NEW YORK CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS Public Aid For Nonpublic Schools Legislature (art. 3). SEC. 20. Two-thirds bills.—The assent of two-thirds of the members elected to each branch of the legislature shall be requisite to every bill appropriating the public moneys or property for local or private purposes. State Finances (art. 7). SEC. 8. Gift or loan of state credit or money prohibited; exceptions for enumerated purposes.-1. The money of the state shall not be given or loaned to or in aid of any private corporation or association, or private undertaking; nor shall the credit of the state be given or loaned to or in aid of any individual, or public or private corporation or association, or private undertaking, but the foregoing provisions shall not apply to any fund or property now held or which may hereafter be held by the state for educational, mental health or mental retardation purposes. 2. Subject to the limitations on indebtedness and taxation, nothing in this constitution contained shall prevent the legislature from providing for the aid, care and support of the needy directly or through subdivisions of the state; or for the protection by insurance or otherwise, against the hazards of unemployment, sickness and old age; or for the education and support of the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the physically handicapped, the mentally ill, the emotionally disturbed, the mentally retarded or juvenile delinquents as it may deem proper; or for health and welfare services for all children, either directly or through subdivisions of the state, including school districts; or for the aid, care and support of neglected and dependent children and of the needy sick, through agencies and institutions authorized by the state board of social welfare or other state department having the power of inspection thereof, by payments made on a per capita basis directly or through the subdivisions of the state; or for the increase in the amount of pensions of any member of a retirement system of the state, or of a subdivision of the state; or for an increase in the amount of pensions of any widow of a retired member of a teachers' retirement system of the state or of a subdivision of the state to whom payable as beneficiary under an optional settlement in connection with the pension of such member. The enumeration of legislative powers in this paragraph shall not be taken to diminish any power of the legislature hitherto existing. *** [Formerly sec. 1. Derived in part from former sec. 9 of Art. 8. Renumbered and amended by Constitutional Convention of 1938 and approved by vote of the people November 8, 1938; further amended by vote of the people November 6, 1951; November 7, 1961; November 8, 1966.] Local Finances (art. 8). SEC. 1. Gift or loan or property or credit of local subdivisions prohibited; exceptions for enumerated purposes.-No county, city, town, village or school district shall give or loan any money or property to or in aid of any individual, or private corporation or association, or private undertaking, or become directly or indirectly the owner of stock in, or bonds of, any private corporation or association; nor shall any county, city, town, village or school district give or loan its credit to or in aid of any individual, or public or private corporation or association, or private undertaking, except that two or more such units may join together pursuant to law in providing any municipal facility, service, activity or undertaking which each of such units has the power to provide separately. Each such unit may be authorized by the legislature to contract joint or several indebtedness, pledge its or their faith and credit for the payment of such indebtedness for such joint undertaking and levy real estate or other authorized taxes or impose charges therefore subject to the provisions of this constitution otherwise restricting the power of such units to contract indebtedness or to levy taxes on real estate. The legislature shall have power to provide by law for the manner and the proportion in which indebtedness arising out of such joint undertakings shall be incurred by such units and shall have power to provide a method by which such indebtedness shall be determined, allocated and apportioned among such units and such indebtedness treated for purposes of exclusion from applicable constitutional limitations, provided that in no event shall more than the total amount of indebtedness incurred for such joint undertaking be included in ascertaining the power of all such participating units to incur indebtedness. Such law may provide that such determination, allocation and apportionment shall be conclusive if made or approved by the comptroller. This provision shall not prevent a county from contracting indebtedness for the purpose of advancing to a town or school district, pursuant to law, the amount of unpaid taxes returned to it. Subject to the limitations on indebtedness and taxation applying to any county, city, town or village nothing in this constitution contained shall prevent a county, city or town from making such provision for the aid, care and support of the needy as may be authorized by law, nor prevent any such county, city or town from providing for the care, support, maintenance and secular education of inmates of orphan asylums, homes for dependent children or correctional institutions and of children placed in family homes by authorized agencies, whether under public or private control, or from providing health and welfare services for all children, nor shall anything in this constitution contained prevent a county, city, town or village from increasing the pension benefits payable to retired members of a police department or fire department or to widows, dependent children or dependent parents of members or retired members of a police department or fire department; or prevent the city of New York from increasing the pension benefits payable to widows, dependent children or dependent parents of members or retired members of the relief and pension fund of the department of street cleaning of the city of New York. Payments by counties, cities or towns to charitable, eleemosynary, correctional and reformatory institutions and agencies, wholly or partly under private control, for care, support and maintenance, may be authorized, but shall not be required, by the legislature. No such payments shall be made for any person cared for by any such institution or agency, nor for a child placed in a family home, who is not received and retained therein pursuant to rules established by the state board of social welfare or other state department having the power of inspection thereof. [Formerly sec. 10. Renumbered and amended by Constitutional Convention of 1938 and approved by vote of the people November 8, 1938; further amended by vote of the people November 3, 1959; November 5, 1963; November 2, 1965.] Education (art. 11). SEC. 3. Use of public property or money in aid of denominational schools prohibited; transportation of children authorized.–Neither the state nor any subdivision thereof shall use its property or credit or any public money, or authorize or permit either to be used, directly or indirectly, in aid or maintenance, other than for examination or inspection, of any school or institution of learning wholly or in part under the control or direction of any religious denomination, or in which any denominational tenet or doctrine is taught, but the legislature may provide for the transportation of children to and from any school or institution of learning. [Formerly sec. 4 of Art. 9. Renumbered and amended by Constitutional Convention of 1938 and approved by vote of the people November 8, 1938. Formerly sec. 4, renumbered sec. 3 without change by amendment approved by vote of the people November 6, 1962; former sec. 4 repealed by same amendment.] Tax Exemptions For Nonpublic Schools Taxation (art. 14). SEC. 1. Power of taxation; exemptions from taxation.-The power of taxation shall never be surrendered, suspended or contracted away, except as to securities issued for public purposes pursuant to law. Any laws which delegate the taxing power shall specify the types of taxes which may be imposed thereunder and provide for their review. Exemptions from taxation may be granted only by general laws. Exemptions may be altered or repealed except those exempting real or personal property used exclusively for religious, educational or charitable purposes as defined by law and owned by any corporation or association organized or conducted exclusively for one or more of such purposes and not operating for profit. Miscellaneous Corporations (art. 10). SEC. 1. Corporations; formation of.-Corporations may be formed under general laws; but shall not be created by special act, except for muncipal purposes, and in cases where, in the judgment of the legislature, the objects of the corporation cannot be attained under general laws. All general laws and special acts passed pursuant to this section may be altered from time to time or repealed. [Formerly sec. 1 of Art. 8. Renumbered by Constitutional Convention of 1938 and approved by vote of the people November 8, 1938.] STATUTORY PROVISIONS Education Law (ch. 16). Art. 35. Union Free School Districts SEC. 1713. Academy may be adopted as academic department. - Whenever a union free school district shall be established under the provisions of article thirty-one, and there shall exist within the district an academy, the board of education, when authorized by a vote of the voters of the district, may adopt such academy as the academic department of the district, with the consent of the trustees of the academy, and thereupon the trustees by a resolution to be attested by the signatures of the officers of the board and filed in the office of the clerk of the county, shall declare their offices vacant, and thereafter the said academy shall be the academic department of such union free school district. The board of education when thereto authorized by a vote of the qualified voters of the district may lease said academy and site, and maintain the academic department of such union free school district therein and thereon. [L. 1947, ch. 820, eff. July 1, 1947.] SEC. 1714. Contracts with academies.-The board of education of a union free school district, with the approval of the commissioner of education, may adopt an academy as the academic department thereof, and contract for the instruction therein of pupils of academic grade, residing in the district. The academy thereupon becomes the academic department of such union free school district, and the district is entitled to the same rights and privileges, is subject to the same duties, and the apportionment and distribution of state school money shall be made to it, as if an academic department had been established in such district. [L. 1947, ch. 820, eff. July 1, 1947.] SEC. 1715. Retransfer of academy to its former trustees. If there shall be, in a dissolved union free school district, an academy which shall have adopted as the academic department of the union free school district, under the provisions of title nine, chapter five hundred fifty-five of the laws of eighteen hundred sixty-four, and any amendment thereof, or title eight of chapter five hundred fifty-six of the laws of eighteen hundred ninety-four, and any amendment thereof, or under this chapter, it shall, upon the application of a majority of the surviving resident former trustees or stockholders, be transferred by the board of education to said former trustees or stockholders. [L. 1947, ch. 820, eff. July 1, 1947.] Art. 65. Compulsory Education and School Census SEC. 3210. Amount and character of required attendance.—* * * e. Registration of certain private schools. No person or persons, firm or corporation, other than the public school authorities or an established religious group, shall establish or maintain a nursery school and/or kindergarten and/or elementary school giving instruction in the ten common school branches of arithmetic, reading, spelling, writing, the English language, geography, United States history, civics, hygiene and physical training, unless the school is registered under regulations of the commissioner. Upon complying with the said regulations and after payment of a fee of twenty-five dollars a certificate of registration shall be issued by the department which shall be valid for a period of two years from the date of issuance unless suspended or revoked within said period pursuant to said regulations. Such registration may be renewed biennially thereafter upon the payment of a renewal registration fee of twenty-five dollars. [L. 1947, ch. 820; amended L. 1947, ch. 821, sec. 1, eff. July 2, 1947.] Art. 73. Apportionment of Public Moneys (Title V, Taxation and Financial Administration). Part I. General Provisions SEC. 3601. When apportioned and how applied. (Apportionment of state monies to nonpublic schools).—Expenses for certain mandated services; jurisdiction of Court of Claims. L. 1972, ch. 996, eff. June 8, 1972, provided: Sec. 1. Jurisdiction is hereby conferred upon the court of claims to hear, audit and determine the claim or claims of nonprofit schools in the state, other than public schools, against the state for reimbursement of the funds expended by them in rendering services for examination and inspection in connection with administration, grading and the compiling and reporting of the results of tests and examinations, maintenance of records of pupil enrollment and reporting thereon, maintenance of pupil health records, recording of personnel qualifications and characteristics and the preparation and submission to the state of various other reports required by law or regulation. The base of said claim or claims is that the State of New York represented to said schools that they would be reimbursed for such expenses incurred after July first, nineteen hundred seventy; that the said State knew that said schools were relying on said representation; that said representation was an effective cause of said expenses by said schools; and that without any fault on the part of said schools complete reimbursement has not been paid to them through (sic) due and owing. As such, said claim or claims are founded in right and justice, or in law or equity. Secular Education Services. Laws 1974, ch. 507, secs. 1-10, eff. July 1, 1974, amended L. 1974 d. 508, sec. 1, eff. July 1, 1974, provided: Sec. 1. Legislative findings.-The legislature hereby finds and declares that: The state has the responsibility to provide educational opportunity of a quality which will prepare its citizens for the challenges of American life in the last decades of the twentieth century. To fulfill this responsibility, the state has the duty and authority to evaluate, through a system of uniform state testing and reporting procedures, the quality and effectiveness of instruction to assure that those who are attending instruction, as required by law, are being adequately educated within their individual capabilities. In public schools these fundamental objectives are accomplished in part through state financial assistance to local school districts. More than seven hundred thousand pupils in the state comply with the compulsory education law by attending nonpublic schools. It is a matter of state duty and concern that such nonpublic schools be reimbursed for the actual costs which they incur in providing services to the state which they are required by law to render in connection with the state's responsibility for reporting, testing and evaluating. Sec. 2. Definitions. 1. "Commissioner" shall mean the state commissioner of education. 2. "Qualifying school" shall mean a nonprofit school in the state, other than a public school, which provides instruction in accordance with section thirtytwo hundred four of the education law. Sec. 3. Apportionment. The commissioner shall annually apportion to each qualifying school, for school years beginning on and after July first, nineteen hundred seventy-four, an amount equal to the actual cost incurred by each such school during the preceding school year for providing services required by law to be rendered to the state in compliance with the requirements of the state's pupil evaluation program, the basic educational data system, regents examinations, the statewide evaluation plan, the uniform procedure for pupil attendance reporting, and other similar state prepared examinations and reporting procedures. Sec. 4. Application. Each school which seeks an apportionment pursuant to this act shall submit to the commissioner an application therefor, together with such additional reports and documents as the commissioner may require, at such times, in such form and containing such information as the commissioner may prescribe by regulation in order to carry out the purposes of this act. Sec. 5. Maintenance of records. Each school which seeks an apportionment pursuant to this act shall maintain a separate account or system of accounts for the expenses incurred in rendering the services required by the state to be performed in connection with the reporting, testing and evaluation programs enumerated in section three of this act. Such records and accounts shall contain such information and be maintained in accordance with regulations issued by the commissioner, but for expenditures made in the school year nineteen hundred seventy-three-seventy-four, the application for reimbursement made in nineteen hundred seventy-four pursuant to section four of this act shall be supported by such reports and documents as the commissioner shall require. In promulgating such record and account regulations and in requiring supportive documents with respect to expenditures incurred in the school year nineteen hundred seventy-three-seventy-four, the commissioner shall facilitate the audit procedures described in section seven of this act. The records and accounts for each school year shall be preserved at the school until the completion of such audit procedures. Sec. 6. Payment. No payment to a qualifying school shall be made until the commissioner has approved the application submitted pursuant to section four of this act. Sec. 7. Audit.-No application for financial assistance under this act shall be approved except upon audit of vouchers or other documents by the commissioner as are necessary to insure that such payment is lawful and proper. The state department of audit and control shall from time to time examine any and all necessary accounts and records of a qualifying school to which an apportionment has been made pursuant to this act for the purpose of determining the cost to such school of rendering the services referred to in section three of this act. If after such audit it is determined that any qualifying school has received funds in excess of the actual cost of providing the services enumerated in section three of this act, such school shall immediately reimburse the state in such excess amount. Sec. 8. Noncorporate entities.-Apportionments made for the benefit of any school which is not a corporate entity shall be paid, on behalf of such school, to such corporate entity as may be designated for such purpose pursuant to regulations promulgated by the commissioner. A school which is a corporate entity may designate another corporate entity for the purpose of receiving apportionments made for the benefit of such school pursuant to this act. Sec. 9.-In enacting this chapter (adding this note) it is the intention of the legislature that if section seven or any other provision of this act or any rules or regulations promulgated thereunder shall be held by any court to be invalid in whole or in part or inapplicable to any person or situation, all remaining provisions or parts thereof or remaining rules and regulations or parts thereof not so invalidated shall nevertheless remain fully effective as if the invalidated portion had not been enacted or promulgated, and the application of any such invalidated portion to other persons not similarly situated or other situations shall not be affected thereby. Compulsory Education Art. 65. Compulsory Education and School Census (Title IV, Teachers and Pupils) Part I. Compulsory Education SEC. 3201. Discrimination on account of race, creed, color or national origin prohibited.-1. No person shall be refused admission into or be excluded from any public school in the state of New York on account of race, creed, color or national origin. 2. Except with the express approval of a board of education having jurisdiction, a majority of the members of such board having been elected, no student shall be assigned or compelled to attend any school on account of race, creed, color or national origin, or for the purpose of achieving equality in attendance or increased attendance or reduced attendance, at any school, of persons of one or more particular races, creeds, colors, or national origins; and no school district, school zone or attendance unit, by whatever name known, shall be established, reorganized or maintained for any such purpose, provided that nothing contained in this section shall prevent the assignment of a pupil in the manner requested or authorized by his parents or guardian, and further provided that nothing in this section shall be deemed to affect, in any way, the right of a religious or denominational educational institution to select its pupils exclusively or primarily from members of such religion or denomination or from giving preference to such selection to such members or to make such selection to its pupils as is calculated to promote the religious principal for which it is established. [L. 1947, ch. 820; amended L. 1969, ch. 342, eff. Sept. 1, 1969.] SEC. 3202. Public schools free to resident pupils; tuition from nonresident pupils.-1. A person over five and under twenty-one years of age is entitled to attend the public schools maintained in the district or city in which such person resides without the payment of tuition. * * * NOTES OF DECISION: 5. Age requirement.-Parochial school is not bound by this section in the establishing of age requirements necessary for admission to school, however, board of education is not bound by age requirements established by parochial school. Matter of Appeal of Richard Riley, 1963, 2 Educ. Dept. Rep. 408. SEC. 3204. Instruction required.-1. Place of instruction. A minor required to attend upon instruction by the provisions of part one of this article may attend at a public school or elsewhere. The requirements of this section shall apply to such a minor, irrespective of the place of instruction. SEC. 3205. Attendance of minors upon full time day instruction.-1. a. In each school district of the state, each minor from six to sixteen years of age shall attend upon full time instruction. * * * SEC. 3208. Attendance; proper mental and physical condition.-1. Α person included by the provisions of part one of this article shall be required to attend upon instruction only if in proper mental and physical condition. 2. A person whose mental or physical condition is such that his attendance upon instruction under the provisions of part one of this article would endanger the health or safety of himself or of others, or who is feebleminded to the extent that he is unable to benefit from instruction, shall not be permitted to attend. 3. A person whose mental or physical condition is such that, because of the lack of facilities for his care, transportation and instruction, he is not permitted or required to attend upon instruction, shall be deemed in proper mental and physical condition to attend, if the lacking facilities are provided. 4. If a person's mental or physical condition, by virtue of which he is not required or permitted to attend upon instruction, is due to physical defects or to a physical condition which may be remedied by the taking of reasonable measures, such mental or physical condition shall justify only the temporary failure of the person to attend. 5. The determination of mental or physical condition under the provisions of part one of this article shall be based upon actual examination made by a person or persons qualified by appropriate training and experience, in accordance with regulations of the state education department. The state education department shall designate persons having the required qualifications to make such mental or physical examinations on behalf of any local school authorities, except that in a city having a population of one million or more the superintendent of schools shall designate such persons. [As amended L. 1974, ch. 919, sec. 11.] SEC. 3210. Amount and character of required attendance.-1. Regularity and conduct. a. A minor required by the provisions of part one of this article to attend upon instruction shall attend regularly as prescribed where the resides or is employed, for the entire time the appropriate public schools or classes are in session and shall be subordinate and orderly while so attending. b. Absence for religious observance and education shall be permitted under rules that the commissioner shall establish. 2. Attendance elsewhere than at a public school. a. Hours of attendance. If a minor included by the provisions of part one of this article attends upon instruction elsewhere than at a public school, he shall attend for at least as many hours, and within the hours specified therefor. b. Absence. Absence from required attendance shall be permitted only for causes allowed by the general rules and practices of the public schools. Absence for religious observance and education shall be permitted under rules that the commissioner shall establish. c. Holidays and vacations. Holidays and vacations shall not exceed in total amount and number those allowed by the public schools. d. Exception. In applying the foregoing requirements a minor required to attend upon full time day instruction by the provisions of part one of this article may be permitted to attend for a shorter school day or for a shorter school year or for both, provided, in accordance with the regulations of the state education department, the instruction he receives has been approved by the school authorities as being substantially equivalent in amount and quality to that required by the provisions of part one of this article. Compiler's Note: For part e. of sec. 3210 see APPROVAL/SUPERVISION/SUPPORT. Special Education Art. 23. Vocational Education in Counties (Title I, General Provisions) Part I. Vocational Education and Extension Boards SEC. 1102. Powers and duties of vocational education and extension boards. A vocational education and extension board shall, subject to the provisions of part one of this article, have the following powers and duties: 1. It may make or cause to be made a survey to determine the vocational education and extension needs of the county. *** 13. It may transport pupils under twenty-one years of age to and from schools and classes maintained by such vocational education and extension board for instruction in vocational education. In providing such transportation, the board may transport pupils residing outside the county who are attending such schools and classes maintained by such board pursuant to subdivision twelve of this section. *** Art. 85. Instruction of the Deaf and of the SEC. 4203. Persons eligible for appointment as pupils to institutions for instruction of the deaf.—All deaf children resident in this state, of the age of three years and upwards and of suitable capacity, and who shall have been resident in this state for one year immediately preceding the application, or, if an orphan, whose nearest friend shall have been resident in this state for one year immediately preceding the application, shall be eligible to appointment as state pupils in one of the institutions for the instruction of the deaf of this state, authorized by law to receive such pupils; provided, however, the foregoing requirement as to length of residence in this state may be waived in the discretion of the commissioner of education [L. 1947, ch. 820, eff. July 1, 1947.] Art. 89. Physically and Mentally Handicapped, SEC. 4401. Definitions.- As referred to in this article: 1. A "handicapped child" is one who, because of mental, physical or emotional reasons, cannot be educated in regular classes but can benefit by special services and programs to include, but not limited to, transportation, the payment of tuition to boards of cooperative educational services and public school districts, home teaching, special classes, special teachers, and resource rooms. 2. A "delinquent child" means a person under twenty-one years of age who is under commitment or remand by a court of competent jurisdiction or who has been legally surrendered by his parent or guardian to an institution established under and incorproated by state law to provide care, custody and rehabilitation for delinquent children, or to a detention home or house or shelter providing education to delinquent children pending hearings on delinquency petitions, or on remand to juvenile or other courts. 3. "A "non-English speaking child" means a person under twenty-one years of age who is unable to speak and understand the English language. [As amended L. 1974, ch. 919, sec. 26.] SEC. 4402. Duties of education department.-The state education department shall have power and it shall be its duty: 1. To maintain a statistical summary of the number of handicapped children within the state and the nature of their handicaps and to use all means and measures necessary to adequately meet the physical and educational needs of such children, as provided by law. 2. To stimulate all private and public efforts designed to relieve, care for, cure or educate handicapped children and to coordinate such efforts with the work and function of governmental agencies. 3. To formulate such rules and regulations pertaining to the physical and educational needs of such children as the commissioner of education shall deem to be in their best interests. [As amended L. 1972, ch. 855, sec. 2.] SEC. 4403. Procedure through family court; cost of educational services.1. The state education department shall have the power and duty to provide within the limits of the appropriations made therefor, home-teaching, transportation, scholarships in nonresidence schools, tuition or maintenance and tuition in elementary, secondary, higher, special and technical schools, for handicapped children in whole or in part from funds of the department, when not otherwise provided by parents, guardians, local authorities or by other sources, public or private. When the family court, or the board of education of the city of New York, shall issue an order to provide for the education, including home-teaching, transportation, scholarships, tuition or maintenance, of any handicapped child the commissioner of education, if he approves such order, shall issue a certificate to such effect in duplicate, one of which shall be filed with the clerk of the board of supervisors or other governing elective body of the county or chief fiscal officer of a city and one in the office of the commissioner of education. 2. One-half of the cost of providing home-teaching, transportation, scholarships in nonresidence schools, tuition and maintenance, as provided in subdivision one of this section, as certified by the commissioner of education, is hereby made a charge against the county or city in which any such handicapped child resides, and the remaining one-half of the cost thereof shall be paid by the state out of moneys appropriated therefor. All claims for services rendered and for supplies furnished and for other expenses incurred in providing such home-teaching, transportation, scholarships and tuition, shall be paid in the first instance by the board of supervisors or other governing elective body of the county or chief fiscal officer of a city in which such handicapped child resides, upon vouchers presented and audited in the same manner as in the case of other claims against the county or city. *** [ Added L. 1956, ch. 722, sec. 6; amended L. 1962, ch. 690, sec. 6; L. 1962, ch. 691, sec. 1; L. 1967, ch. 786, sec. 3, eff. July 1, 1967.] SEC. 4404. Duties of school districts.-1. The board of education or trustees of each school district shall ascertain under regulations prescribed by the commissioner of education and approved by the regents of the university, the number of handicapped children in such district under the age of twentyone years. 2. a. The board of education of each city and of each union free school district shall be required to furnish suitable education facilities for handicapped children by means of home-teaching, transportation to school or by special classes. The need of the individual child shall determine which of such services shall be rendered. Where there are ten or more handicapped children who can be grouped homogeneously in the same classroom for instructional purposes such board shall establish such special classes as may be necessary to provide instruction adapted to the mental attainments and physical conditions of such children. b. Provided, however, that in each city or union free school district in which schools for handicapped children exist or may hereafter be established, which are incorporated under the laws of the state and are found by the board of education to be adequate to provide instruction adapted to the mental attainments and physical conditions of such children, the board of education shall not be required to supply additional special classes for the children so provided for. The boards of education of such cities or union free school districts are hereby authorized and empowered to contract with such schools for the education of such children therein. Such city or union free school districts are also authorized and empowered to contract with private schools outside of such districts but located within the state for the education of such children, provided that such schools must be incorporated in the state of New York and must be registered by the commissioner in accordance with standards established by him. * * * 5. The board of education or the board of trustees of each school district shall provide suitable transportation to and from special classes as outlined in subdivision four of this section or section forty-four hundred six of this article, as determined by the need of the individual pupil. Such board may permit, in addition to the operator of such vehicle, any adult, willing to serve without compensation, to act as an attendent for such children. Such transportation, when provided pursuant to this subdivision, shall be granted to all such children irrespective of the school they legally attend. *** [As amended L. 1972, ch. 855, sec. 2.] SEC. 4408. Statement of legislative intent and purposes.-The legislature finds and declares that the establishment of a mandatory learning impediment screening program which will enable school districts to detect quickly and accurately the presence of handicaps likely to impede the learning process in indivdiual children at the earliest possible point during their schooling is an essential first step toward achieving the realization of its goal of maximizing the educational opportunities of all children in the state of New York. The legislature further finds that the inadequacy of the data now available to it regarding the current status of educational screening programs in school districts throughout New York state is pronounced and that in the absence of such data, it is impossible to frame legislation to correct the existing situation and to establish on a proper footing the mandatory learning impediment screening program which it is its purpose to formulate at the earliest possible date. 1. Steps toward the establishment of a mandatory learning impediment screening program. Notwithstanding any other law, rule or regulation to the contrary, the commissioner of education shall direct every school district and board of cooperative educational services to inform him in writing, not later than January first, nineteen hundred seventy-four, whether tests designed to detect the presence of any handicaps which would impede the learning process in any way are administered to all children or, if not to all children, to what percentage of children, under what circumstances and at what point of time during their schooling. Every school district and board of cooperative educational services shall also be directed by the commissioner of education to inform him, at the same time, of the name or names of the screening test or tests which are employed for initial screening of children and whether they are designed to detect the presence of all impediments to the learning process, including learning disabilities, mental retardation, brain damage, emotional disturbance or cultural disadvantage and whether they include evaluations of a child's general behavior, motor and sensory integration, laterality and directionality, visual and auditory perception and acuity, conceptual skills, language development and previous academic experience. 2. The commissioner of education shall provide the legislature with a full report on the results of the survey prescribed herein not later than March first, nineteen hundred seventy-five [Added L. 1973, ch. 936, sec. 1.] Curriculum Art. 17. Instructions in Certain Subjects (Title 1, General Provisions) SEC. 801. Courses of instruction in patriotism and citizenship and in certain historic documents.—1. In order to promote a spirit of patriotic and civic service and obligation and to foster in the children of the state moral and intellectual qualities which are essential in preparing to meet the obligations of citizenship in peace or in war, the regents of The University of the State of New York shall prescribe courses of instruction in patriotism and citizenship, to be maintained and followed in all the schools of the state. The boards of education and trustees of the several cities and school districts of the state shall require instruction to be given in such courses, by the teachers employed in the schools therein. All pupils attending such schools, over the age of eight years, shall attend upon such instruction. Similar courses of instruction shall be prescribed and maintained in private schools in the state, and all pupils in such schools over eight years of age shall attend upon such courses. If such courses are not so established and maintained in a private school, attendance upon instruction in such school shall not be deemed substantially equivalent to instruction given to pupils of like age in the public schools of the city or district in which such pupils reside. 2. The regents shall prescribe courses of instruction in the history, meaning, significance and effect of the provisions of the constitution of the United States, the amendments thereto, the declaration of independence, the constitution of the state of New York and the amendments thereto, to be maintained and followed in all of the schools of the state. The boards of education and trustees of the several cities and school districts of the state shall require instruction to be given in such courses, by the teachers employed in the schools therein. All pupils attending such schools, in the eighth and higher grades, shall attend upon such instruction. Similar courses of instruction shall be prescribed and maintained in private schools in the state, and all pupils in such schools in grades or classes corresponding to the instruction in the eighth and higher grades of the public schools shall attend upon such courses. If such courses are not so established and maintained in a private school, attendance upon instruction in such school shall not be deemed substantially equivalent to instruction given to pupils in the public schools of the city or district in which such pupils reside. |