New York Senate Bill S00079 Latest Draft

   
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 79 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE (Prefiled) January 8, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. LIU -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on New York City Education AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to requiring that all special education students attending schools scheduled to be closed or to undergo a significant change be assigned to new schools prior to the implementation of the closing or change The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Paragraphs (b) and (e) of subdivision 2-a of section 2590-h 2 of the education law, as added by chapter 345 of the laws of 2009, are 3 amended to read as follows: 4 (b) Such educational impact statement shall include the following 5 information regarding the proposed school closing or significant change 6 in school utilization: 7 (i) the current and projected pupil enrollment of the affected school, 8 the prospective need for such school building, the ramifications of such 9 school closing or significant change in school utilization upon the 10 community, initial costs and savings resulting from such school closing 11 or significant change in school utilization, the potential disposability 12 of any closed school; 13 (ii) the impacts of the proposed school closing or significant change 14 in school utilization to any affected students; 15 (iii) an outline of any proposed or potential use of the school build- 16 ing for other educational programs or administrative services; 17 (iv) the effect of such school closing or significant change in school 18 utilization on personnel needs, the costs of instruction, adminis- 19 tration, transportation, and other support services; 20 (v) the type, age, and physical condition of such school building, 21 maintenance, and energy costs, recent or planned improvements to such 22 school building, and such building's special features; EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD00529-01-5 
 S. 79 2 1 (vi) the ability of other schools in the affected community district 2 to accommodate pupils following the school closure or significant change 3 in school utilization, including a list of such schools with each 4 school's most recently available enrollment, utilization rate, and 5 percentage of special education pupils and the total number of special 6 education students impacted by the school closure or the change in 7 school utilization; and 8 (vii) information regarding such school's academic performance includ- 9 ing whether such school has been identified as a school under registra- 10 tion review or has been identified as a school requiring academic 11 progress, a school in need of improvement, or a school in corrective 12 action or restructuring status. 13 (e) (i) Except as otherwise provided in paragraph (f) of this subdivi- 14 sion, all proposed school closings or significant changes in school 15 utilization shall be approved by the city board pursuant to section 16 twenty-five hundred ninety-g of this article and shall not take effect 17 until all the provisions of this subdivision have been satisfied and the 18 school year in which such city board approval was granted, has ended. 19 (ii) Except as otherwise provided in paragraph (f) of this subdivi- 20 sion, no proposed school closing or significant change in school utili- 21 zation shall take effect until all special education pupils in the 22 affected school have been assigned to new schools within the city of New 23 York and the chancellor has verified that each new school within the 24 city of New York accepting special education students from the affected 25 school can accommodate such pupils. 26 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately; provided that the amend- 27 ments to subdivision 2-a of section 2590-h of the education law made by 28 section one of this act shall not affect the repeal of such subdivision 29 and shall be deemed repealed therewith.