S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   3902
 
                        2025-2026 Regular Sessions
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                             January 30, 2025
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by M. of A. BURKE -- read once and referred 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, THE LAST FRIDAY IN OCTOBER KNOWN  AS
 PULASKI   DAY,   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'  attend-
 ance  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  second-
 ary 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
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD08075-01-5
              

 A. 3902                             2
 
 contrary, school districts may elect to use one or more of  such  allow-
 able  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 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,  THE  LAST  FRIDAY  IN OCTOBER KNOWN AS PULASKI DAY, 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 on the first of July next succeeding
 the date on which it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the
 addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule  or  regulation  necessary
 for  the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized
 to be made and completed on or before such effective date.