Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education Legislation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Senate Education Committee advances multiple education bills; most moved by voice vote
Summary
The Senate Education Committee advanced a group of education bills by voice vote, moving measures on gifted-student screening, renaming the GED, school-bus electrification reimbursements, attendance credits for agricultural events, and technical school-district meeting changes to the next steps of legislative consideration.
The New York State Senate Education Committee advanced several bills in a brief session after the committee handled a lengthier discussion on S.4544. Most measures were moved by voice vote and were advanced either to the floor or to the finance committee for further consideration.
Key actions recorded in the committee:
- S.2452 (Stavisky): Amend Education Law to require screening for gifted and talented students. Motion moved and seconded; bill "moves to the floor."
- S.5067 (Sapovna): Change the name of the General Educational Development diploma to the "Excelsior diploma." Motion moved and seconded; bill "moves to the floor."
- S.6221 (Maynor): Amend Education Law to reimburse incremental zero-emission school-bus infrastructure costs, including bus storage and customer-owned make-ready costs. Motion moved and seconded; committee recorded advancement (referred to finance or floor as noted in transcript).
- S.6655 (Bridal): Allow attendance credit for students attending agricultural learning events. Motion moved and seconded; bill "moves to the floor."
- S.6737 (Fady): Technical changes to statutes governing the date of school district annual organizational meetings (does not apply to the Big Five districts). Motion moved and seconded; bill "moves to the floor." The chair encouraged public participation in school board elections and budgets.
- S.7157B (Cooney): Amend Rochester school facilities modernization program to grant further authority to the RJSCB (Rochester Joint Schools Construction Board) to modernize educational facilities. Motion moved and seconded; bill advanced.
- S.7660 (Mayer): Amend Education Law in relation to contracts for bus drivers and bus driver assistants. Motion moved and seconded; bill "moves to the floor."
Committee Chair Shelley Mayer presided over the session and called voice votes for each measure. Recorded responses in the transcript are generally "Aye" with several instances of the phrase recorded as "Without rec" in the transcript (interpreted in the hearing as "without recusal" or a shorthand used during the roll call), and no detailed roll-call tallies were provided in the transcript for these items. Where the transcript specifies referral to finance, that referral is recorded.
