Senate Bill S7307

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S7307

SPONSOR: COONEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the education law, in relation to authorizing providing
transportation services due to safety concerns within certain school
districts

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 of this bill authorizes any city school district in a city
with a population of more than ninety thousand but less than three
hundred thousand to, pursuant to adoption of a resolution by the board
of education and approved by the commissioner, provide transportation
services to children residing in the district attending pre-kindergarten
through eighth grade who live one-half mile or more from the school they
legally attend if determined by the commissioner to be necessary due to
safety concerns. Such transportation services shall be limited to trans-
portation to and from children's homes and before or after school child-
care locations, and offered up to fifteen miles. Expenses for such addi-
tional transportation shall be included in the computation for
              

transportation aid.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Currently, school districts are required by law, and receive reimburse-
ment, to provide transportation for children attending kindergarten
through grade eight if the children live at least two miles from the
school they are attending. As a result, children attending kindergarten
through grade 8 likely will not have transportation services if they
live closer than two miles, and are forced to walk through potentially
dangerous conditions to receive an education, including severe winter
weather, hazardous traffic conditions, and criminal street activity.

Notably, the current State transportation reimbursement formula creates
inequity among urban and suburban school districts. The majority of
suburban school districts are able to be reimbursed for the transporta-
tion of their elementary and middle school students, but this is not the
case for city school districts. This bill closes the racial and income
gap in transportation access for students across New York.

This bill would authorize city school districts in cities with a popu-
lation of 90,000 to 300,000 to provide transportation services to chil-
dren who live closer than two miles if deemed necessary by the Board of
Education Commissioner due to safety concerns. These services would be
included in computation for transportation aid, so that the schools
would be reimbursed for these expenses. The health and safety of our
cities' children is too important to keep these restrictions in place.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

None

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act snail take effect immediately.