Expand School Child Care Transport

Section 1. Paragraph e of subdivision 1 of section 3635 of the education law, as amended by chapter 665 of the laws of 1990, is amended to read as follows:

e. In lieu of the transportation provided pursuant to the foregoing provisions of this subdivision, a board of education may, at its discretion, provide transportation to any child attending grades kindergarten through eight between the school such child legally attends and before-and/or-after-school child care locations. For the purposes of this subdivision, a before-and/or-after-school child care location shall mean a place, other than the child's home, where care for less than twenty-four hours a day is provided on a regular basis [for a child who attends school within the school district], provided that such place is situated within the school district. This definition includes, but is not limited to, a variety of child care services such as day care centers, family day care homes and in-home care by non-relatives. Such transportation may be provided for children attending grades kindergarten through eight where the distance between the school they legally attend and before-and/or-after-school child care locations is more than two miles, and may be provided for up to a distance of fifteen miles, the distance in each case being measured by the nearest available route from before-and/or-after-school child care locations to the school they legally attend, except that transportation for a lesser distance than two miles or a greater distance than fifteen miles may be provided if transportation for such distances is provided to students between home and school. Where a child receives transportation from a before-school child care location to the school he or she legally attends, such child

EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets

[ ] is old law to be omitted.

LBD00205-01-9

S. 1365 2

shall be entitled to receive transportation from the school he or she legally attends to his or her home or to an after-school child care location in accordance with this subdivision. Where a child receives transportation from the school he or she legally attends to an afterschool child care location, such child shall be entitled to receive transportation from home to the school he or she legally attends in accordance with this subdivision. Transportation may be provided to any child attending grades kindergarten through eight between the school the child legally attends and before-and/or-after-school child care locations upon written request of the parent or legal guardian submitted not later than the first day of April preceding the next school year, provided, however, a parent or guardian of a child not residing in the district on such date shall submit a written request within thirty days after establishing residence in the district and provided further that in order to be considered eligible for such transportation in the nineteen hundred eighty-seven--eighty-eight school year, such request must be submitted by August first, nineteen hundred eighty-seven. The provision of transportation to or from before-and/or-after-school child care locations, if provided, shall be offered equally to all children in like circumstances residing in the district, provided that a board of education furnishing transportation pursuant to this paragraph may limit the provision of such transportation to child care locations located within the attendance zone of the school the child attends, and to child day care centers and school age child care programs licensed or registered pursuant to section three hundred ninety of the social services law located anywhere within the school district. The cost of providing such transportation between two or three miles, as the case may be, and fifteen miles shall be considered for the purposes of this chapter to be a charge upon the district. Such substitute transportation expense shall be eligible for state aid in accordance with [clause] subparagraph one of paragraph b of subdivision seven of section thirty-six hundred two of this chapter. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to impose a duty upon boards of education to provide transportation to or from before-and/or-after-school child care locations. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to authorize boards of education to provide to any child transportation between a before-and/or-after-school day care location and that child's home.

§ 2. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding the date on which it shall have become a law.