Bill Text: NY A03068 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Amended


Bill Title: Establishes Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as school holidays, with dates established by religious law and tradition.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 47-6)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-05-09 - print number 3068a [A03068 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A03068-Amended.html



                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         3068--A

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    February 2, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M.  of A. SAYEGH, JACKSON, SILLITTI, GALLAGHER, MAMDANI,
          FORREST, MITAYNES, FALL, LAVINE, SHRESTHA,  EPSTEIN,  AUBRY,  ZACCARO,
          TAPIA,   RAMOS,  SEAWRIGHT,  BURDICK,  GONZALEZ-ROJAS,  RAGA,  WEPRIN,
          BERGER, COLTON, ROZIC, GUNTHER, ALVAREZ, STERN, BLUMENCRANZ,  CARROLL,
          RAJKUMAR,  ARDILA,  DARLING,  CURRAN,  EACHUS, L. ROSENTHAL, LUNSFORD,
          BICHOTTE HERMELYN, SOLAGES, LEE, CHANG, CUNNINGHAM, FAHY,  BRAUNSTEIN,
          BORES,  TAYLOR,  WILLIAMS,  PHEFFER AMATO,  SHIMSKY,  WALLACE,  TAGUE,
          SIMONE -- read once and referred  to  the  Committee  on  Governmental
          Operations  -- recommitted to the Committee on Governmental Operations
          in accordance with Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2  --  committee  discharged,
          bill  amended,  ordered  reprinted  as amended and recommitted to said
          committee

        AN ACT to amend the education  law,  in  relation  to  establishing  Eid
          al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as school holidays

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Subdivision 8 of section 3604  of  the  education  law,  as
     2  amended  by  chapter  359  of  the  laws  of 2023, is amended to read as
     3  follows:
     4    8. No school shall be in session on a Saturday, the first day  of  the
     5  second  lunar  month after the winter solstice in the preceding calendar
     6  year known as Asian Lunar New Year, the holidays of Eid al-Fitr and  Eid
     7  al-Adha,  as  affixed  by Muslim religious law and tradition, or a legal
     8  holiday,  except  general  election  day,  Washington's   birthday   and
     9  Lincoln's  birthday,  and  except  that  driver education classes may be
    10  conducted on a Saturday. A deficiency not exceeding four days during any
    11  school year caused by teachers'  attendance  upon  conferences  held  by
    12  superintendents  of  schools  of  city  school districts or other school
    13  districts employing superintendents of schools shall be excused  by  the
    14  commissioner,  notwithstanding  any provision of law, rule or regulation
    15  to the contrary, a school district may elect to schedule such conference
    16  days in the last two weeks of August, subject to  collective  bargaining
    17  requirements  pursuant to article fourteen of the civil service law, and
    18  such days shall be counted towards the required one hundred eighty  days

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD07656-04-4

        A. 3068--A                          2

     1  of  session,  provided however, that such scheduling shall not alter the
     2  obligation of the school district to provide transportation to  students
     3  in  non-public  elementary  and secondary schools or charter schools. At
     4  least  two  such  conference days during such school year shall be dedi-
     5  cated to staff attendance upon conferences providing  staff  development
     6  relating  to  implementation  of  the  new  high  learning standards and
     7  assessments, as adopted by the board of regents.    Notwithstanding  any
     8  other  provision  of  law,  rule  or  regulation to the contrary, school
     9  districts may elect to use one or more of such allowable conference days
    10  in units of not less than one hour each  to  provide  staff  development
    11  activities relating to implementation of the new high learning standards
    12  and  assessments. A district making such election may provide such staff
    13  development on any day during which sessions are allowed and apply  such
    14  units  to  satisfy  a  deficiency  in  the  length  of one or more daily
    15  sessions of instruction for pupils as specified in  regulations  of  the
    16  commissioner.  The  commissioner  shall assure that such conference days
    17  include appropriate school violence prevention and  intervention  train-
    18  ing, and may require that up to one such conference day be dedicated for
    19  such purpose.
    20    §  2.   Subdivision 2-a of section 3635 of the education law, as sepa-
    21  rately amended by chapters 359 and 629 of the laws of 2023,  is  amended
    22  to read as follows:
    23    2-a. The superintendent of each city school district, in a city having
    24  a  population  in  excess  of one million, shall prepare a public school
    25  calendar and shall notify officials of nonpublic schools to which trans-
    26  portation has been requested not later than the first  day  of  June  in
    27  each year, of the days on which the public schools will be in session in
    28  the following school year. Such school district which provides transpor-
    29  tation  to  nonpublic  schools shall provide such transportation for the
    30  same number of days as the public schools are open but shall not provide
    31  transportation services for more than one hundred eighty  days.    Offi-
    32  cials  of each nonpublic school to which transportation is provided by a
    33  city school district of a city having a  population  in  excess  of  one
    34  million  may  notify such district, not later than the first day of July
    35  of each school year, of a maximum of five days, exclusive of  Saturdays,
    36  Sundays  or  legal holidays upon which public schools are required to be
    37  closed, on which the public schools are scheduled to be  closed,  except
    38  that  in  any year in which the first or last day of Passover and Easter
    39  Sunday are separated by more than seven days, such officials may  notify
    40  the  district of a maximum of ten days, but such school district will be
    41  required to provide for transportation to such nonpublic school provided
    42  that such five or ten additional  days,  whichever  is  applicable,  are
    43  limited  to  the  following: the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
    44  after Labor Day, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the  week  in  which  public
    45  schools  are  closed  for  spring recess, December twenty-fourth and the
    46  week between Christmas day and New Year's day, the  Tuesday,  Wednesday,
    47  Thursday  and  Friday after the observance of Washington's birthday, the
    48  first day of the second lunar month after the  winter  solstice  in  the
    49  preceding  calendar  year,  known as Asian Lunar New Year, the fifteenth
    50  day of the eighth month of the Indian calendar in each  year,  known  as
    51  Diwali,  the  holidays  of  Eid  al-Fitr  and Eid al-Adha, as affixed by
    52  Muslim religious law and tradition, and, in the boroughs of Brooklyn and
    53  Queens only,  Anniversary  Day  as  designated  in  section  twenty-five
    54  hundred eighty-six of this chapter.
    55    § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
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