STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 6328 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN SENATE March 10, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sens. MARTINEZ, BYNOE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Education AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to the allocation of prekindergarten funding to prioritize students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and multilingual learners The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1 Subparagraph (ix) of the opening paragraph of subdivision 10 2 of section 3602-e of the education law, as amended by section 17-c of 3 part A of chapter 56 of the laws of 2022, is amended and a new subpara- 4 graph (x) is added to read as follows: 5 (ix) for the two thousand twenty-two--two thousand twenty-three school 6 year and thereafter, each school district shall be eligible to receive a 7 grant amount equal to the sum of (A) the amount set forth for such 8 school district as "UNIVERSAL PREKINDERGARTEN ALLOCATION" on the comput- 9 er file produced by the commissioner in support of the enacted budget 10 for the prior year excluding amounts subject to section thirty-six 11 hundred two-ee of this part and further excluding amounts paid pursuant 12 to subdivision nineteen of this section plus (B) the Full-day 4-Year-Old 13 Universal Prekindergarten Expansion added pursuant to paragraph e of 14 subdivision nineteen of this section, provided that such school district 15 has met all requirements pursuant to this section and such grants shall 16 be added into a four-year-old grant amount based on the amount each 17 district was eligible to receive in the base year to serve four-year-old 18 prekindergarten pupils, plus (C) funds allocated pursuant to a universal 19 prekindergarten expansion under subdivision twenty of this section as of 20 the school aid computer listing produced by the commissioner in support 21 of the enacted budget for the current year, provided that such grant 22 amounts shall be divided into a four-year-old grant amount based on the 23 amount each district was eligible to receive in the base year to serve 24 four-year-old prekindergarten pupils, if any, and a three-year-old grant EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD09284-01-5
S. 6328 2 1 amount based on the amount each district was eligible to receive in the 2 base year to serve three-year-old pupils, if any, and provided further 3 that the maximum grant shall not exceed the total actual grant expendi- 4 tures incurred by the school district in the current school year as 5 approved by the commissioner[.], and 6 (x) for the two thousand twenty-five--two thousand twenty-six school 7 year and thereafter and subject to available appropriation, each school 8 district shall be eligible to receive a grant amount equal to seventeen 9 thousand five hundred dollars for eligible full-day four-year-old prek- 10 indergarten pupils. The total allocations for each school district shall 11 not exceed the amounts they received in the two thousand twenty-four-- 12 two thousand twenty-five school year, unless additional funds are appro- 13 priated. If such allocation is not sufficient to cover all eligible 14 full-day four-year-old pre-kindergarten pupils in the district, such 15 grants shall first be utilized by each school district to serve four- 16 year-old prekindergarten pupils that are eligible to receive free or 17 reduced-price lunch or are emergent multilingual language learners. The 18 dollar amount set forth in this subparagraph shall be adjusted annually 19 to reflect the percentage increase in the consumer price index. 20 § 2. Subparagraph (i) of subdivision 7 of section 3602-e of the educa- 21 tion law, as amended by section 19 of part B of chapter 57 of the laws 22 of 2007, is amended to read as follows: 23 i. [establishes] for districts that receive funding under paragraph 24 (x) of subdivision ten of this section, a method for selection of eligi- 25 ble children to receive prekindergarten program services [on a random 26 selection basis where there are more eligible children than can be 27 served in a given school year] that must include a priority for students 28 from families who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch or emer- 29 gent multilingual language learners, provided, however, that a school 30 district that operated a targeted prekindergarten program in the base 31 year may use the selection process established for such program. 32 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately, and apply to funding 33 allocations and selection criteria for the 2025-2026 school year.