Authorizes the commissioner of education to participate in an interstate compact on educational opportunity for military children and to establish requirements to remove barriers imposed on children who are displaced due to a parent's military deployment or service.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1739
2011-2012 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 12, 2011
___________
Introduced by Sens. GOLDEN, DeFRANCISCO, LAVALLE, LITTLE -- 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 an interstate compact
on educational opportunity for military children
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Legislative intent. The legislature hereby finds and
2 declares that military families are reassigned postings on a regular
3 basis, with the result that most military children will have six to nine
4 different school systems in their lives from kindergarten to 12th grade;
5 and further finds that such reassignments can result in transition chal-
6 lenges for these children who must start their lives over in new cities
7 and bases, changing homes, schools, friends, and relationships. The
8 legislature further finds and declares that it is a matter of equity,
9 fairness, and in every sense in the public interest to provide the chil-
10 dren of military families opportunities for educational success, and to
11 assure that they are not penalized or delayed in achieving their educa-
12 tional goals by inflexible state processes and procedures.
13 § 2. The education law is amended by adding a new article 40-B to read
14 as follows:
15 ARTICLE 40-B
16 INTERSTATE COMPACT ON
17 EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY FOR MILITARY CHILDREN
18 Section 1982. Interstate compact on educational opportunity for military
19 children; commissioner authorized to participate.
20 1983. Definitions.
21 1984. Enrollment.
22 1985. Graduation.
23 § 1982. Interstate compact on educational opportunity for military
24 children; commissioner authorized to participate. The commissioner is
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04237-01-1
S. 1739 2
1 hereby authorized to participate in the interstate compact on educa-
2 tional opportunity for military children, if and when created, and for
3 so long as such compact shall be in existence, and to participate fully
4 in programs designed by the compact and its member states in meeting the
5 purpose of the compact to help remove barriers to educational success
6 imposed on children of military families because of frequent moves and
7 deployment of their parents. Placement provisions of this article and
8 actions required or authorized to be taken herein by the commissioner
9 shall apply to the children of active duty members of the uniformed
10 services.
11 § 1983. Definitions. As used in this article, unless the context
12 clearly requires a different construction:
13 1. "Active duty" means full-time duty status in the active uniformed
14 service of the United States, including members of the National Guard
15 and Reserve on active duty orders.
16 2. "Children of military families" means school-aged children,
17 enrolled in kindergarten through twelfth grade, in the household of an
18 active duty member.
19 3. "Deployment" means the period one month prior to the service
20 members' departure from their home station on military orders through
21 six months after return to their home station.
22 4. "Education records" or "educational records" means official
23 records, files, and data directly related to a student and maintained by
24 the school or local education agency, including but not limited to
25 records encompassing all the material kept in the student's cumulative
26 folder such as general identifying data, records of attendance and of
27 academic work completed, records of achievement and results of evalua-
28 tive tests, health data, disciplinary status, test protocols, and indi-
29 vidualized education programs, as shall be determined by the commission-
30 er.
31 5. "Extracurricular activities" means a voluntary activity sponsored
32 by the school or local education agency or an organization sanctioned by
33 the local education agency.
34 6. "Interstate commission on educational opportunity for military
35 children" means a commission created pursuant to a compact among states,
36 and referred to herein as interstate commission.
37 7. "Receiving state" means the state to which a child of a military
38 family is sent, brought, or caused to be sent or brought.
39 8. "Sending state" means the state from which a child of a military
40 family is sent, brought, or caused to be sent or brought.
41 9. "State" means a state of the United States, the District of Colum-
42 bia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam,
43 American Samoa, the Northern Marianas Islands and any other U.S. Terri-
44 tory.
45 10. "Student" means the child of a military family who is formally
46 enrolled in kindergarten through twelfth grade.
47 11. "Transition" means: (a) the formal and physical process of trans-
48 ferring from school to school; or (b) the period of time in which a
49 student moves from one school in the sending state to another school in
50 the receiving state.
51 12. "Uniformed service" means the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps,
52 Coast Guard as well as the Commissioned Corps of the National Oceanic
53 and Atmospheric Administration, and Public Health Services.
54 13. "Veteran" means a person who served in the uniformed services and
55 who was discharged or released therefrom under conditions other than
56 dishonorable.
S. 1739 3
1 § 1984. Enrollment. 1. At the time of enrollment and conditional
2 placement of the student, a school shall request the student's official
3 education records from the school in the sending state. In the event
4 that official education records cannot be released to the parents for
5 the purpose of transfer, the custodian of the records in the sending
6 state shall prepare and furnish to the parent a complete set of unoffi-
7 cial educational records containing uniform information meeting the
8 requirements or parameters established by the commissioner. The commis-
9 sioner shall require that upon receipt of such unofficial education
10 records, the school shall enroll and appropriately place the student
11 pending validation by official records. The commissioner shall addi-
12 tionally establish requirements for situations in which the state shall
13 be the sending state and another state the receiving state.
14 2. The commissioner shall provide thirty days after the date of
15 enrollment for students to obtain required immunizations or may set the
16 time to coincide with a time reasonably determined by the interstate
17 commission.
18 3. The rules of the commissioner shall provide that a student who has
19 satisfactorily completed the appropriate grade level in the sending
20 state shall be eligible for enrollment in the next highest grade level.
21 A student transferring after the start of the school year in the receiv-
22 ing state shall enter the school on his or her validated level from an
23 accredited school in the sending state.
24 4. The commissioner may waive or substitute course and program prereq-
25 uisites, or other preconditions for placement, in order to meet the
26 requirements and policy goals of this article.
27 5. The commissioner shall provide for situations in which a student
28 whose parent or legal guardian is an active duty member of the uniformed
29 services, and has been called to duty for, is on leave from, or imme-
30 diately returned from deployment to a combat zone or combat support, by
31 such measures as allowing additional excused absences if approved by the
32 school to visit with a parent or legal guardian relative.
33 6. Special power of attorney, relative to the guardianship of a child
34 of a military family and executed under applicable law shall be suffi-
35 cient for the purposes of enrollment and all other actions requiring
36 parental participation and consent.
37 7. The commissioner shall promulgate rules to facilitate the opportu-
38 nity for students to be included in extracurricular activities, regard-
39 less of application deadlines, to the extent they are otherwise quali-
40 fied.
41 § 1985. Graduation. In order to facilitate the on-time graduation of
42 children of military families the commissioner shall incorporate the
43 procedures including but not limited to:
44 1. The commissioner shall provide for waiver of courses required for
45 graduation when similar coursework has been completed to the satisfac-
46 tion of the commissioner. Should a waiver not be granted to a student
47 who would qualify to graduate from the sending school, the commissioner
48 shall require that the school provide an alternative means of acquiring
49 required coursework so that graduation may occur on time.
50 2. The commissioner shall require schools to accept: (a) exit or end-
51 of-course exams required for graduation from the sending state; or (b)
52 national norm achievement tests; or (c) alternative testing, in lieu of
53 testing requirements for graduation in the receiving state, if such
54 exams, tests, or alternative testing meeting criteria are established by
55 the commissioner.
S. 1739 4
1 3. The commissioner shall enter into agreements as necessary to cover
2 a situation in which a student transfers at the beginning or during
3 senior year becomes ineligible to graduate after all alternatives have
4 been considered, by providing that the student may receive a diploma
5 from the sending state, if the student meets the graduation requirements
6 of the sending school.
7 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
