Requires parents of a child who qualifies for admission to a public school building in good standing with the department to provide a justification and educational-based reasoning to the superintendent of such school building prior to submitting an application to admission at a charter school.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6356
SPONSOR: Griffin TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to admission to charter
schools
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends paragraph (b) of subdivision 2 of Section 2854 of the
Education law is amended as it relates to admission to charter schools
from districts outside of New York City that are in good standing.
Section 2 establishes the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
This bill only applies to students seeking admission to charter schools
who reside outside of New York City, and only when the public school of
residence is in good standing with the NYS Education Department.
Parents who opt to send their children to charter schools in New York
are required to fill out an application form for the charter school.
The current process does not, however, provide any information or feed-
back to the public school district with regard to why a charter school
is being chosen, rather than attendance at the student's public school
of residence. This absence of communication omits an opportunity for
parents to express their views about what a charter school might offer
that the student can not attain at the public school. This type of feed-
back would be beneficial for both public school districts and charter
schools in order for both entities to better understand the reasoning
for parental choices in this regard.
There is presently no formal mechanism in place for this to occur. This
legislation is in no way is intended to impede, delay or interfere with
a student's charter school application. It is only a mechanism for
communication and information that can potentially benefit the educa-
tional needs of our state's children.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A6757 of 2022- Referred to Education
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Minimal cost in the development of a simple form to be created by the
State Education Department.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
July 1st after becoming law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6356
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 4, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. GRIFFIN -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to admission to charter
schools
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph (b) of subdivision 2 of section 2854 of the
2 education law, as amended by section 3 of subpart A of part B of chapter
3 20 of the laws of 2015, is amended to read as follows:
4 (b) [Any] (i) In cities with a population of one million or more, any
5 child who is qualified under the laws of this state for admission to a
6 public school is qualified for admission to a charter school.
7 (ii) Any child who is qualified under the laws of this state for
8 admission to a public school building not in good standing with the
9 department is qualified for admission to a charter school.
10 (iii) Any child who is qualified under the laws of this state for
11 admission to a public school building in good standing with the depart-
12 ment is not qualified for admission to a charter school unless a parent
13 in a parental relationship with such child provide a justification and
14 educational-based reasoning to the superintendent of the public school
15 district which such school building is located in. The department shall
16 create a document to help a parent in a parental relationship with a
17 child provide such justifications and educational-based reasons and
18 distribute such document to all public school buildings in good standing
19 with the department. No charter school shall admit a student from a
20 public school building in good standing with the department until the
21 justification and educational-based reasoning document has been submit-
22 ted to the superintendent of such public school district pursuant to
23 this subparagraph. This subparagraph shall not apply to school buildings
24 in good standing with the department which are located in cities with a
25 population of one million or more.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06847-01-5
A. 6356 2
1 (b-1) Applications for admission to a charter school shall be submit-
2 ted on a uniform application form created by the department and shall be
3 made available by a charter school in languages predominately spoken in
4 the community in which such charter school is located. The school shall
5 enroll each eligible student who submits a timely application by the
6 first day of April each year, unless the number of applications exceeds
7 the capacity of the grade level or building. In such cases, students
8 shall be accepted from among applicants by a random selection process,
9 provided, however, that an enrollment preference shall be provided to
10 pupils returning to the charter school in the second or any subsequent
11 year of operation and pupils residing in the school district in which
12 the charter school is located, and siblings of pupils already enrolled
13 in the charter school. Preference may also be provided to children of
14 employees of the charter school or charter management organization,
15 provided that such children of employees may constitute no more than
16 fifteen percent of the charter school's total enrollment. The commis-
17 sioner shall establish regulations to require that the random selection
18 process conducted pursuant to this paragraph be performed in a transpar-
19 ent and equitable manner and to require that the time and place of the
20 random selection process be publicized in a manner consistent with the
21 requirements of section one hundred four of the public officers law and
22 be open to the public. For the purposes of this paragraph and paragraph
23 (a) of this subdivision, the school district in which the charter school
24 is located shall mean, for the city school district of the city of New
25 York, the community district in which the charter school is located.
26 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding
27 the date on which it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the
28 addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary
29 for the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized
30 to be made and completed on or before such effective date.
