STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7552
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
June 5, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sen. ADDABBO -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to establishing Diwali as
a school holiday in certain public schools
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 2586-a
2 to read as follows:
3 § 2586-a. Diwali as a holiday for students in the public schools of
4 the city of New York. The fifteenth day of the eighth month of the Indi-
5 an calendar in each year, known as Diwali, is hereby made and declared
6 to be a holiday for students in all the public schools in the city
7 school district in the city of New York and students shall not be
8 required to attend the public schools on such day. If such day falls on
9 a Sunday, students shall not be required to attend public schools on the
10 Monday thereafter.
11 § 2. Subdivision 2-a of section 3635 of the education law, as amended
12 by chapter 424 of the laws of 2005, is amended to read as follows:
13 2-a. The superintendent of each city school district, in a city having
14 a population in excess of one million, shall prepare a public school
15 calendar and shall notify officials of nonpublic schools to which trans-
16 portation has been requested not later than the first day of June in
17 each year, of the days on which the public schools will be in session in
18 the following school year. Such school district which provides transpor-
19 tation to nonpublic schools shall provide such transportation for the
20 same number of days as the public schools are open but shall not provide
21 transportation services for more than one hundred eighty days. Offi-
22 cials of each nonpublic school to which transportation is provided by a
23 city school district of a city having a population in excess of one
24 million may notify such district, not later than the first day of July
25 of each school year, of a maximum of five days, exclusive of Saturdays,
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02941-10-3
S. 7552 2
1 Sundays or legal holidays upon which public schools are required to be
2 closed, on which the public schools are scheduled to be closed, except
3 that in any year in which the first or last day of Passover and Easter
4 Sunday are separated by more than seven days, such officials may notify
5 the district of a maximum of ten days, but such school district will be
6 required to provide for transportation to such nonpublic school provided
7 that such five or ten additional days, whichever is applicable, are
8 limited to the following: the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
9 after Labor Day, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the week in which public
10 schools are closed for spring recess, December twenty-fourth and the
11 week between Christmas day and New Year's day, the Tuesday, Wednesday,
12 Thursday and Friday after the observance of Washington's birthday, the
13 fifteenth day of the eighth month of the Indian calendar in each year,
14 known as Diwali, and, in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens only, Anni-
15 versary Day as designated in section twenty-five hundred eighty-six of
16 this chapter.
17 § 3. This act shall take effect on July 1, 2023.
