S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   7768
 
                        2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                               June 7, 2023
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  M.  of  A.  COLTON, LEE -- read once and referred to the
   Committee on Ways and Means
 
 AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to declaring Asian  Lunar
   New Year a school holiday
 
   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  605  of  the  laws  of 2019, 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, 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  defi-
 ciency  not  exceeding four days during any school year caused by teach-
 ers' attendance upon conferences held by superintendents of  schools  of
 city  school  districts  or other school districts employing superinten-
 dents 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  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  dedicated  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
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD11775-01-3
              

 A. 7768                             2
 
 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  commis-
 sioner shall assure that such conference days include appropriate school
 violence  prevention  and intervention training, 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 amended
 by chapter 424 of the laws of 2005, 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,  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 July 1, 2023.