Senate Bill S6062

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S6062

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the education law, in relation to
after-school activity participation based on attendance

 PURPOSE :

This legislation is designed to ensure volunteer firefighter and
emergency medical technicians are allowed to participate in
after-school activity when they have left early or arrived late to
respond to an emergency.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1. After-school activity participation based on attendance. No
student shall be barred from participating in any after-school
activity of such student arrives late or leaves early from school due
to engagement in performing duties in an emergency as a firefighter or
emergency medical technician.

Section 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

 JUSTIFICATION :

In February, 2017, a student was prevented from suiting up for his
basketball team's playoff game after he missed the team bus while
              

responding to a rescue call to help an angler who had become stranded
on a drifting block of ice on Lake Ontario.

The student was a member of the local fire department who responded to
a call issued by emergency services officials. School officials said a
long-standing policy bars students from participating in away games if
they do not travel on the team bus or have a parent bring them to the
game. This legislation will guarantee that students who also serve as
volunteer emergency medical service providers, firefighters or serve
as a member of a volunteer ambulance service will not be penalized or
prevented from participating in after-school activities or athletics
because they left school early or arrived late to assist in an
emergency.

Communities benefit from encouraging young people to volunteer their
time as members of volunteer fire departments and rescue squads.
School officials should interpret any regulation to encourage students
to volunteer their time to these groups whose members provide crucial
lifesaving service to their school, community and the State of New
York, especially when they are responding to emergencies.

A distinction needs to be made between these absences and others to
ensure that these brave students are not penalized for the important
services they provide. These heroes deserve some leeway in the
after-school activity policies of their schools for the time they give
protecting the people and communities of the State of New York.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

New Bill.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

None.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect immediately.