Bill Text: NY A10189 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Amended

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Bill Title: 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.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 13-0)

Status: (Passed) 2020-06-17 - SIGNED CHAP.107 [A10189 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-A10189-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                        10189--A

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                     March 24, 2020
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by M. of A. ORTIZ -- 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 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-
    22  tions, impairment of heating facilities, insufficiency of water  supply,
    23  shortage of fuel, lack of electricity, natural gas leakage, unacceptable
    24  levels  of  chemical  substances, a credible threat to student safety as

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD15782-07-0
        A. 10189--A                         2

     1  reasonably determined by a lead school official or the destruction of  a
     2  school building either in whole or in part, and if, further, the commis-
     3  sioner  finds that such district cannot make up such days of instruction
     4  by  using  for  the  secondary  grades all scheduled vacation days which
     5  occur prior to the first scheduled regents examination day in June,  and
     6  for  the elementary grades all scheduled vacation days which occur prior
     7  to the last scheduled regents examination day in June; or (iii) for  any
     8  day  or  days in the two thousand nineteen -- two thousand twenty school
     9  year on which session had been previously scheduled but  the  chancellor
    10  of  the  city school district of the city of New York or the superinten-
    11  dent of a district closed the school or schools due to  a  determination
    12  by  the chancellor or superintendent that it was in the best interest of
    13  public health or safety of the school district to close  the  school  or
    14  schools in response to the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. For the purposes
    15  of  this subdivision, "scheduled vacation days" shall mean days on which
    16  the schools of the district are not in session and for which no prohibi-
    17  tion exists in subdivision eight of this  section  for  them  to  be  in
    18  session.
    19    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.