Senate Bill S4306

                            
 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   4306
 
                        2019-2020 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                               March 7, 2019
                                ___________
 
 Introduced by Sen. ANTONACCI -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Education
 
 AN  ACT  to amend the education law, in relation to the impact of school
   days missed due to a state of  emergency  on  state  apportionment  to
   school districts

   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  3  of part B of chapter 54 of the laws of 2016, 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  in  the current year shall be reduced by one one-hundred eight-
 ieth 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, a credible threat to student safety as reasonably deter-
 mined  by a lead school official or the destruction of a school building
 either in whole or in part, and if, further, the commissioner 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
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
              

                                                            LBD10417-04-9

 S. 4306                             2
 
 first scheduled regents examination day in June, and for the  elementary
 grades  all scheduled vacation days which occur prior to the last sched-
 uled regents examination day in June. IN THE EVENT THE GOVERNOR OR EXEC-
 UTIVE  OF A LOCAL MUNICIPALITY DECLARES A WEATHER RELATED STATE OF EMER-
 GENCY AND THE DISTRICT FALLS BELOW THE REQUIRED ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY  DAYS
 TO  BE  IN SESSION THE COMMISSIONER SHALL DISREGARD THE REDUCTION IN THE
 APPORTIONMENT OF PUBLIC MONEYS. SCHOOL DISTRICTS WILL NOT BE REQUIRED TO
 HAVE UTILIZED ALL  SCHEDULED  VACATION  DAYS  PRIOR  TO  RECEIVING  THIS
 EXEMPTION.  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. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS SUBDIVISION,
 THE  TERM "STATE OF EMERGENCY" SHALL FOLLOW THE DEFINITIONS SET FORTH IN
 SECTION TWENTY OF THE EXECUTIVE LAW.
   § 2. This act shall take effect September 1, 2019.