Senate Bill S7805

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   7805
 
                        2025-2026 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                                May 9, 2025
                                ___________
 
 Introduced by Sen. FERNANDEZ -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Judiciary
 
 AN  ACT  to  amend  the  education  law, in relation to establishing Eid
   al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as school holidays
 
   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, 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.  FOR MUNI-
 CIPALITIES  AND  SCHOOL DISTRICTS WITH A POPULATION OF FIFTY THOUSAND OR
 MORE, THE FOREGOING SHALL ALSO APPLY TO THE HOLIDAYS OF EID AL-FITR  AND
 EID AL-ADHA, AS AFFIXED BY MUSLIM RELIGIOUS LAW AND TRADITION. FOR MUNI-
 CIPALITIES  AND  SCHOOL  DISTRICTS  WITH A POPULATION OF LESS THAN FIFTY
 THOUSAND, THE  FOREGOING  MAY  APPLY  IF  SUCH  MUNICIPALITY  OR  SCHOOL
 DISTRICT  OPTS  INTO  THE RECOGNITION OF THE HOLIDAYS OF EID AL-FITR AND
 EID AL-ADHA. 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 contra-
 ry, 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
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD04284-03-5
              

 S. 7805                             2
 
 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
 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 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  HOLIDAYS  OF  EID  AL-FITR  AND EID AL-ADHA, AS AFFIXED BY
 MUSLIM RELIGIOUS LAW AND TRADITION, 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 immediately.