Relates to streamlining planning and reporting requirements for school districts and boards of cooperative educational services; repealer

Section 2 makes legislative findings to express the intent of the act, which implements recommendations concerning the elimination of various unneeded statutorily required planning and reporting requirements and the reduction of scope of other statutorily required planning and reporting requirements. contained in a 2003 Commissioner's report to the Governor and Legislature recommending a new comprehensive streamlined reporting system. The bill proposes that the Legislature find that the creation of a comprehensive planning and reporting system is a necessary component to the reduction of scope and elimination of certain existing planning and reporting requirements.

Section 3 would amend the Education Law by adding a new section 101-b. The new section would:

o Give the Commissioner the responsibility to reduce the paperwork burden, while focusing planning and reporting on student results rather than the processes to achieve them.

o Require the Commissioner to conform state reporting and planning requirements to federal requirements, where possible, and to seek federal waivers where needed to align state and federal requirements, provided, however, that nothing in the section would excuse the Commissioner or the Board of Regents from reporting information by the Department to the Legislature or the Governor under any other law.

o Define the purposes of planning and reporting as follows: assuring fiscal and programmatic accountability, fostering continuous school improvement and closing the student achievement gap, assuring the provision of a safe and secure environment and protecting the health and safety of students.

o Define the Commissioner's responsibility to collaborate with selected school districts and boards of cooperative educational services (BOCES) to promote better use of required planning and reporting, identify best practices, provide for the sharing of effective planning practices, and provide technical assistance on the use of data in planning to school board members.

o Allow school districts, BOCES and charter schools, with certain exceptions, to fulfill any requirement that reports and plans be submitted to or filed with the Department by posting such report or plan on their websites; provided the Department is afforded timely electronic notification of the website address and the posting. The exceptions would be the filing of State aid claims or other situations where the Department requires information or data to be submitted to the Department electronically through its data systems or website, or otherwise, or where posting of a plan, report or application on a website could violate confidentiality requirements under State or federal law.

Section 4 would repeal subdivision 32 of section 305 of the Education Law, which required the Commissioner to conduct the 2003 study on streamlining school district planning and reporting.

Section 5 would repeal section 805 of the Education Law, which gives the Commissioner the authority to withhold all public funds from school districts that fail to provide health education instruction regarding alcohol, drugs, tobacco abuse and the prevention and detection of certain cancers, as required by section 804 of the Education Law.

Section 6 would amend subdivision 2 of section 806 of the Education Law concerning instruction in highway safety and traffic regulation, including bicycle safety. The amendment would continue the requirement for school districts to provide the instruction but eliminate specific details, including the Commissioner's inspection and oversight of such instruction and the Commissioner's authority to withhold public school money for noncompliance.

Section 7 would amend subparagraph 5 of paragraph b of subdivision 4 of section 1950 of the Education Law to eliminate an outdated requirement for BOCES to separate its program, capital and administrative costs for the 1994-95 school year budget.

Section 8 would amend paragraph c of subdivision 4 of section 1950 of the Education Law to continue the requirement that BOCES prepare long-range program plans, but to change the required submission to the State Education Department and instead require the plan to be on file and available for public inspection and review by the Commissioner as needed. This section would eliminate the requirement that BOCES submit sections of the plan pertaining to special education and career education programs every two years and provide that such plans may be incorporated into a BOCES district-wide comprehensive plan.

Section 9 would amend subparagraphs 3 and 4 of paragraph d of subdivision 4 of section 1950 of the Education Law to eliminate requirements for BOCES to submit to the State Education Department:

o Contract signatures to ensure that BOCES and school districts have signed contracts for cooperative services;

o Amendments to the BOCES adopted budget, which also are no longer required to be submitted pursuant to this act; and

Section 10 would amend paragraph kk of subdivision 4 of section 1950 of the Education Law concerning the BOCES report card. The amendment would delete reference to including in the report card specific information included in the Regents annual report to the Governor and the Legislature pursuant to section 215-a of the Education Law. The Commissioner would continue to have the responsibility to provide certain information needed to ensure the accountability of BOCES pursuant to section 215-b of the Education Law.

Section 11 would amend subdivision 2 of section 2201 of the Education Law to allow, rather than require, the Commissioner of Education to conduct a supervisory district reorganization study whenever the Commissioner receives a letter of resignation from a district superintendent of schools.

Section 12 would amend subdivision 5 of section 2802 of the Education Law to change the date from January 1 to April 1 for the Commissioner to report to the Regents, Governor and Legislature on the prevalence of violence and disruptive incidents in public schools and the effectiveness of school programs undertaken to reduce violence and assure the safety and security of students and school personnel. It would further amend this section to eliminate the requirement that the Commissioner identify specifically the school and school district with the least and greatest incidence of violent and disruptive incidents and least and most improvement, but require the Commissioner to compare the incidence of violent and disruptive incidents of schools, school districts and boards with other schools, school districts and boards based on similarity in size, grade levels and other characteristics, rather than reporting on the schools and districts with the highest and lowest incidence of violent and disruptive incidents in the State. These changes are proposed to make such reporting more objective and less open to interpretations that may go beyond the limitations of data the Department can collect.

Section 13 would amend paragraph f of subdivision 11 of section 3602 of the Education Law to require school districts and BOCES to eliminate the requirement to submit a plan of service and evaluation for approval of the Commissioner, in order to receive aid for Employment Preparation Education programs. The amendment would continue to require submission of an annual application for the payment of aid, to be approved by the Commissioner.

Section 14 would amend paragraph b of subdivision 8 of section 3602 of the Education Law to fully eliminate the requirement that school districts submit to the Commissioner plans of service for these three categorical aid programs and to replace such requirement with a requirement that the district plans of service be kept on file and available for public inspection.

Section 15 would repeal clause (e) of subparagraph (5) of paragraph b of subdivision 1 of section 4402 of the Education Law to no longer require that school district committees on special education and multidisciplinary teams submit annual reports to the Department relating to transition of students with disabilities to adult services.

Section 16 would repeal paragraph b of subdivision 1 of section 4452 of the Education Law to eliminate !he requirement that school districts submit to the Commissioner a plan for the education and identification of gifted and talented students as a condition of receipt of state funds for the education of gifted and talented students.

Section 17 is the effective date.

Statement in support of the bill

Subdivision 32 of Section 305 of the Education Law, as added by section 1 of part H of Chapter 83 of the Laws of 2002, requires the Commissioner to conduct a review of all plans, applications and reports that school districts are required to submit to the State Education Department by laws, regulations or administrative action. This 2002 law further requires the Commissioner to submit a report on plans for streamlining such requirements to reduce duplicative reporting. In his report issued June 1, 2003, the Commissioner found that federal and State law and Commissioner's regulations require school districts to submit approximately 150 plans, applications and reports to the State Education Department annually. These requirements have been in place for decades to respond to a variety of different needs for school improvement, accountability and financial reporting. During this period, the state's technological capacity has grown, federal and state governments have implemented a results-oriented school accountability system, and Department staff has been reduced. The Commissioner has recommended "a new, comprehensive, streamlined system aligned with the expectations inherent in a results-oriented, standards-based education system." This legislation would streamline school district and BOCES planning and reporting by reducing duplicative and burdensome separate reporting systems. It would not, however, eliminate reporting requirements that have been determined to be necessary to maintain fiscal and programmatic accountability for school districts or to protect the health or safety of students or staff.

Accordingly, this bill would require the Commissioner to reduce the paperwork burden while focusing planning and reporting on student results. The bill would require the Commissioner to conform state reporting and planning requirements to federal requirements where possible, and to seek federal waivers where needed to align state and federal requirements. Where school districts, BOCES or charter schools are required by law to file plans or reports with the Department, this bill would allow them to fulfill those requirements by posting on their websites, with appropriate electronic notice to the Department, rather than submitting paper forms. This would not apply to the filing of State aid claims or other instances in which the Department requires electronic submission of data to the Department's data systems or websites, or where posting would violate confidentiality requirements.

The bill would limit educational planning and reporting to the following purposes: assuring fiscal and programmatic accountability, fostering continuous school improvement and closing the student achievement gap, and assuring a safe and secure environment and protecting the health and safety of students.

To reduce the paperwork burden on school districts and BOCES, the bill would eliminate or streamline various specific reporting requirements currently imposed by statute. Particularly, the bill would eliminate or streamline a series of reporting requirements currently imposed on BOCES. BOCES reporting requirements often require data from component districts that is a burden on school districts to compile and on BOCES to coordinate and report, so streamlining them would have a dual benefit. Thus, the bill would eliminate requirements that BOCES: report on the cost-effectiveness of instructional and non-instructional technology acquired through the BOCES by component school districts; submit detailed data on unit costs for shared services to the Commissioner, submit a copy of their administrative budget to the Commissioner; and submit their long-range plans to the Commissioner. Other changes would make it permissive, rather than mandatory, for the Commissioner to conduct a survey of the need for reorganization of a BOCES when there is a vacancy in the position of district superintendent of schools, limit the data that the Commissioner must submit in the annual report on BOCES to information necessary to assure accountability and eliminate certain obsolete provisions relating to BOCES planning and reporting.

The bill also would provide direct relief to school districts by eliminating mandated annual reporting on students with disabilities transitioning to adult services. The required annual report which identifies the type and severity of each student's disability and other aging out information is no longer necessary because, subsequent to the enactment of this State requirement, the federal individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) added individual student transition planning requirements that included the requirement that school districts involve other agencies likely responsible for providing or paying for transition services in the CSE meetings for each individual student. Thus, the federal individual student transition planning requirement provides other State agencies with the student specific information necessary to plan for the need of adult services.

Once this proposal is enacted, the Department would be able to amend its regulations to eliminate or consolidate school district planning and reporting requirements in statute and to identify for elimination any duplicative or unnecessary requirements imposed by regulation. At the same time, the Department is continuing with the development and implementation of improved technology-based data reporting systems for school districts and BOCES. Those systems are being designed to supply the data needed for accountability purposes while eliminating duplicative reporting, compressing multiple reports into a limited number of reports and making it easier for school district personnel to submit data. The cumulative effect of these efforts will be a substantial reduction in the paperwork burden on school districts and BOCES and a focus on collecting only the data necessary to comply with federal requirements and ensure that there is fiscal and programmatic accountability.

Budgetary implications of the bill

This bill would produce considerable savings in staff time and printing and mailing at the state and local levels for preparing and reviewing separate and, in many instances, duplicative information requirements. Although the savings in staff time would not generally allow school districts to reduce staffing levels, the bill will enable school districts to reduce staffing levels, the bill will enable school district administrative staff to focus their attention on managing the district to maximize teaching and learning growth rather than complying with duplicative reporting requirements. This bill would create no additional cost to the state or school districts.

Prior legislative history

In 2005, this bill was introduced in the Senate as S.5416. S.5416 passed the Senate, was referred to the Assembly Education Committee and no further action was taken. In 2006, S.5416 again passed the Senate, was recalled and amended. S.5416-A passed the Senate, was referred to the Assembly Education Committee and no further action was taken. An identical bill was also introduced in the Assembly in 2006 as A.11787, which was referred to the Assembly Education Committee and no further action was taken.

In 2007, this bill was introduced in the Senate as S.1773-A. S.I773-A passed the Senate, was referred to the Assembly Education Committee and no further action was taken. In 2007, an identical bill was introduced in the Assembly as A.8687-A. A.8687-A was referred to the Assembly Education Committee and no further action was taken. In 2008, S.1773-A was returned to the Senate, passed the Senate, was referred to the Assembly Education Committee, and no further action was taken.

In 2009, this bill was introduced in the Senate as S.3874. S.3874 was referred to the Senate Education Committee, reported and committed to the Senate Finance Committee, discharged from said Committee and referred back to the Senate Education Committee where it advanced to a third reading and then was committed to the Senate Rules Committee. No further action was taken. An identical bill was introduced in the Assembly as A.7568. A.7568 was referred to the Assembly Education Committee, and no further action was taken.

Effective date

This bill specifies that the act will take effect immediately; however, the Commissioner will be required to promulgate any rules or regulations needed to implement the provisions of this act on or before July 1, 2011.