cials  of each nonpublic school to which transportation is provided by a
city school district of a city having a  population  in  excess  of  one
million  may  notify such district, not later than the first day of July
of each school year, of a maximum of five days, exclusive of  Saturdays,
Sundays  or  legal holidays upon which public schools are required to be
closed, on which the public schools are scheduled to be  closed,  except
that  in  any year in which the first or last day of Passover and Easter
Sunday are separated by more than seven days, such officials may  notify
the  district of a maximum of ten days, but such school district will be
required to provide for transportation to such nonpublic school provided
that such five or ten additional  days,  whichever  is  applicable,  are
limited  to  the  following: the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
after Labor Day, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the  week  in  which  public
schools  are  closed  for  spring recess, December twenty-fourth and the
week between Christmas day and New Year's day, the  Tuesday,  Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday after the observance of Washington's birthday, and[,
in  the  boroughs  of  Brooklyn  and Queens only, Anniversary Day] ASIAN
LUNAR NEW YEAR as designated in section twenty-five  hundred  eighty-six
of this chapter.
  S 4. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
it  shall  have  become a law; provided that any and all rules and regu-
lations and any other measures necessary to implement any  provision  of
this act on its effective date may be promulgated and taken, respective-
ly, on or before such effective date.