A 2041: Relates to school session days; adds general election day to the list of days when school will not be in session; allows a school district to elect to require staff attendance on a general election day or to schedule a professional development day.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 2041 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY January 14, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. STIRPE, HUNTER, HYNDMAN, MAGNARELLI, RIVERA, SIMON, TAYLOR, SAYEGH, REYES, PHEFFER AMATO, ROSENTHAL, BRONSON, FRIEND, WOERNER, COOK, STECK, CLARK, MEEKS -- read once and referred to the Committee on Education AN ACT to amend the education law and the election law, in relation to school session days 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, or a legal holiday, except [general 7 election day,] Washington's birthday and Lincoln's birthday, and except 8 that driver education classes may be conducted on a Saturday. A school 9 district may elect to require staff attendance on a general election day 10 or to schedule a professional development day. A deficiency not exceed- 11 ing four days during any school year caused by teachers' attendance upon 12 conferences held by superintendents of schools of city school districts 13 or other school districts employing superintendents of schools shall be 14 excused by the commissioner, notwithstanding any provision of law, rule 15 or regulation to the contrary, a school district may elect to schedule 16 such conference days in the last two weeks of August, subject to collec- 17 tive bargaining requirements pursuant to article fourteen of the civil 18 service law, and such days shall be counted towards the required one 19 hundred eighty days of session, provided however, that such scheduling 20 shall not alter the obligation of the school district to provide trans- 21 portation to students in non-public elementary and secondary schools or 22 charter schools. At least two such conference days during such school 23 year shall be dedicated to staff attendance upon conferences providing EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD03525-01-5 
 A. 2041 2 1 staff development relating to implementation of the new high learning 2 standards and assessments, as adopted by the board of regents. Notwith- 3 standing any other provision of law, rule or regulation to the contrary, 4 school districts may elect to use one or more of such allowable confer- 5 ence days in units of not less than one hour each to provide staff 6 development activities relating to implementation of the new high learn- 7 ing standards and assessments. A district making such election may 8 provide such staff development on any day during which sessions are 9 allowed and apply such units to satisfy a deficiency in the length of 10 one or more daily sessions of instruction for pupils as specified in 11 regulations of the commissioner. The commissioner shall assure that such 12 conference days include appropriate school violence prevention and 13 intervention training, and may require that up to one such conference 14 day be dedicated for such purpose. 15 § 2. Subdivision 3 of section 4-104 of the election law, as amended by 16 chapter 694 of the laws of 1989, is amended to read as follows: 17 3. A building exempt from taxation shall be used whenever possible as 18 a polling place if it is situated in the same or a contiguous election 19 district, and may contain as many distinctly separate polling places as 20 public convenience may require. The expense, if any, incidental to its 21 use, shall be paid like the expense of other places of registration and 22 voting. If a board or body empowered to designate polling places chooses 23 a public school building for such purpose, the board or agency which 24 controls such building must make available a room or rooms in such 25 building which are suitable for registration and voting and which are as 26 close as possible to a convenient entrance to such building and must 27 make available any such room or rooms which the board or body designat- 28 ing such building determines are accessible to physically disabled 29 voters as provided in subdivision one-a of this section. Notwithstanding 30 the provisions of any general, special or local law, if a board or body 31 empowered to designate polling places chooses a publicly owned or leased 32 building[, other than a public school building,] for such purposes the 33 board or body which controls such building must make available a room or 34 rooms in such building which are suitable for registration and voting 35 and which are as close as possible to a convenient entrance to such 36 building, and must make available any such room or rooms which the board 37 or body designating such building determines are accessible to phys- 38 ically disabled voters unless, not later than thirty days after notice 39 of its designation as a polling place, the board or body controlling 40 such building, files a written request for a cancellation of such desig- 41 nation with the board or body empowered to designate polling places on 42 such form as shall be provided by the board or body making such desig- 43 nation. The board or body empowered to so designate shall, within twenty 44 days after such request is filed, determine whether the use of such 45 building as a polling place would unreasonably interfere with the usual 46 activities conducted in such building and upon such determination, may 47 cancel such designation. 48 § 3. This act shall take effect January 1, 2027.