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Companion bill
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Relates to unoccupied school bus seats in New York city
In Assembly Committee · Education · Sponsor Michael Cusick
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S5897
Title of bill
An act to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to school bus service
Purpose
To make unoccupied seats on school buses available, through a selection system, to students deemed ineligible.
Summary of specific provisions
Section one amends subdivision a of section 19-606 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as added by local law number 48 of the city of New York for the year 2000, to add a new subdivision f-1: Provides students a seat on school bus that have unoccupied seats through a selection system. Section two of the bill is the effective date.
Justification
The New York City Department of Education normally provides school bus service to students only through sixth grade, but has the power to grant a variance to seventh and eighth-graders. Over the past 18 years, variances have been granted to 70 schools where the options with respect to public transportation are limited. The city Department of Education eliminated school bus service to students in seventh and eighth-grade. This policy affected 4,600 students at public, private and Catholic schools city-wide. Of those students, 2,940 live on Staten Island where mass transit options are limited.
With the start of the 2010 school year, parents and children were subjected to chaos. In many cases, the children who attempted to take public transportation waited at bus stops only to have these buses pass them by because they were full to capacity with morning commuters going to work. This has continued through the 2011 school year. Furthermore, parents who now drive their children to school face incredible traffic jams and long delays surrounding the school due to the tremendous increase in vehicles going to the schools. More importantly, children who walk are scared of the traffic. The lack of sidewalks and speeding vehicles increases their anxiety and makes their route extremely treacherous. School buses passing the children are reported to have many empty seats and that is why this legislation is being proposed.
This bill would provide that the principal of each school determines how many school buses have unoccupied seats. Once the determination is made a selection system will be used to select students who were deemed ineligible to have a seat on that bus. The selection system shall be implemented by the New York City Department of Education. The bill also provides that no additional drop off or pick up stops will be made.
Legislative history
New bill.
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.