STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 9500 IN SENATE May 16, 2024 ___________ Introduced by Sen. COONEY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Transportation AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to requiring a school bus attendant or school bus monitor on all school buses The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 1229-d of the vehicle and traffic 2 law, as added by chapter 675 of the laws of 1985, is amended to read as 3 follows: 4 (1) (a) Every school bus operating in this state, which is transport- 5 ing students in kindergarten through sixth grade to or from school or to 6 or from any school related activity, shall have either a school bus 7 attendant or school bus monitor on board. 8 (b) The school bus attendant required by this section shall, in addi- 9 tion to keeping order on the bus, assist any child under the age of 10 thirteen, or any student with a disability with boarding and leaving the 11 bus and by crossing the street with the child where necessary. 12 (c) "School bus attendant" shall mean a person employed or authorized 13 by a school district to ride on a school bus as defined in paragraph (a) 14 of subdivision one of section five hundred nine-a of this chapter for 15 the purpose of maintaining order [or] and rendering assistance to 16 [pupils with special needs] students, including any student with a disa- 17 bility. 18 (d) "School bus monitor" shall mean any person employed or authorized 19 by a school district to ride on a school bus as defined in paragraph (a) 20 of subdivision one of section five hundred nine-a of this chapter for 21 the purpose of assisting children to safely embark and disembark from a 22 school bus which is owned, leased or contracted for by a public school 23 district or board of cooperative educational services, and for the 24 purpose of assisting the school bus driver with maintaining proper 25 student behavior on such school bus. 26 § 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2024. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD07834-01-3