Directs the board of education or the board of trustees of each school district shall establish a policy and adopt procedures permitting the district to confer a diploma on a student posthumously if, at the time of death, such student had completed the eleventh grade class of a public school in the district and was enrolled or expected to be enrolled in the twelfth grade class within the same public school district the following school year.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
831
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE(Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. TEDISCO -- 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 posthumous awarding of
high school diplomas
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 3204 of the education law is amended by adding a
2 new subdivision 6 to read as follows:
3 6. Posthumous awarding of diplomas. The board of education or the
4 board of trustees of each school district shall establish a policy and
5 adopt procedures permitting the district to confer a diploma on a
6 student posthumously if, at the time of death, such student had
7 completed the eleventh grade class of a public school in the district
8 and was enrolled or expected to be enrolled in the twelfth grade class
9 within the same public school district the following school year. The
10 policy and procedures shall address the district's coordination with the
11 parents or guardians of the deceased student concerning the method for
12 conferring such a diploma, including but not limited to, site of presen-
13 tation, identity of a proxy recipient, family attendance at the high
14 school graduation ceremony, and scope of recognition and/or partic-
15 ipation, if any, at the high school graduation ceremony, and shall
16 further provide for annual written notice to all students and their
17 parents or guardians about the school district's policy and procedures
18 adopted in accordance with this subdivision. Nothing in this subdivision
19 shall require a school district to issue a diploma before the graduation
20 date of the deceased student's high school graduating class or require
21 the family of a deceased student to attend or participate in a high
22 school graduation ceremony or related activities. Diplomas conferred in
23 accordance with this subdivision shall not be applied toward student
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02775-01-5
S. 831 2
1 graduation counts or for any other purpose of federal or state account-
2 ability data collection.
3 § 2. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
4 have become a law.
