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History
- Referred to education
- Referred to education
Full text
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Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S4751
Title of bill
An act to amend the education law, in relation to student transportation
Purpose or general idea of bill
To allow school districts greater flexibility with regard to ridership and utilization of buses.
Summary of specific provisions
This bill will amend §3635 of the Education Law by adding a new subdivision 8 which would allow for school districts that have an area of forty square miles or less to enact a policy of home to school transportation based upon patterns of actual ridership, without regard to the number of students eligible for transportation and the number of seats that would otherwise be required for such students.
Justification
Education Law has been interpreted to require that school districts provide, without exception, a seat for every pupil that is eligible for school to home transportation. For a variety of reasons however, many eligible students do not actually use bus transportation provided by the district. Some students are close enough to walk to school and many households provide their own transportation as a matter of convenience. Additionally, some older students drive themselves to school regularly, and often carpool with other students.
Notwithstanding patterns of low ridership, current law requires the district to continue to transport empty seats twice a day. This results in added expenses to the district, especially with price increases in diesel fuel, unnecessary congestion around the schools at the beginning of the day and at dismissal, as well as increased air and noise pollution. This legislation would give certain school districts more flexibility to manage their transportation routes in the most efficient manner possible.
Prior legislative history
2008: A.11427 2010: A.2336
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.