S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
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                                 10189--A
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                              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:
 
   Section  1.  Subdivision  7  of  section 3604 of the education law, as
 amended by chapter 605 of the laws  of  2019,  is  amended  to  read  as
 follows:
   7.  No district shall be entitled to any portion of such school moneys
 on such apportionment unless the report of  the  trustees  or  board  of
 education  for  the  preceding  school  year  shall show that the public
 schools were actually in session in the district and taught by a  quali-
 fied  teacher or by successive qualified teachers or by qualified teach-
 ers for not less than one hundred eighty days. The moneys payable  to  a
 school  district  pursuant  to section thirty-six hundred nine-a of this
 part in the current year shall be reduced by one  one-hundred  eightieth
 of  the  district's  total foundation aid for the base year for each day
 less than one hundred eighty days that the schools of the district  were
 actually  in  session,  except  that the commissioner may disregard such
 reduction in the apportionment of public money[,]: (i) for  any  day  or
 days  on which session had been previously scheduled but the superinten-
 dent was required to close the school  or  schools  due  to  a  properly
 executed  declaration of a state or local state of emergency pursuant to
 article two-B of the executive law; or (ii) for up to five days if he or
 she finds that the schools of the district were not in session  for  one
 hundred  eighty  days  because of extraordinarily adverse weather condi-
 tions, impairment of heating facilities, insufficiency of water  supply,
 shortage of fuel, lack of electricity, natural gas leakage, unacceptable
 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
 
 reasonably determined by a lead school official or the destruction of  a
 school building either in whole or in part, and if, further, the commis-
 sioner  finds that such district cannot make up such days of instruction
 by  using  for  the  secondary  grades all scheduled vacation days which
 occur prior to the first scheduled regents examination day in June,  and
 for  the elementary grades all scheduled vacation days which occur prior
 to the last scheduled regents examination day in June; OR (III) FOR  ANY
 DAY  OR  DAYS IN THE TWO THOUSAND NINETEEN -- TWO THOUSAND TWENTY SCHOOL
 YEAR ON WHICH SESSION HAD BEEN PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED BUT  THE  CHANCELLOR
 OF  THE  CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK OR THE SUPERINTEN-
 DENT OF A DISTRICT CLOSED THE SCHOOL OR SCHOOLS DUE TO  A  DETERMINATION
 BY  THE CHANCELLOR OR SUPERINTENDENT THAT IT WAS IN THE BEST INTEREST OF
 PUBLIC HEALTH OR SAFETY OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT TO CLOSE  THE  SCHOOL  OR
 SCHOOLS IN RESPONSE TO THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19. For the purposes
 of  this subdivision, "scheduled vacation days" shall mean days on which
 the schools of the district are not in session and for which no prohibi-
 tion exists in subdivision eight of this  section  for  them  to  be  in
 session.
   § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.