A 2616: Directs the board of education or the board of trustees of each school district shall establish a policy and adopt procedures permitting the district to confer a diploma on a student posthumously if, at the time of death, such student had completed the eleventh grade class of a public school in the district and was enrolled or expected to be enrolled in the twelfth grade class within the same public school district the following school year.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 2616 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY January 21, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. WOERNER, SIMPSON, SANTABARBARA, WALSH -- read once and referred to the Committee on Education AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to posthumous awarding of high school diplomas The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 3204 of the education law is amended by adding a 2 new subdivision 6 to read as follows: 3 6. Posthumous awarding of diplomas. The board of education or the 4 board of trustees of each school district shall establish a policy and 5 adopt procedures permitting the district to confer a diploma on a 6 student posthumously if, at the time of death, such student had 7 completed the eleventh grade class of a public school in the district 8 and was enrolled or expected to be enrolled in the twelfth grade class 9 within the same public school district the following school year. The 10 policy and procedures shall address the district's coordination with the 11 parents or guardians of the deceased student concerning the method for 12 conferring such a diploma, including but not limited to, site of presen- 13 tation, identity of a proxy recipient, family attendance at the high 14 school graduation ceremony, and scope of recognition and/or partic- 15 ipation, if any, at the high school graduation ceremony, and shall 16 further provide for annual written notice to all students and their 17 parents or guardians about the school district's policy and procedures 18 adopted in accordance with this subdivision. Nothing in this subdivision 19 shall require a school district to issue a diploma before the graduation 20 date of the deceased student's high school graduating class or require 21 the family of a deceased student to attend or participate in a high 22 school graduation ceremony or related activities. Diplomas conferred in 23 accordance with this subdivision shall not be applied toward student 24 graduation counts or for any other purpose of federal or state account- 25 ability data collection. 26 § 2. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall 27 have become a law. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD02775-01-5