Assembly Bill A10904

                            
 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   10904
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                              August 17, 2020
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Paulin) --
   read once and referred to the Committee on Education
 
 AN ACT to amend the education law, in  relation  to  the  attendance  of
   minors  upon  full  day  instruction  and  the  conditions under which
   districts, including the city school district of the city of New York,
   are entitled to an apportionment of  state  aid  and  the  closure  of
   schools due in response to the novel coronavirus, COVID-19
 
   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  chapter  107  of  the  laws  of 2020, 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
 part  in  the current year shall be reduced by one one-hundred eightieth
 of the district's total foundation aid for the base year  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  in the apportionment of public money: (i) for any day or days
 on which session had been previously scheduled  but  the  superintendent
 was  required  to close the school or schools due to a properly executed
 declaration of a state or local state of emergency pursuant  to  article
 two-B  of  the  executive  law; or (ii) for up to five days if he or she
 finds that the schools of the district  were  not  in  session  for  one
 hundred  eighty  days  because of extraordinarily adverse weather condi-
 tions, impairment of heating facilities, insufficiency of water  supply,
 shortage of fuel, lack of electricity, natural gas leakage, unacceptable
 levels  of  chemical  substances, a credible threat to student safety as
 reasonably determined by a lead school official or the destruction of  a
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
              

                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD17086-01-0

 A. 10904                            2
 
 school building either in whole or in part, and if, further, the commis-
 sioner  finds that such district cannot make up such days of instruction
 by using for the secondary grades  all  scheduled  vacation  days  which
 occur  prior to the first scheduled 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; or (iii) for any
 day or days in the two thousand nineteen -- two thousand  twenty  school
 year  OR THE TWO THOUSAND TWENTY--TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-ONE SCHOOL YEAR on
 which session had been previously scheduled but the  chancellor  of  the
 city  school district of the city of New York or the superintendent of a
 district closed the school or schools due  to  a  determination  by  the
 chancellor  or superintendent that it was in the best interest of public
 health or safety of the school district to close the school  or  schools
 in response to the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. For the purposes of this
 subdivision,  "scheduled  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.
   § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.