Provides that school districts, including the city school district of the city of New York, are entited to an apportionment of state aid for the closure of schools due in response to the novel coronavirus.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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7996--B
IN SENATE
March 6, 2020
___________
Introduced by Sens. CARLUCCI, MAYER, GOUNARDES, HOYLMAN, KAMINSKY,
KAPLAN, KRUEGER, METZGER, RAMOS -- read twice and ordered printed, and
when printed to be committed to the Committee on Education -- commit-
tee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recom-
mitted to said committee -- committee discharged, bill amended,
ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to the attendance of
minors upon full day instruction and the conditions under which
districts, including the city school district of the city of New York,
are entitled to an apportionment of state aid and the closure of
schools due in response to the novel coronavirus, COVID-19
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 7 of section 3604 of the education law, as
2 amended by chapter 605 of the laws of 2019, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 7. No district shall be entitled to any portion of such school moneys
5 on such apportionment unless the report of the trustees or board of
6 education for the preceding school year shall show that the public
7 schools were actually in session in the district and taught by a quali-
8 fied teacher or by successive qualified teachers or by qualified teach-
9 ers for not less than one hundred eighty days. The moneys payable to a
10 school district pursuant to section thirty-six hundred nine-a of this
11 part in the current year shall be reduced by one one-hundred eightieth
12 of the district's total foundation aid for the base year for each day
13 less than one hundred eighty days that the schools of the district were
14 actually in session, except that the commissioner may disregard such
15 reduction in the apportionment of public money[,]: (i) for any day or
16 days on which session had been previously scheduled but the superinten-
17 dent was required to close the school or schools due to a properly
18 executed declaration of a state or local state of emergency pursuant to
19 article two-B of the executive law; or (ii) for up to five days if he or
20 she finds that the schools of the district were not in session for one
21 hundred eighty days because of extraordinarily adverse weather condi-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD15782-08-0
S. 7996--B 2
1 tions, impairment of heating facilities, insufficiency of water supply,
2 shortage of fuel, lack of electricity, natural gas leakage, unacceptable
3 levels of chemical substances, a credible threat to student safety as
4 reasonably determined by a lead school official or the destruction of a
5 school building either in whole or in part, and if, further, the commis-
6 sioner finds that such district cannot make up such days of instruction
7 by using for the secondary grades all scheduled vacation days which
8 occur prior to the first scheduled regents examination day in June, and
9 for the elementary grades all scheduled vacation days which occur prior
10 to the last scheduled regents examination day in June; or (iii) for any
11 day or days in the two thousand nineteen -- two thousand twenty school
12 year on which session had been previously scheduled but the chancellor
13 of the city school district of the city of New York or the superinten-
14 dent of a district closed the school or schools due to a determination
15 by the chancellor or superintendent that it was in the best interest of
16 public health or safety of the school district to close the school or
17 schools in response to the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. For the purposes
18 of this subdivision, "scheduled vacation days" shall mean days on which
19 the schools of the district are not in session and for which no prohibi-
20 tion exists in subdivision eight of this section for them to be in
21 session.
22 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
