Senate Bill S2351A

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                  2351--A
 
                        2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             January 20, 2023
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sens.  KAVANAGH, BAILEY, BROUK, CHU, COONEY, LIU -- read
   twice and ordered printed, and when printed to  be  committed  to  the
   Committee  on Judiciary -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
   reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
 
 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, UNLESS SUCH DAY FALLS ON A  SUNDAY,
 IN WHICH CASE THE SCHOOL SHALL NOT BE IN SESSION ON THE MONDAY THEREAFT-
 ER, or a legal holiday, except general election day, Washington's birth-
 day 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
 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
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD00933-09-3
              

 S. 2351--A                          2
 
 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 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, 2024.