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.