Establishes Earth day; relates to mandate relief for school districts and certain other educational entities; removes references to subcommittees on special education; repealer

Section 2 would amend § 305(14)(a) of the Education Law to authorize that certain contracts may be advertised in the state's procurement opportunities newsletter in accordance with article 4-C of the economic development law and to eliminate the that contracts for the maintenance and operation of cafeteria or restaurant services be competitively bid.

Section 3 would amend § 305(14)(e) of the Education Law to allow for transportation and cafeteria contracts to be awarded through a request for proposals process based on "best value". Currently, State law requires the awarding of school district contracts to lowest, responsible bidders. For complex technical and service contracts, this would allow districts to consider other factors in awarding contracts. This might include costs, such as conversion costs, rather than solely the price bid for a product.

Section 4 would amend § 305(14) of the Education Law to add a new paragraph (g) to authorize the piggybacking of transportation contracts between districts that contract with a private transportation contractor.

Section 5 would amend § 6-0107(1) of the Environmental Conservation Law to eliminate compliance with the smart growth legislation adopted as Chapter 433 of the Laws of 2010 for reconstruction projects, renovations, repairs or improvements of existing public school facilities or existing library facilities, and projects for the construction of new or expanded public school or library facilities in cities having a population of more than 125,000 inhabitants.

Section 6 would amend § 375(20) of the Vehicle and Traffic Law to eliminate the requirement for back-lit school bus signs. This would encourage districts to replace such back-lit school bus signs with federally compliant reflective materials, consistent with the provision currently in place in 48 out of 50 states. This section does not require the retrofitting of school buses purchased prior to the effective date of this act.

Section 7 would repeal § 353(15) of the Executive Law which requires school districts to provide a form to parents of certain children with disabilities who are veterans of the Vietnam war for a report to the Division of Veterans' Affairs for research purposes.

Section 8 would authorize a study of the feasibility and desirability of authorizing school districts and boards of cooperative educational services (BOCES) to enter national credit card contracts as a cost-saving measure, with appropriate safeguards. Such contracts could potentially provide cost savings or revenues for districts, particularly where rebates are offered based on volume of purchases.

Section 9 would amend § 2590-b(4)(b)(2) and sections 10 and 11 would amend § 2853(4)(a) of the Education Law to make conforming changes to remove references to subcommittees on special education.

Section 12 would amend § 3602-c of the Education Law to clarify the definition of services and provide that special education services for such students do not include special classes or integrated co-teaching. The bill would clarify that responsibilities for July and August services are though the students' school district of location. This provision would also change the date from June 1 to April 1 for a parent to request special education services. Finally, the section would make mediation mandatory where due process complaints are sought prior to any request for an impartial hearing.

Section 13 would amend § 4002(2)(e) to remove references to the Commissioner of Education's authority to appoint students to state-supported schools.

Section 14 would amend § 4201 of the Education Law to remove the authority of the Commissioner of Education to make appointments to state-supported schools.

Section 15 of the bill would amend § 4203 of the Education Law and section 16 would amend § 4204(3) of the Education Law to remove references to the Commissioner of Education's authority to appoint student to state-supported schools and to clarify that placement of pupils to institutions for instruction of the deaf may be recommended by the committee on special education, or committee on preschool special education where applicable, of the school district responsible for educating the pupil, and may include the provision of special education programs and services in July or August in accordance with the provisions of § 4402(2)(a).

Section 17 would amend § 4206 of the Education Law to remove references to the Commissioner of Education's authority to appoint students to institutions for the instruction of the blind and would clarify that placement in such institutions may be recommended by the committee on special education, or committee on preschool special education where applicable, of the school district responsible for educating such pupil, and may include the provision of special education programs and services in July or August in accordance with the provisions of § 4402(2)(a).

Section 18 would amend § 4207 of the Education Law to remove the Commissioner of Education's authority for appointments to the New York Institute for Special Education and provides that the committee on special education of the school district responsible for the education of the pupil, with the consent of the trustees of the New York Institute for Special Education has the authority to recommend extension of the term of any pupil attending the institution.

Section 19 would amend § 4213 of the Education Law to conform language and remove references of appointments to the New York Institute for Special Education.

Section 20 would amend § 4401(2)(d) of the Education Law, section 23 would amend § 4402(2)(b)(2) of the Education Law and section 27 would amend § 4403(16) of the Education Law to conform language and remove references of appointments by the Commissioner of Education to state-supported schools.

Section 21 and 22 would amend § 4402(1)(b)(2), section 24 would amend § 4402(1)(b) (3a) and section 26 would amend § 4403(8) and (9) of the Education Law to make conforming changes to remove references to subcommittees on special education.

Section 25 would repeal § 4402(1)(b)(3)(h) of the Education Law to remove the requirement to file certain reports on students with disabilities who are the children of Vietnam Veterans.

Sections 28 and 29 would amend § 4402(1)(b)(1)(a), (b) and (c) of the Education Law to eliminate the requirement that the committee on special education membership must include a school physician. This section would also limit the mandatory requirement for a school psychologist to serve on the committee on special education, to those meetings which determine a student's initial eligibility for special education services.

Section 30 would repeal § 4402(1)(b)(1)(d) of the Education Law relating to subcommittees on special education.

Section 31 would repeal § 4402(1)(b)(3)(d-2) of the Education Law requiring boards of education to develop plans and policies for appropriate declassification of students with disabilities.

Section 32 would amend § 4402(1)(b)(5) and (7) of the Education Law to eliminate the requirement that the committee on special education or multidisciplinary team provide written notice that a child placed in a residential program in not entitled to receive tuition free educational services after the age of 21 or upon receipt of a high school diploma. Instead, this section would provide, at the first annual review of a student with a disability placed in a residential program or a student determined by the committee on special education or multidisciplinary team likely to require adult residential services after the student has attained the age of 18, for the development of adult service recommendations. Upon consent of the student's parents or the student themselves if over the age of 18, the committee on special education or the multidisciplinary team shall invite representatives from the Office of Mental Health (OMH) oa the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) to participate in such recommendations and upon consented release of the student's information, refer the student to the appropriate public agency for services.

Section 33 would amend § 4402(4)(d) of the Education Law to provide that where the board of education of a student's school district of residence provides transportation up to a distance of fifty miles to and from a nonpublic school which a student identified with a disability attends for the purpose of receiving services or programs from the non-public school which are similar to special education programs and services recommended for the student by the district of residence, the student would not be entitled to special education programs and services from the school district of location pursuant to § 3602-c of the Education Law.

Section 34 would amend § 4404(1)(a) of the Education Law to provide that a due process hearing must be requested within one year of the date the parent or district had knowledge of the underlying issue with an exception that for parents seeking tuition reimbursement such request must be made within 180 days of the date the parent placed his/her child in the private school.

Section 35 would amend § 4410(4)(b) of the Education Law to repeal the requirement that the parent selects the preschool evaluator. The bill would replace this provision with the requirement that each board shall, within the time limits established by the commissioner, be responsible for providing the parent of a preschool child suspected of having a disability, with a list of approved evaluators in the geographic area. This section would also require that the school district consider the parent's expressed preference, if any, in the selection of the evaluator.

Section 36 would amend § 4410(9-a) of the Education Law to establish that all school districts are approved evaluators of preschool students suspected of having a disability without the need to submit an application to the state education department.

Section 37 would amend § 4410-b(l)(c) of the Education Law to conform language and remove references to subcommittees on special education.

Section 38 is the effective date. This section also provides that nothing in section six shall be construed to require the retrofitting of school buses purchased prior to the effective date of the act.

Statement in support of the bill

As school districts adjust to challenging fiscal conditions at all levels of government, mandate relief becomes vital in order to preserve funding for critical priorities. While many mandates were originally enacted to enhance the rights, protections and performance of students and the fiscal accountability of school districts, not all mandates have produced their intended results. In these fiscal times, it is imperative that a thoughtful and targeted series of changes be made to repeal mandates that have grown too burdensome and costly and which are not essential to improving results for students.

The proposed legislation would eliminate or reduce a significant number of legislative mandates and provide greater flexibility

relating to transportation, educational management services and special education.

TRANSPORTATION MANDATE RELIEF

Proposed amendments to § 305(14)(a) of the Education Law would authorize contracts for the transportation of school children, to maintain school buses owned or leased by a school district, contracts for mobile instructional units, and contracts to provide, maintain and operate cafeteria or restaurant service by a private food service management company to be advertised in the state's procurement opportunities newsletter in accordance with article 4-C of the economic development law. This is anticipated to provide greater visibility for procurement opportunities and as a result, increase competition and ultimately result in anticipated cost-savings to the district.

Section 375(20) of the Vehicle and Traffic Law would be amended to eliminate the requirement for back-lit school bus signs. This would encourage districts to replace such back-lit school bus signs with federally compliant reflective materials, consistent with the provision currently in place in 48 out of 50 states. This provision would not require school buses purchased prior to the effective date of this act, to be retro-fitted to comply with this provision.

EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT SERVICES MANDATE RELIEF

The proposed legislation would provide operational efficiencies for Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) and school districts.

Amendments to § 305(14)(e) of the Education Law would eliminate the requirement that contracts for maintenance and operation of cafeteria or restaurant services be competitively bid. Instead, this act would allow these contracts and transportation contracts to be awarded through a request for proposals process by "best value" consistent with Chapter 2 of the Laws of 2012. For complex technical and service contracts, this would allow districts to consider other factors in awarding contracts. This might include costs, such as conversion costs, rather than solely the price bid for a product. Section 103 of the general municipal law is also amended to provide school districts with the option of publishing procurement notices in the Contract Reporter instead of publishing in newspapers. Under current law districts are required to advertise in official newspapers designated by the board of education when placing legal notices. This option would reduce advertising costs and provide access to a greater audience leading to greater interest and ultimately better pricing for districts.

The proposed amendment to § 305(14) of the Education Law would expand a school district and/or BOCES authority to purchase transportation services by authorizing the piggybacking of transportation contracts between districts that contract with a private transportation contractor.This amendment would create efficiencies and cost-savings to districts and BOCES across the State.

The bill would authorize a study of the feasibility and desirability of authorizing school districts and BOCES to enter national credit card contracts as a cost-saving measure, with appropriate safeguards. Such contracts could potentially provide cost savings or revenues for districts, particularly where rebates are offered based on volume of purchases.

The bill also eliminates the mandate for school districts to observe Conservation Day and assemble students and provide instructionally related activities on that day. Instead, the bill replaces Conservation Day with Earth Day and gives districts the flexibility to fmd the best utilization of their curriculum and resources to embed instruction related to the earth's natural environment sometime during the academic year of instruction.

Finally, section 6-0107(1) of the environmental conservation law is amended to eliminate compliance with the "Smart Growth" legislation enacted pursuant to Chapter 433 of the Laws of 2010 for improvements to existing structures. Under current statute, all school districts must conduct "Smart Growth Impact Statements" to ensure capital construction projects are aligned with recently developed smart growth criteria to avoid urban sprawl and reduce urban blight. The first criterion of the "Smart Growth Criteria" is to encourage the reuse of existing infrastructure thereby negating need for new development. Since nearly 95% of school projects involve the rehabilitation of existing facilities for continued use as schools, the bill eliminates an onerous and unnecessary mandate on districts and State Education Department staff by eliminating "Smart Growth Impact Statements."

SPECIAL EDUCATION MANDATE RELIEF

The repeal and amendments to the special education provisions recommended in this legislation will provide both potential cost savings as well as necessary relief from administrative tasks and increased flexibility on how schools may best utilize their existing resources while continuing to provide procedural protections and ensure that students with disabilities receive a free appropriate public education as required by federal law.

The proposed amendments to § 3602-c of the Education Law relating to the provision of special education to parentally-placed nonpublic schools are based on recommendations made by a group of representatives of nonpublic school, parents, teachers, superintendents of schools, school administrators and school board members convened by SED to discuss how changes to state law would result in time, cost and service provision efficiencies, while balancing the need of school districts to avoid unnecessary costs, reduce disputes over billing issues and due process complaints and have timely notice that districts need to budget and make arrangement for services to dually enrolled students with disabilities. Specifically, the bill would clarify the definition of education services and provide that special education services for such students do not include special classes or integrated co-teaching; clarify that responsibilities for July and August services are through students' school district of location; change the date from June 1 to April 1 for a parent to request special education services from the district of location; specify that if a student is first identified as a student with a disability after June 1, the parent would have 30 days from the development of the individualized education services program (IESP) to file a request for services with the district of location. To address concerns that too many disputes under Education Law § 3602-c are proceeding to due process hearings which are costly to school districts and burdensome on both school districts and parents, this bill would make mediation mandatory where due process complaints are sought prior to any request for an impartial hearing and require the commissioner to establish a timeframe under which the mediation session must be conducted so as not to delay a parent's right to due process.

In addition, the bill would make a related amendment to Education Law § 4402(4)(d), to provide that where the board of education of a student's school district of residence provides transportation up to a distance of 50 miles to and from a non-public school which a student identified with a disability attends for the purpose of receiving services or programs from the non-public school which are similar to special education programs and services recommended for the student by the district of residence, the student would not be entitled to special education programs and services from the school district of location pursuant to § 3602-c of the Education Law. As a condition of eligibility for such transportation, the parent or person in parental relation to the student would be required to consent to the provision of notice by the school district of residence to the chairperson of the committee on special education of the school district in which the nonpublic school is located. Such notice must be provided by the district of residence no later than thirty days after commencing transportation services.

Amendments to § 4402(1)(b)(1) of the Education Law would more closely align the membership of the CSE to the federal individualized education program (IEP) team membership by repealing the requirement that the CSE membership must include a school physician. The amendment would limit the mandatory requirement for a school psychologist to serve on the committee on special education; to those meetings which determine a student's initial eligibility for special education services. The Department anticipates costs savings resulting from an elimination of reimbursement costs for costs associated with the participation of the school psychologist at every meeting in addition to the meeting to determine a student's initial eligibility for special education and for costs of rescheduling meetings when the school psychologist is not available to attend the scheduled meetings.

Amendments to § 4410(4)(b) of the Education Law would repeal the requirement that parents may select the preschool evaluator and replace it with the requirement that the school district must, after providing the parent with a list of approved preschool evaluators and after obtaining parental consent to evaluate, arrange for an evaluation by the service provider selected by the district who can provide the evaluation of the student within the timeline required by the Sate. In selecting the evaluator, the district must consider the parent's expressed preference, if any, for the evaluator. The bill would also provide relief to the State and to districts by amending

§ 4410(9-a) of the Education Law to establish that all school districts are approved evaluators of preschool students suspected of having a disability without the need to submit an application to SED, providing administrative relief to districts while at the same time addressing the programmatic need for more approved evaluators of preschool children to ensure their timely evaluations.

Section 4404(1)(a) of the Education Law is amended to provide that a due process hearing must be requested within one year of the date the parent or district had knowledge of the underlying issue. The amendment provides for exceptions as required by federal law and with an exception that for parents seeking tuition reimbursement that such request must be made within 180 days of the date the parent placed his or her child in the private school. When a claim encompasses multiple school years, the record in an impartial hearing can become voluminous and the cost of defending the complaint rises.

Section 4002(2)(e) of the Education Law would be amended to remove references to the Commissioner of Education's authority to appoint students to state-supported schools. Conforming changes would be made to §§ 4201, 4203, 4401(2) and 4402(2)(b)(2) of the Education Law. Section 4204(3) of the Education Law would also be amended to remove references to the Commissioner's authority to appoint student to state-supported schools and to clarify that placement of pupils to institutions for instruction of the deaf may be recommended by the CSE or CPSE where applicable, of the school district responsible for educating the student, and may include the provision of special education programs and services in July or August in accordance with the provisions of § 4402(2)(a). Similarly, § 4206 of the Education Law would be amended to remove references to the Commissioner of Education's authority to appoint students to institutions for the instruction of the blind and would clarify that placement in such institutions may be recommended by the CSE, or CPSE where applicable, of the school district responsible for educating such student, and may include the provision of special education programs and services in July or August in accordance with the provisions of § 4402(2)(a). § 4207 of the Education Law would be amended to remove the Commissioner's authority for appointments to the New York Institute for Special Education and provides that the committee on special education of the school district responsible for the education of the pupil has the authority to recommend extension of the term of any pupil attending the institution. § 4213 of the Education Law would be amended to conform language and remove references of appointments to the New York Institute for Special Education.

Education Law § 4402(1)(b)(3)(d-2) would be repealed which currently require boards of education to develop plans and policies for appropriate declassification of students with disabilities. Federal law requires that each child with a disability be reevaluated at least once every three years to determine a student's continuing eligibility for special education and to require a reevaluation of a student prior to declassification. Therefore, it is not necessary for boards of education to establish additional plans and policies.

The bill also proposes to amend § 4402(1)(b)(3)(h) of the Education Law to remove the outdated requirement to file certain reports on students with disabilities who are the children of Vietnam Veterans.

Federal law,establishes transition planning requirements on school districts, including the requirement to invite potential transition providers, which could include adult service agencies, to CSE meetings to prepare a student for transition to adult life. To streamline these requirements, Education Law § 4402(1)(b) (5) and (7) would be amended to provide at the first annual review of a student with a disability placed in a residential program or a student determined by the committee on special education or multidisciplinary team likely to require adult residential services after the student has attained the age of 18, for the development adult service recommendations. Upon consent of the student's parents or the student themselves if over the age of 18, the committee on special education or the multidisciplinary team shall invite representatives from the Office of Mental Health (OMH), Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) or the State Education Department (SED) to participate in such recommendations and upon consented release of the student's information, refer the student to the appropriate public agency for services. These amendments would utilize appropriate language, consistent throughout the Education Law, to provide for transitional programs for those students with a disability who have reached the age of 18 and who are placed in a residential program by their CSE or multidisciplinary team and day students with a disability who have reached the age of 18 and whose CSE or multidisciplinary team has determined that it is likely the student will require adult residential services.

Budgetary implications of the bill

The bill would result in cost savings to school districts and other educational entities from elimination of various unnecessary mandates. The amount of such savings is not known, though it is expected to be substantial if this bill is enacted in entirety.

Prior legislative history

Portions of this bill were submitted as SED Proposal No. 5 for 2014. SED Proposal No. 5 was introduced in the Senate as S.5557A was referred to the Education Committee. No further action was taken. The bill was introduced in the Senate in 2013 as S.5557 was referred to the Education Committee and reported to the Finance Committee. It was also introduced in the Assembly as A.7060 and was referred to the Education Committee. No further action was taken.

Portions of this bill were submitted as SED Proposal No. 12 for 2011, together with several provisions that were enacted in Chapter 97 of the Laws of 2011. SED No. 12 was introduced in the Senate as 5.5816, was referred to the Senate Education Committee, and no further action was taken.

In 2012, this bill was submitted, together with several provisions that were enacted in Chapters 2, 260, 276 and 308 of the. Laws of 2012. This bill was introduced in the Assembly as A. 10290 and was referred to the Education Committee. It was also introduced in the Senate as S. 6688, was referred to the Education Committee and reported to the Senate Finance Committee. No further action was taken.

In 2013 and 2014, the bill was introduced in the Assembly as A.7060 and was referred to the Education Committee. It was also introduced in the Senate as S.5557 and was referred to the Education Committee. No further action was taken.

Effective date

This act would take effect July 1, 2016, provided that in the event the act shall become law after such date, it will become effective immediately and will be deemed to have been in full force and effect on and after July 1, 2016. Further, nothing in section six of the act would be construed to require the retrofitting of school busses purchased prior to the effective date of this act.