NY State Senate Bill 2011-S5173

Senate Bill S5173

2011-2012 Legislative Session

Ensures that special education children are provided with transportation to preschool by their parents if such parents have the means and ability to provide such transportation

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Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Education Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

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Actions

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	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 04, 2012	referred to education
May 13, 2011	committee discharged and committed to education
May 03, 2011	referred to higher education

2011-S5173 (ACTIVE) - Details

Current Committee:: Senate Education
Law Section:: Education Law
Laws Affected:: Amd §4410, Ed L

2011-S5173 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Ensures that special education children are provided with transportation to preschool by their parents if such parents have the means and ability to provide such transportation; provides reimbursement payments for parental transportation.

2011-S5173 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                BILL NUMBER:S5173       REVISED 08/22/11

TITLE OF BILL:
An act
to amend
the education law, in relation to ensuring that special education
children are provided with transportation to preschool by their parents
if the parents have the means and ability to provide such transportation

PURPOSE:
To encourage parents of children receiving preschool special education
services to independently provide transportation to and from services.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Requires parents to certify whether they can independently
transport their children to preschool special education services.
Provides that per diem reimbursement to the parents shall be paid
within 30 days of a claim being submitted.

Section 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

EXISTING LAW:
Some localities choose to inquire whether parents can provide
independent transportation to their children for preschool special
education services.

JUSTIFICATION:
Counties are currently required to provide transportation services for
children ages 3 - 5 receiving preschool special education services.
Most of the time, this involves soliciting bids from transportation
companies, and
entering into expensive contracts whose cost is shared between the
county and New York State.

Such transportation contracts are expensive in terms of both staff
time and cost per student. A bid proposal takes a great deal of
expertise to design, and evaluating bidders is a lengthy and
complicated process. In addition, the special education services that
each child receives are often very different, necessitating different
routes and visits to different locations, not to mention picking up
and dropping off children at each of their homes.

This legislation would provide that counties solicit at the start of a
child's preschool special education services curriculum whether the
child's parent has the ability to independently provide
transportation to and from these services. Simply put, parents could
do it for significantly cheaper, and many would often choose
overseeing their child's transportation personally rather than
leaving it to a transportation company whose employees, practices and
safety history they may not be familiar with.

This legislation would also provide any parent electing to transport
their own child with the standard federal per diem reimbursement for
their time and expenses. This reimbursement would not qualify as
miscellaneous income for tax purposes and remain tax-free.


A per diem reimbursement would provide savings to both county and
state taxpayers. Given the high marginal cost of special education
transportation, (owing to the unique curriculum designed for each
child's need), any parents that elect to independently transport
their child would be saving the public money. Given the unique
circumstances surrounding this transportation, no economies of scale
savings are possible. That is, each additional child that needs to be
transported increases, not decreases, the average cost of
transporting a child.

This change in law provides flexibility for both the Counties and the
parents, and is expected to produce much-needed savings on the local
level statewide.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Savings to the state.

LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Savings to localities.

EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

2011-S5173 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

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

                                  5173

                       2011-2012 Regular Sessions

                            I N  S E N A T E

                               May 3, 2011
                               ___________

Introduced  by Sen. GALLIVAN -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
  printed to be committed to the Committee on Higher Education

AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to ensuring that  special
  education  children  are  provided with transportation to preschool by
  their parents if the parents have the means  and  ability  to  provide
  such transportation

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

  Section 1. Subdivision 8 of section 4410  of  the  education  law,  as
amended  by  chapter  474  of  the  laws  of 1996, is amended to read as
follows:
  8. Transportation. The municipality in which a preschool child resides
shall, beginning with the first day of service, provide either  directly
or  by contract for suitable transportation, as determined by the board,
to and from special services or programs; provided, however, that if the
municipality is a city with a population of one million or more  persons
the  municipality may delegate the authority to provide such transporta-
tion to the board; and provided further, that prior  to  providing  such
transportation  directly  or  contracting with another entity to provide
such transportation,  such  municipality  or  board  shall  request  and
encourage  the  parents  to  transport their children at public expense,
where cost-effective, at a rate per mile or a public service fare estab-
lished by the municipality and approved by the commissioner.  TO FURTHER
ENCOURAGE PARENT PROVIDED  TRANSPORTATION,  REIMBURSEMENT  PAYMENTS  FOR
PARENTAL TRANSPORTATION SHALL BE PAID WITHIN THIRTY DAYS FROM THE DATE A
VALID  REIMBURSEMENT  REQUEST  IS FILED WITH THE MUNICIPALITY. Except as
otherwise provided in this section, the parents' inability [or  declina-
tion]  to  transport  their  child  shall  in no way [effect] AFFECT the
municipality's  or  board's  responsibility   to   provide   recommended
services.    IF IT IS DETERMINED THAT A PARENT HAS THE ABILITY AND MEANS
TO PROVIDE TRANSPORTATION TO THEIR SPECIAL  EDUCATION  PRESCHOOL  CHILD,

 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                           LBD11356-01-1

S. 5173                             2

THEN  IT IS THE MUNICIPALITY OR BOARD'S DISCRETION ON WHETHER TO PROVIDE
TRANSPORTATION. THE DETERMINATION OF A PARENT'S  ABILITY  AND  MEANS  TO
PROVIDE  TRANSPORTATION  SHALL BE MADE BY PROOF OF A PHYSICALLY LIMITING
DISABILITY  WHICH  RENDERS  A  PARENT  OR  GUARDIAN OF A CHILD UNABLE TO
ACCOMPANY THE CHILD TO OR  FROM  PRESCHOOL  SPECIAL  EDUCATION  SERVICES
WHICH  SHALL  BE CERTIFIED BY A DOCTOR IN A FORM TO BE PRESCRIBED BY THE
DEPARTMENT; PROOF OF AN INABILITY TO PROVIDE  TRANSPORTATION  DUE  TO  A
PARENT  OR  GUARDIAN  EMPLOYMENT  OBLIGATIONS  SHALL BE MADE BY A SIGNED
AFFIDAVIT OF THE PARENT OR GUARDIAN TO BE FILED  WITH  THE  MUNICIPALITY
PROVIDING  THE  TRANSPORTATION. ADDITIONALLY, IF A PARENT OR GUARDIAN IS
UNABLE TO TRANSPORT THEIR CHILD DUE TO THE INABILITY TO GAIN  ACCESS  TO
AND/OR  OPERATE  A MOTOR VEHICLE, SUCH AS, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, NOT BEING
LICENSED TO OPERATE A MOTOR VEHICLE, THE GUARDIAN OR PARENT  SHALL  FILE
AN  AFFIDAVIT  WITH  THE MUNICIPALITY LISTING THE REASON FOR THE LACK OF
ACCESS TO AND/OR OPERATION OF A MOTOR VEHICLE. Such transportation shall
be provided once daily from the  child  care  location  to  the  special
service or program and once daily from the special service or program to
the  child care location up to fifty miles from the child care location.
If the board determines that a child must receive special  services  and
programs  at  a  location  greater  than fifty miles from the child care
location, it  shall  request  approval  of  the  commissioner.  For  the
purposes  of this subdivision, the term "child care location" shall mean
a child's home or a place where care for less than twenty-four  hours  a
day  is provided on a regular basis and includes, but is not limited to,
a variety of child care services such as day care  centers,  family  day
care homes and in-home care by persons other than parents. All transpor-
tation of such children shall be provided pursuant to the procedures set
forth  in  section  two hundred thirty-six of the family court act using
the date called for in the written notice of determination of the  board
or  the date of the written notice of determination of the board, which-
ever comes later, in lieu of the date the court order was issued.
  S 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

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