§ 3635. Transportation. 1. a. Sufficient transportation facilities
(including the operation and maintenance of motor vehicles) shall be
provided by the school district for all the children residing within the
school district to and from the school they legally attend, who are in
need of such transportation because of the remoteness of the school to
the child or for the promotion of the best interest of such children.
Such transportation shall be provided for all children attending grades
kindergarten through eight who live more than two miles from the school
which they legally attend and for all children attending grades nine
through twelve who live more than three miles from the school which they
legally attend and shall be provided for each such child up to a
distance of fifteen miles, the distances in each case being measured by
the nearest available route from home to school. The cost of providing
such transportation between two or three miles, as the case may be, and
fifteen miles shall be considered for the purposes of this chapter to be
a charge upon the district and an ordinary contingent expense of the
district. Transportation for a lesser distance than two miles in the
case of children attending grades kindergarten through eight or three
miles in the case of children attending grades nine through twelve and
for a greater distance than fifteen miles may be provided by the
district with the approval of the qualified voters, and, if provided,
shall be offered equally to all children in like circumstances residing
in the district; provided, however, that this requirement shall not
apply to transportation offered pursuant to section thirty-six hundred
thirty-five-b of this article.

b. (i) School districts providing transportation to a nonpublic school
for pupils living within a specified distance from such school shall
designate one or more public schools as centralized pick-up points and
shall provide transportation between such points and such nonpublic
schools for students residing in the district who live too far from such
nonpublic schools to qualify for transportation between home and school.
The district shall not be responsible for the provision of
transportation for pupils between their home and such pick-up points.
The district may provide school bus transportation to a pupil if the
residence of the pupil is located on an established route for the
transportation of pupils to the centralized pick-up point provided such
transportation does not result in additional costs to the district. The
cost of providing transportation between such pick-up points and such
nonpublic schools shall be an ordinary contingent expense.

(ii) A board of education may, at its discretion, provide
transportation for pupils residing within the district to a nonpublic
school located more than fifteen miles from the home of any such pupil
provided that such transportation has been provided to such nonpublic
school pursuant to this subdivision in at least one of the immediately
preceding three school years and such transportation is provided from
one or more centralized pick-up points designated pursuant to this
paragraph and that the distance from such pick-up points to the
nonpublic school is not more than fifteen miles. The district shall not
be responsible for the provision of transportation for pupils between
pupils homes and such pick-up points. The cost of providing
transportation between such pick-up points and such nonpublic schools
shall be an ordinary contingent expense.

c. The foregoing provisions of this subdivision shall not require
transportation to be provided for children residing within a city school
district, but if provided by such district pursuant to other provisions
of this chapter, such transportation shall be offered equally to all
such children in like circumstances; provided further that in city
school districts in cities having a population of one hundred
twenty-five thousand inhabitants or less such transportation, if
provided, shall be subject to the mileage limitations prescribed in
paragraph a of this subdivision or such greater or lesser limitations as
are approved by the board of education prior to July first, nineteen
hundred ninety-six or as otherwise authorized in subdivision twelve of
section twenty-five hundred three of this chapter. City school districts
with a population of more than two hundred twenty-five thousand and less
than three hundred thousand, according to the nineteen hundred eighty
federal census, which elect to provide transportation shall do so in
accord with the grade and distance provisions of this subdivision
including transportation outside the city limits.

d. Nothing contained in this subdivision, however, shall be deemed to
require a school district to furnish transportation to a child directly
to or from his or her home.

e. In lieu of the transportation provided pursuant to the foregoing
provisions of this subdivision, a board of education may, at its
discretion, provide transportation to any child attending grades
kindergarten through eight between the school such child legally attends
and before-and/or-after-school child care locations. For the purposes of
this subdivision, a before-and/or-after-school child care location shall
mean a place, other than the child's home, where care for less than
twenty-four hours a day is provided on a regular basis for a child who
attends school within the school district, provided that such place is
situated within the school district. This definition includes, but is
not limited to, a variety of child care services such as day care
centers, family day care homes and in-home care by non-relatives. Such
transportation may be provided for children attending grades
kindergarten through eight where the distance between the school they
legally attend and before-and/or-after-school child care locations is
more than two miles, and may be provided for up to a distance of fifteen
miles, the distance in each case being measured by the nearest available
route from before-and/or-after-school child care locations to the school
they legally attend, except that transportation for a lesser distance
than two miles or a greater distance than fifteen miles may be provided
if transportation for such distances is provided to students between
home and school. Where a child receives transportation from a
before-school child care location to the school he or she legally
attends, such child shall be entitled to receive transportation from the
school he or she legally attends to his or her home or to an
after-school child care location in accordance with this subdivision.
Where a child receives transportation from the school he or she legally
attends to an after-school child care location, such child shall be
entitled to receive transportation from home to the school he or she
legally attends in accordance with this subdivision. Transportation may
be provided to any child attending grades kindergarten through eight
between the school the child legally attends and
before-and/or-after-school child care locations upon written request of
the parent or legal guardian submitted not later than the first day of
April preceding the next school year, provided, however, a parent or
guardian of a child not residing in the district on such date shall
submit a written request within thirty days after establishing residence
in the district and provided further that in order to be considered
eligible for such transportation in the nineteen hundred
eighty-seven--eighty-eight school year, such request must be submitted
by August first, nineteen hundred eighty-seven. The provision of
transportation to or from before-and/or-after-school child care
locations, if provided, shall be offered equally to all children in like
circumstances residing in the district, provided that a board of
education furnishing transportation pursuant to this paragraph may limit
the provision of such transportation to child care locations located
within the attendance zone of the school the child attends, and to child
day care centers and school age child care programs licensed or
registered pursuant to section three hundred ninety of the social
services law located anywhere within the school district. The cost of
providing such transportation between two or three miles, as the case
may be, and fifteen miles shall be considered for the purposes of this
chapter to be a charge upon the district. Such substitute transportation
expense shall be eligible for state aid in accordance with clause one of
paragraph b of subdivision seven of section thirty-six hundred two of
this chapter. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to impose a
duty upon boards of education to provide transportation to or from
before-and/or-after-school child care locations. Nothing in this
subdivision shall be construed to authorize boards of education to
provide to any child transportation between a before-and/or-after-school
day care location and that child's home.

f. A board of education may, in its discretion, provide transportation
pursuant to this subdivision to a child of less than school age residing
within the school district to and from the school which his or her
parent legally attends; provided that such child is accompanied by such
parent, that such parent is under twenty-one years of age and has not
received a high school diploma, and that such transportation is
furnished for the purpose of allowing the child to receive child care
services and/or attend a nursery school, pre-school, or parenting
program. For all purposes under this chapter, a child receiving such
transportation shall be deemed a pupil legally attending the school
which his or her parent legally attends. The cost of providing such
transportation shall be considered for the purposes of this chapter to
be a charge upon the district and an ordinary contingent expense of the
district. Such transportation expense shall be eligible for state aid in
accordance with subparagraph (i) of paragraph b of subdivision seven of
section thirty-six hundred two of this article.

g. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the
trustees or board of education of any school district may, in its
discretion, provide transportation for students attending a universal
pre-kindergarten program in addition to transportation funded by such
program or transportation for students attending another district
sponsored or district-run pre-kindergarten program, within mileage
limits established by the school district; if provided such
transportation shall be offered equally to all children in like
circumstances residing in the district. The cost of providing such
transportation shall be a charge upon the district and for purposes of
subdivision seven of section thirty-six hundred two of this chapter,
such pupils shall be considered non allowable pupils and the costs of
their transportation shall not be aidable.

2. A parent or guardian of a child residing in any school district, or
any representative authorized by such parent or guardian, who desires
for a child during the next school year any transportation authorized or
directed by this chapter shall submit a written request therefor to the
school trustees or board of education of such district not later than
the first day of April preceding the next school year, provided,
however, that a parent or guardian of a child not residing in the
district on such date shall submit a written request within thirty days
after establishing residence in the district. No late request of a
parent or guardian for transportation shall be denied where a reasonable
explanation is provided for the delay. If the voters, school trustees,
or board of education fail to provide the transportation authorized or
directed by this chapter after receiving such a request, such parent,
guardian or representative, or any taxpayer residing in the district,
may appeal to the commissioner of education, as provided in section
three hundred ten of this chapter. Except as hereinbefore provided, the
commissioner of education shall not require that such parent, guardian
or representative present a request for such transportation to any
meeting of the voters, school trustees or board of education in order to
appeal. Upon such appeal, the commissioner of education shall make such
order as is required to effect compliance with the provisions of this
chapter and this section.

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
transportation 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
transportation 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.
Officials 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, and, in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens only, Anniversary
Day as designated in section twenty-five hundred eighty-six of this
chapter.

3. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, rule or regulation to
the contrary, in cities with a population of one million or more, the
requirement of paragraph c of subdivision one of this section, requiring
that a city school district providing transportation for children
residing within such district offer such transportation equally to all
such children in like circumstances, shall not apply to the use of
existing contract bus service provided for children in elementary grades
by pupils in grades seven and eight, but only where such use is a
reinstatement of a service provided in the school year beginning in
September, two thousand nine and ending in June two thousand ten.

5. For the purpose of affording the greatest possible protection to
school children, drive-off places on public highways may be designated
by the appropriate board of education or district superintendent to
permit school busses to be driven off the highway to receive or
discharge school children, and the state or municipality having
jurisdiction of such highway, is authorized to provide construction and
maintenance of such designated drive-offs.

6. In the event that the expenses entailed by the phase-out of
omnibuses required by paragraph (k) of subdivision twenty of section
three hundred seventy-five of the vehicle and traffic law are not
otherwise provided for, such expenses shall be an ordinary contingent
expense of a school district.

7. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, rule or regulation,
where a child is permitted by a school district or board of education to
attend a public school other than the school to which they would
normally be assigned, a parent of such child may agree to waive
provision of transportation which would otherwise be required under this
section and no such transportation shall be required. Any agreement to
waive transportation must be renewed annually in writing.

* 8. a. The trustees or board of education of a school district may,
at its discretion, provide student transportation based upon patterns of
actual ridership. The actual ridership shall be determined by a school
district based upon documented history and experience that yields a
consistent pattern of eligible pupils not using district transportation;
or modeling of future ridership; or the sharing of transportation
regionally; or other criteria approved by the commissioner; provided
however that any methodology shall require an additional ten percent in
seating capacity above the number of seats derived using such
methodology which shall be available in case of unanticipated riders.

Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to reduce or relieve
school districts from the responsibility of providing transportation to
students otherwise eligible for such transportation. Nothing in this
subdivision shall be construed to authorize a school district to have
standing passengers in violation of section thirty-six hundred
thirty-five-c of this article, and unanticipated ridership shall not be
deemed an unforeseen occurrence for purposes of subdivision two of such
section after the first day in which such unanticipated ridership
occurs.

Any school district that, at its discretion, has elected to provide
student transportation based upon patterns of actual ridership shall
place such plans on the school district's website, if one exists, on or
before August fifteenth of the school year in which the transportation
plan will be implemented and shall be required to have a back up plan as
part of their emergency management practices for pupil transportation in
the event that a bus is filled beyond capacity.

b. The commissioner shall evaluate the effectiveness of this
subdivision including the methodologies used by school districts to
determine the patterns of actual ridership and whether such
methodologies ensure that all students otherwise eligible receive
transportation and that student safety is assured.

* NB Repealed June 30, 2024