S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
3068--A
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
I N A S S E M B L Y
February 2, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. SAYEGH, JACKSON, SILLITTI, GALLAGHER, MAMDANI,
FORREST, MITAYNES, FALL, LAVINE, SHRESTHA, EPSTEIN, AUBRY, ZACCARO,
TAPIA, RAMOS, SEAWRIGHT, BURDICK, GONZALEZ-ROJAS, RAGA, WEPRIN,
BERGER, COLTON, ROZIC, GUNTHER, ALVAREZ, STERN, BLUMENCRANZ, CARROLL,
RAJKUMAR, ARDILA, DARLING, CURRAN, EACHUS, L. ROSENTHAL, LUNSFORD,
BICHOTTE HERMELYN, SOLAGES, LEE, CHANG, CUNNINGHAM, FAHY, BRAUNSTEIN,
BORES, TAYLOR, WILLIAMS, PHEFFER AMATO, SHIMSKY, WALLACE, TAGUE,
SIMONE -- read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental
Operations -- recommitted to the Committee on Governmental Operations
in accordance with Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2 -- committee discharged,
bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said
committee
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to establishing Eid
al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as school holidays
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Subdivision 8 of section 3604 of the education law, as
amended by chapter 359 of the laws of 2023, is amended to read as
follows:
8. No school shall be in session on a Saturday, the first day of the
second lunar month after the winter solstice in the preceding calendar
year known as Asian Lunar New Year, THE HOLIDAYS OF EID AL-FITR AND EID
AL-ADHA, AS AFFIXED BY MUSLIM RELIGIOUS LAW AND TRADITION, or a legal
holiday, except general election day, Washington's birthday and
Lincoln's birthday, and except that driver education classes may be
conducted on a Saturday. A deficiency not exceeding four days during any
school year caused by teachers' attendance upon conferences held by
superintendents of schools of city school districts or other school
districts employing superintendents of schools shall be excused by the
commissioner, notwithstanding any provision of law, rule or regulation
to the contrary, a school district may elect to schedule such conference
days in the last two weeks of August, subject to collective bargaining
requirements pursuant to article fourteen of the civil service law, and
such days shall be counted towards the required one hundred eighty days
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07656-04-4
A. 3068--A 2
of session, provided however, that such scheduling shall not alter the
obligation of the school district to provide transportation to students
in non-public elementary and secondary schools or charter schools. At
least two such conference days during such school year shall be dedi-
cated to staff attendance upon conferences providing staff development
relating to implementation of the new high learning standards and
assessments, as adopted by the board of regents. Notwithstanding any
other provision of law, rule or regulation to the contrary, school
districts may elect to use one or more of such allowable conference days
in units of not less than one hour each to provide staff development
activities relating to implementation of the new high learning standards
and assessments. A district making such election may provide such staff
development on any day during which sessions are allowed and apply such
units to satisfy a deficiency in the length of one or more daily
sessions of instruction for pupils as specified in regulations of the
commissioner. The commissioner shall assure that such conference days
include appropriate school violence prevention and intervention train-
ing, and may require that up to one such conference day be dedicated for
such purpose.
§ 2. Subdivision 2-a of section 3635 of the education law, as sepa-
rately amended by chapters 359 and 629 of the laws of 2023, is amended
to read as follows:
2-a. The superintendent of each city school district, in a city having
a population in excess of one million, shall prepare a public school
calendar and shall notify officials of nonpublic schools to which trans-
portation has been requested not later than the first day of June in
each year, of the days on which the public schools will be in session in
the following school year. Such school district which provides transpor-
tation to nonpublic schools shall provide such transportation for the
same number of days as the public schools are open but shall not provide
transportation services for more than one hundred eighty days. Offi-
cials of each nonpublic school to which transportation is provided by a
city school district of a city having a population in excess of one
million may notify such district, not later than the first day of July
of each school year, of a maximum of five days, exclusive of Saturdays,
Sundays or legal holidays upon which public schools are required to be
closed, on which the public schools are scheduled to be closed, except
that in any year in which the first or last day of Passover and Easter
Sunday are separated by more than seven days, such officials may notify
the district of a maximum of ten days, but such school district will be
required to provide for transportation to such nonpublic school provided
that such five or ten additional days, whichever is applicable, are
limited to the following: the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
after Labor Day, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the week in which public
schools are closed for spring recess, December twenty-fourth and the
week between Christmas day and New Year's day, the Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday after the observance of Washington's birthday, the
first day of the second lunar month after the winter solstice in the
preceding calendar year, known as Asian Lunar New Year, the fifteenth
day of the eighth month of the Indian calendar in each year, known as
Diwali, THE HOLIDAYS OF EID AL-FITR AND EID AL-ADHA, AS AFFIXED BY
MUSLIM RELIGIOUS LAW AND TRADITION, and, in the boroughs of Brooklyn and
Queens only, Anniversary Day as designated in section twenty-five
hundred eighty-six of this chapter.
§ 3. This act shall take effect immediately.