Establishes that school districts can start classes up to three days before the first of September without losing department of education funding provided that the schools are in session for at least one hundred eighty days.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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8304--A
Cal. No. 1730
IN SENATE
April 27, 2018
___________
Introduced by Sen. PHILLIPS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Education -- committee
discharged and said bill committed to the Committee on Rules --
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 allowing school
districts to start classes before the first of September
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 section 3 of part B of chapter 54 of the laws of 2016, is
3 amended to read as 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. Boards of education and
10 community boards of school districts in this state shall be authorized
11 to start the school year up to three days before the first of September,
12 provided, however, that such school year consists of at least one
13 hundred eighty days as set forth in this subdivision; provided, addi-
14 tionally that such authorization shall be subject to collective bargain-
15 ing and such bargaining may be for the sole purpose of adjusting the
16 instructional start of the school year. The moneys payable to a school
17 district pursuant to section thirty-six hundred nine-a of this [chapter]
18 part in the current year shall be reduced by one one-hundred eightieth
19 of the district's total foundation aid for each day less than one
20 hundred eighty days that the schools of the district were actually in
21 session, except that the commissioner may disregard such reduction, up
22 to five days, in the apportionment of public money, if he finds that the
23 schools of the district were not in session for one hundred eighty days
24 because of extraordinarily adverse weather conditions, impairment of
25 heating facilities, insufficiency of water supply, shortage of fuel,
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
S LBD15202-02-8
S. 8304--A 2
1 lack of electricity, natural gas leakage, unacceptable levels of chemi-
2 cal substances, a credible threat to student safety as reasonably deter-
3 mined by a lead school official or the destruction of a school building
4 either in whole or in part, and if, further, the commissioner finds that
5 such district cannot make up such days of instruction by using for the
6 secondary grades all scheduled vacation days which occur prior to the
7 first scheduled regents examination day in June, and for the elementary
8 grades all scheduled vacation days which occur prior to the last sched-
9 uled regents examination day in June. For the purposes of this subdivi-
10 sion, "scheduled vacation days" shall mean days on which the schools of
11 the district are not in session and for which no prohibition exists in
12 subdivision eight of this section for them to be in session.
13 § 2. This act shall take effect ninety days after it shall have become
14 a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of
15 any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on
16 its effective date are authorized to be made and completed on or before
17 such date.
