Students in religious schools in New York City, including those in Jewish day schools, will get up to five extra days of bus transportation annually, on days when public schools are closed, under a measure signed into law by Gov. Mario Cuomo.
The new law, which was sponsored in the Assembly by Assemblyman Arthur Kremer (D. Nassau) and in the Senate by Sen. James Donovan (R. Utica), was supported by the Agudath Israel Commission on Law and Social Action and the New York State Catholic Conference, according to Kremer.
“The law allows Catholic, Hebrew and other private schools to have their students brought to school by bus even when their schedules differ from the public schools,” Kramer said, adding that this enabled “the non-public schools to follow their own calendars and meet their special needs.”
He said the new law ended the need for the non-public schools to arrange “costly alternate arrangements for students who are too young or unable to take public transportation.”
The law requires New York city school districts to provide bus transportation for non-public school pupils for up to five alternate days which must be picked in advance by officials of the non-public schools.
Days must be limited to the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday after Labor Day, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and the week between Christmas and New Year’s days. It will become effective May 1, 1986 to allow officials to plan for the school year starting in September 1986.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.