STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
4037--B
Cal. No. 435
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 31, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sens. SKOUFIS, FAHY, HARCKHAM -- read twice and ordered
printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Educa-
tion -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as
amended and recommitted to said committee -- recommitted to the
Committee on Education in accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 --
reported favorably from said committee, ordered to first and second
report, ordered to a third reading, amended and ordered reprinted,
retaining its place in the order of third reading
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to the compulsory age for
full time instruction and certain related exceptions
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 11 of section 2 of the education law, as
2 amended by chapter 363 of the laws of 1990, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 11. Compulsory school ages. The term "child of compulsory school age"
5 means any child [between six and sixteen years of age] lawfully required
6 to attend upon instruction pursuant to section thirty-two hundred five
7 of this chapter.
8 § 2. Section 3205 of the education law, subdivision 1 as amended by
9 chapter 262 of the laws of 1959, paragraphs a and b of subdivision 1 as
10 amended by chapter 296 of the laws of 1969, paragraph c of subdivision 1
11 as amended by chapter 518 of the laws of 1993, paragraph b of subdivi-
12 sion 2 as amended by chapter 975 of the laws of 1966, paragraph c of
13 subdivision 2 as amended by chapter 703 of the laws of 2019 and subdivi-
14 sion 3 as amended by chapter 183 of the laws of 2004, is amended to read
15 as follows:
16 § 3205. Attendance of minors upon full time day instruction. 1. a. In
17 each school district of the state, each minor from [six] five to sixteen
18 years of age shall attend upon full time instruction.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01054-05-6
S. 4037--B 2
1 b. Each minor from [six] five to sixteen years of age on an Indian
2 reservation shall attend upon full time day instruction.
3 c. For purposes of this article, a minor who becomes [six] five years
4 of age on or before the first of December in any school year or on or
5 before a later date in such school year, not later than December thir-
6 ty-first, established by the trustees or board of education for admis-
7 sion to the public schools in such minor's school district of residence
8 shall be required to attend upon full time instruction from the first
9 day that the appropriate public schools are in session in September of
10 such school year, and a minor who becomes [six] five years of age after
11 the first of December in any school year or a later date in such school
12 year, not later than December thirty-first, established by the trustees
13 or board of education for admission to the public schools in such
14 minor's school district of residence shall be required to attend upon
15 full time instruction from the first day of session in the following
16 September; and, except as otherwise provided in subdivision three of
17 this section, shall be required to remain in attendance until the last
18 day of session in the school year in which the minor becomes sixteen
19 years of age.
20 2. Exceptions. a. A minor who has completed a four-year high school
21 course of study shall not be subject to the provisions of part one of
22 this article in respect to required attendance upon instruction.
23 b. A minor for whom application for a full-time employment certificate
24 has been made and who is eligible therefor may, though unemployed, be
25 permitted to attend part time school not less than twenty hours per week
26 instead of full time school.
27 [c. The board of education of every school district within the state
28 is hereby authorized to require minors who are five years of age on or
29 before December first to attend kindergarten instruction. However, the
30 provisions of this paragraph shall not apply to:
31 (i) Minors whose parents elect not to enroll their children in school
32 until the following September.
33 (ii) Students enrolled in non-public schools or in home instruction.]
34 3. In each school district, the board of education shall have power to
35 require minors from sixteen to seventeen years of age who are not
36 employed to attend upon full time day instruction until the last day of
37 session in the school year in which the student becomes seventeen years
38 of age.
39 § 3. Subdivision 1 of section 4105 of the education law is amended to
40 read as follows:
41 1. Every Indian child between [six] five and sixteen years of age, in
42 proper physical and mental condition to attend school, shall regularly
43 attend upon instruction at a school in which at least the common school
44 branches of reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic, English grammar and
45 geography are taught in English, or upon equivalent instruction by a
46 competent teacher elsewhere than at such school as follows: Every Indian
47 child between fourteen and sixteen years of age not regularly and
48 lawfully engaged in any useful employment or service, and every such
49 child between six and fourteen years of age, shall so attend upon
50 instruction as many days annually during the period between the first
51 days of September and the following July as a public school of the
52 community or district of the reservation, in which such child resides,
53 shall be in session during the same period.
54 § 4. Section 4106 of the education law is amended to read as follows:
55 § 4106. Duties of persons in parental relation to Indian children. Any
56 person in parental relation to an Indian child between [six] five and
S. 4037--B 3
1 sixteen years of age in proper physical and mental condition to attend
2 school, shall cause such child to attend upon instruction as provided in
3 this article.
4 § 5. Section 4108 of the education law, as amended by chapter 387 of
5 the laws of 1954, is amended to read as follows:
6 § 4108. Persons employing Indian children unlawfully to be fined. A
7 person, firm, association or corporation shall not employ any Indian
8 child residing on any Indian reservation between [six] five and fourteen
9 years of age, in any business or service whatever during any part of the
10 term during which the school in the community or district in which such
11 child resides or the school where such child should attend is in
12 session, nor shall employ any Indian child residing on any reservation
13 between fourteen and sixteen years of age, who does not, at the time of
14 such employment present a consent in writing signed by the principal
15 teacher of the reservation or the principal of the district which
16 educates the children in the community in which such child resides to
17 the effect that such child may be employed, and specifying the nature of
18 the service and the duration of such service or employment. Any person,
19 firm, association or corporation who shall employ any Indian child
20 contrary to the provisions of this section shall for each offense
21 forfeit and pay to the principal teacher of the reservation or to the
22 commissioner [of education] the sum of twenty-five dollars to be sued
23 for in the name of the people of the state of New York by the attorney
24 general. Such penalty, when paid, shall be used for the support and
25 maintenance of the schools on said reservation or for said reservation.
26 § 6. Section 4109 of the education law, as amended by chapter 387 of
27 the laws of 1954, is amended to read as follows:
28 § 4109. Teachers' record of attendance. An accurate record of attend-
29 ance of all Indian children between [six] five and sixteen years of age
30 shall be kept by the teacher of every Indian school, showing each day,
31 by the year, month, day of the month and day of the week, such attend-
32 ance, and the number of hours in each day thereof; and each teacher upon
33 whose instruction such Indian child shall attend elsewhere than at the
34 school in the community or district of the reservation where [he] such
35 child resides, shall keep a like record of such attendance. Such records
36 shall at all times be open to the principal teacher of the reservation
37 and its attendance officers or to such person or persons as shall be
38 designated by the commissioner [of education] who may inspect and copy
39 the same and any teacher shall answer all lawful inquiries made by them.
40 A wilful neglect or refusal to keep such a record or answer such
41 inquiries shall be a misdemeanor.
42 § 7. Section 4111 of the education law, as amended by chapter 181 of
43 the laws of 2022, is amended to read as follows:
44 § 4111. Arrest of truants. Any attendance officer may arrest without
45 warrant anywhere within the state any Indian child between [six] five
46 and sixteen years of age, found away from [his] such child's home and
47 who is then a truant from instruction upon which [he] such child is
48 lawfully required to attend within the districts of which such attend-
49 ance officer has jurisdiction. [He] The officer shall forthwith deliver
50 a child so arrested either to the person in parental relation to the
51 child, or to the teacher of the school from which said child is then a
52 truant, or in case of habitual truants, shall bring them before a magis-
53 trate for commitment to a school for delinquents, as provided in section
54 forty-one hundred twelve of this article.
55 § 8. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding
56 the date on which it shall have become a law.
