Senator Carlucci Introduces Emergency Legislation to Ensure Schools Do Not Lose Funding Due to the Coronavirus Outbreak

(Albany, NY) – Senator David Carlucci (D-Rockland/Westchester) introduced new emergency legislation (S.7996) to ensure if New York’s schools close due to the coronavirus that their State funding is not impacted.  

Under current State law, if  a school district must close due to the Coronavirus and cannot stay open 180 days, then they could lose State funding.  

Senator David Carlucci said, “We have schools that will close due to the coronavirus, and if this is for an extended period of time, I want to ensure their State education funding is secure. We have school districts like East Ramapo and Ossining fighting for equitable funding for our children and for it to be taken away due to the coronavirus is unacceptable. The State should sign this legislation immediately and safeguard our children’s education.”

Schools usually prepare for a number of potential snow days; however, with the conronavirus, we have seen unprecedented school closings in Japan, Italy, India, South Korea, Iran, France, Pakistan and elsewhere. The United Nations has said 290.5 million students worldwide have missed school due to the coronavirus.

“We need to be proactive in our approach to the coronavirus when it comes to all facets of society,” said Carlucci. “Our schools are extremely important to safeguard, as we see an unprecedented situation. The worst thing we can do is hinder our districts further with less funding, as they will need to make up for extensive work if a school is closed.”