Senate Bill S8721

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   8721
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                               March 4, 2024
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen. KENNEDY -- 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 declaring Pulaski  Day
   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  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, OCTOBER ELEVENTH  KNOWN  AS  PULASKI
 DAY,  or  a  legal  holiday,  except  general election day, Washington's
 birthday and Lincoln's birthday, and except that driver education class-
 es 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 regu-
 lation 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 trans-
 portation 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.  Notwith-
 standing any other provision of law, rule or regulation to the contrary,
 school districts may elect to use one or more of such allowable  confer-
 ence  days  in  units  of  not  less than one hour each to provide staff
 development activities relating to implementation of the new high learn-
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
              

                                                            LBD14482-01-4
 S. 8721                             2
 
 ing 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  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  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, OCTOBER ELEVENTH, KNOWN AS PULASKI DAY, and, in the boroughs  of
 Brooklyn and Queens only, Anniversary Day as designated in section twen-
 ty-five hundred eighty-six of this chapter.
   § 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2024.