STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 3902 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY January 30, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. BURKE -- read once and referred to the Committee on Education AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to declaring Pulaski Day a school holiday 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 359 of the laws of 2023, is amended to read as 3 follows: 4 8. No school shall be in session on a Saturday, the first day of the 5 second lunar month after the winter solstice in the preceding calendar 6 year known as Asian Lunar New Year, the last Friday in October known as 7 Pulaski Day, or a legal holiday, except general election day, 8 Washington's birthday and Lincoln's birthday, and except that driver 9 education classes may be conducted on a Saturday. A deficiency not 10 exceeding four days during any school year caused by teachers' attend- 11 ance upon conferences held by superintendents of schools of city school 12 districts or other school districts employing superintendents of schools 13 shall be excused by the commissioner, notwithstanding any provision of 14 law, rule or regulation to the contrary, a school district may elect to 15 schedule such conference days in the last two weeks of August, subject 16 to collective bargaining requirements pursuant to article fourteen of 17 the civil service law, and such days shall be counted towards the 18 required one hundred eighty days of session, provided however, that such 19 scheduling shall not alter the obligation of the school district to 20 provide transportation to students in non-public elementary and second- 21 ary schools or charter schools. At least two such conference days during 22 such school year shall be dedicated to staff attendance upon conferences 23 providing staff development relating to implementation of the new high 24 learning standards and assessments, as adopted by the board of regents. 25 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, rule or regulation to the EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD08075-01-5

A. 3902 2 1 contrary, school districts may elect to use one or more of such allow- 2 able conference days in units of not less than one hour each to provide 3 staff development activities relating to implementation of the new high 4 learning standards and assessments. A district making such election may 5 provide such staff development on any day during which sessions are 6 allowed and apply such units to satisfy a deficiency in the length of 7 one or more daily sessions of instruction for pupils as specified in 8 regulations of the commissioner. The commissioner shall assure that such 9 conference days include appropriate school violence prevention and 10 intervention training, and may require that up to one such conference 11 day be dedicated for such purpose. 12 § 2. Subdivision 2-a of section 3635 of the education law, as sepa- 13 rately amended by chapters 359 and 629 of the laws of 2023, is amended 14 to read as follows: 15 2-a. The superintendent of each city school district, in a city having 16 a population in excess of one million, shall prepare a public school 17 calendar and shall notify officials of nonpublic schools to which trans- 18 portation has been requested not later than the first day of June in 19 each year, of the days on which the public schools will be in session in 20 the following school year. Such school district which provides transpor- 21 tation to nonpublic schools shall provide such transportation for the 22 same number of days as the public schools are open but shall not provide 23 transportation services for more than one hundred eighty days. Offi- 24 cials of each nonpublic school to which transportation is provided by a 25 city school district of a city having a population in excess of one 26 million may notify such district, not later than the first day of July 27 of each school year, of a maximum of five days, exclusive of Saturdays, 28 Sundays or legal holidays upon which public schools are required to be 29 closed, on which the public schools are scheduled to be closed, except 30 that in any year in which the first or last day of Passover and Easter 31 Sunday are separated by more than seven days, such officials may notify 32 the district of a maximum of ten days, but such school district will be 33 required to provide for transportation to such nonpublic school provided 34 that such five or ten additional days, whichever is applicable, are 35 limited to the following: the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 36 after Labor Day, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the week in which public 37 schools are closed for spring recess, December twenty-fourth and the 38 week between Christmas day and New Year's day, the Tuesday, Wednesday, 39 Thursday and Friday after the observance of Washington's birthday, the 40 first day of the second lunar month after the winter solstice in the 41 preceding calendar year, known as Asian Lunar New Year, the fifteenth 42 day of the eighth month of the Indian calendar in each year, known as 43 Diwali, the last Friday in October known as Pulaski Day, and, in the 44 boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens only, Anniversary Day as designated in 45 section twenty-five hundred eighty-six of this chapter. 46 § 3. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding 47 the date on which it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the 48 addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary 49 for the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized 50 to be made and completed on or before such effective date.

Declares Pulaski Day a school holiday

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