STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 1041 2017-2018 Regular Sessions IN SENATE January 6, 2017 ___________ Introduced by Sens. FUNKE, AKSHAR, AMEDORE, AVELLA, GOLDEN, HAMILTON, LARKIN, MARCHIONE, VALESKY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Education AN ACT to amend the education law and the election law, in relation to school session days The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 8 of section 3604 of the education law, as 2 amended by chapter 260 of the laws of 2012, is amended to read as 3 follows: 4 8. No school shall be in session on a Saturday, general election day 5 or a legal holiday, except [~~general election day,~~] Washington's birthday 6 and Lincoln's birthday, and except that driver education classes may be 7 conducted on a Saturday. A school district may elect to require staff 8 attendance on a general election day or to schedule a professional 9 development day. A deficiency not exceeding four days during any school 10 year caused by teachers' attendance upon conferences held by superinten- 11 dents of schools of city school districts or other school districts 12 employing superintendents of schools shall be excused by the commission- 13 er, notwithstanding any provision of law, rule or regulation to the 14 contrary, a school district may elect to schedule such conference days 15 in the last two weeks of August, subject to collective bargaining 16 requirements pursuant to article fourteen of the civil service law, and 17 such days shall be counted towards the required one hundred eighty days 18 of session, provided however, that such scheduling shall not alter the 19 obligation of the school district to provide transportation to students 20 in non-public elementary and secondary schools or charter schools. The 21 commissioner shall excuse a deficiency not exceeding four days during 22 such school year caused by teachers' attendance upon conferences held by 23 such superintendents, provided that at least two such conference days 24 during such school year shall be dedicated to staff attendance upon EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD04250-01-7

S. 1041 2 1 conferences providing staff development relating to implementation of 2 the new high learning standards and assessments, as adopted by the board 3 of regents. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, rule or regu- 4 lation to the contrary, school districts may elect to use one or more of 5 such allowable conference days in units of not less than one hour each 6 to provide staff development activities relating to implementation of 7 the new high learning standards and assessments. A district making such 8 election may provide such staff development during the regularly sched- 9 uled daily session and apply such units to satisfy a deficiency in the 10 length of one or more daily sessions of instruction for pupils as speci- 11 fied in regulations of the commissioner. The commissioner shall assure 12 that such conference days include appropriate school violence prevention 13 and intervention training, and may require that up to one such confer- 14 ence day be dedicated for such purpose. 15 § 2. Subdivision 3 of section 4-104 of the election law, as amended by 16 chapter 694 of the laws of 1989, is amended to read as follows: 17 3. A building exempt from taxation shall be used whenever possible as 18 a polling place if it is situated in the same or a contiguous election 19 district, and may contain as many distinctly separate polling places as 20 public convenience may require. The expense, if any, incidental to its 21 use, shall be paid like the expense of other places of registration and 22 voting. If a board or body empowered to designate polling places chooses 23 a public school building for such purpose, the board or agency which 24 controls such building must make available a room or rooms in such 25 building which are suitable for registration and voting and which are as 26 close as possible to a convenient entrance to such building and must 27 make available any such room or rooms which the board or body designat- 28 ing such building determines are accessible to physically disabled 29 voters as provided in subdivision one-a of this section. Notwithstanding 30 the provisions of any general, special or local law, if a board or body 31 empowered to designate polling places chooses a publicly owned or leased 32 building[~~, other than a public school building,~~] for such purposes the 33 board or body which controls such building must make available a room or 34 rooms in such building which are suitable for registration and voting 35 and which are as close as possible to a convenient entrance to such 36 building, and must make available any such room or rooms which the board 37 or body designating such building determines are accessible to phys- 38 ically disabled voters unless, not later than thirty days after notice 39 of its designation as a polling place, the board or body controlling 40 such building, files a written request for a cancellation of such desig- 41 nation with the board or body empowered to designate polling places on 42 such form as shall be provided by the board or body making such desig- 43 nation. The board or body empowered to so designate shall, within twenty 44 days after such request is filed, determine whether the use of such 45 building as a polling place would unreasonably interfere with the usual 46 activities conducted in such building and upon such determination, may 47 cancel such designation. 48 § 3. This act shall take effect January 1, 2018.

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