Requires city school districts in cities having a population of one million or more operating school safety hotlines to staff such hotlines by personnel fluent in the two languages most prevalent among students of such school districts.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2333--A
2011-2012 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 18, 2011
___________
Introduced by M. of A. P. RIVERA, McENENY, J. RIVERA, RAMOS, WEISENBERG
-- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. ABBATE, BENEDETTO, BUTLER, COLTON,
COOK, CUSICK, DINOWITZ, FARRELL, HOOPER, JACOBS, V. LOPEZ, MAYERSOHN,
McDONOUGH, NOLAN, ORTIZ, N. RIVERA, ROBINSON, SCARBOROUGH, TOWNS,
WRIGHT -- read once and referred to the Committee on Education --
committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and
recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to bilingual school safe-
ty hotlines in cities with a population of one million or more
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Legislative findings and declaration. The legislature here-
2 by declares that overwhelming evidence indicates that violent acts
3 performed by schoolchildren in large city school districts are increas-
4 ing in frequency and intensity. The legislature finds that these inci-
5 dents result in senseless deaths and injuries and psychological trauma
6 to the students, their families and their communities. The legislature
7 finds that children in school are impressionable and subject to powerful
8 peer pressure, and therefore, might be disinclined to report a problem
9 to teachers or other authorities because of intimidation, fear of
10 retribution or a distorted sense of loyalty to their fellow students.
11 The legislature also finds, however, that students know better than
12 anyone what is really occurring in their fellow students' lives and are
13 our best resources for recognizing the warning signs of potential
14 danger.
15 The legislature finds and declares it to be its purpose and policy to
16 reduce school violence by teaching children that they have the same
17 responsibility as adults to protect each other. The legislature, there-
18 fore, declares it to be its purpose and policy to provide for a bilin-
19 gual school safety hotline in cities with a population of one million or
20 more.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
A LBD00097-02-1
A. 2333--A 2
1 § 2. Section 305 of the education law is amended by adding a new
2 subdivision 42 to read as follows:
3 42. a. Any city school district in a city having a population of one
4 million or more operating school safety hotlines as part of a reporting
5 mechanism or procedure for the reporting of violent incidents pursuant
6 to paragraph j of subdivision two of section twenty-eight hundred one-a
7 of this chapter shall staff such hotline by personnel fluent in the two
8 languages most prevalent among students of such city school district as
9 determined by the commissioner. In city school districts in cities
10 having a population of one million or more where such school safety
11 hotlines have been established or shall be established, and where such
12 districts believe there to be no significant population of speakers of
13 languages other than English, the district may apply to the commissioner
14 for a waiver of the requirement for a bilingual hotline.
15 b. Each such city school district operating such school safety hotline
16 shall provide to each student in the district a copy of the school safe-
17 ty hotline number at the beginning of each school year.
18 § 3. This act shall take effect September 1, 2012; provided, however,
19 that effective immediately the commissioner of education is authorized
20 to adopt any rules and regulations necessary to implement the provisions
21 of this act on or before such date.
