Law, finance and operations, at district scale.

BOCES — Ed. Law Article 40

• A shared-services entity: CTE, special education, itinerant services, professional development, data and technology (RIC), cooperative purchasing, administrative services.
• The district superintendent is both chief executive of the BOCES and the Commissioner’s field representative — which is why they can act for the Commissioner in certain matters.
• Services must be cooperative in nature and Commissioner-approved to earn BOCES aid, paid on prior-year expense at the district’s aid ratio — the reason a service is often cheaper through BOCES.
• The Big 5 are not eligible. BOCES has no taxing authority; component boards vote its administrative budget and BOCES bills them.

§310 appeals

• Any person aggrieved by an official act of a school officer or board may appeal — administrative, no fee, no lawyer required.
• Filed within 30 days of the act complained of (8 NYCRR Part 275); delay excusable for good cause.
• Typical subjects: residency, student discipline, board elections and budget votes, transportation, board member conduct.
• The petitioner bears the burden; decided on the papers. Decisions are final, reviewable only by CPLR Article 78 on an arbitrary-and-capricious standard.
• Why you care: documented, noticed, policy-consistent process usually wins; ad hoc process usually loses even when the decision was right.

GML §§800–806

• §800 — deemed interests: an officer holds the interest of a spouse, minor child, dependent, a firm they belong to or work for, and a corporation they serve as officer, director or employee or control by stock.
• §801 — the prohibition: no interest in a district contract where the officer may negotiate, prepare, authorize or approve it, authorize payment, audit claims, or appoint someone who does. The test is whether the office touches the contract, not whether the person benefits.
• §802 — exceptions are narrow (including award to the lowest responsible bidder after public advertisement). Read them; do not assume them.
• §803 — disclose any interest in writing, entered in the official record. §804 — a prohibited contract is void. §805 — wilful violation is a misdemeanor.
• §805-a: no gift of $75 or more suggesting influence; no use of confidential information for private gain; no compensation for services on a matter before the board; no contingent fees.
• §806: every district must adopt, distribute and post a code of ethics.

NYS Code of Ethics for Educators

Adopted by the Regents in 2002. It is aspirational — not a disciplinary code and not a basis for revocation. Objective 103-0001 names it, so know the six principles.

1. Nurture the intellectual, physical, emotional, social and civic potential of each student.
2. Create and maintain challenging learning environments for all.
3. Commit to their own learning to develop their practice.
4. Collaborate with colleagues and other professionals for student learning.
5. Collaborate with parents and community, building trust and respecting confidentiality.
6. Advance the intellectual and ethical foundation of the learning community.

The disciplinary counterpart is different: revocation and moral-character proceedings run under 8 NYCRR Part 83. Do not cite the Code of Ethics when the question is about Part 83.

Structures and vocabulary

• Three-part budget (required ballot presentation): Administrative · Program · Capital. The administrative share is politically loaded and capped under contingency.
• Five-part expenditure classification: General Support · Instruction · Transportation · Community Services · Undistributed (benefits, debt service).
• Zero-based vs. incremental/rollover vs. program budgeting.
• Balanced by law: appropriations may not exceed estimated revenues plus appropriated fund balance.
• Tax rate = levy ÷ assessed valuation × 100. True (full) value = assessed value ÷ equalization rate. A district in several towns grosses up with equalization rates and apportions the levy.
• A budget increase and a tax increase are not the same thing.
• Tax certiorari — an assessment challenge requiring refunds if successful. TANs and RANs are cash-flow instruments, not project financing.

Stakeholder work the exam rewards

• Start with goals and data, not dollars — a budget framed as strategic priorities survives.
• Use an advisory budget committee (staff, parents, community, business), transparent about what is on the table.
• Publish trade-offs, not totals: what half a point of levy buys and costs, in programs and positions.
• Segment: the board needs multi-year projections and risk; staff need staffing implications; the community needs tax impact on a representative home and the cap calculation in plain language.
• Model three years out — single-year budgeting is the failure mode objective 103-0006 tests.
• Never advocate a “yes” vote with district resources. Factual information is permitted; public funds may not fund partisan advocacy.

How the levy limit works

• Chapter 97 of the Laws of 2011 created Education Law §2023-a (GML §3-c for municipalities); made permanent in 2019.
• It limits the tax levy — total dollars raised — not the rate and not spending.
• Allowable levy growth factor = the lesser of 2% or the annual CPI increase. confirm current Published annually; never quote a year’s figure from memory.
• Not “last year plus 2%”: the formula runs through a tax base growth factor, PILOT adjustments and carryover of up to 1.5% of unused capacity, then the exclusions.
• Statutory exclusions — leviable above the limit without a supermajority: the local share of capital expenditures net of building aid; pension contributions from a year-over-year rise in the system average actuarial contribution rate of more than two percentage points; and the levy for court orders and judgments in tort actions exceeding 5% of the prior levy.
• Override: a levy above the limit requires 60% of votes cast, and the budget notice must say so.

Contingency under current law

• The headline rule: a contingency budget may levy no more than the prior year’s levy — a 0% increase. This replaced the pre-2011 approach and is what older material misses.
• The administrative component is capped, broadly at the lesser of the administrative portion of the last defeated budget or the administrative percentage of the prior adopted budget.
• Spending is limited to ordinary contingent expenses: legal obligations, expenditures specifically authorized by statute, and those necessary to maintain the educational program, preserve property and assure health and safety.
• Generally not contingent: most equipment, new capital work other than emergency repairs, non-essential maintenance, and free public use of facilities — community groups must be charged at least cost.
• Contract salaries, debt service, student supplies, tuition and transportation obligations remain payable.
• Consequence: the gap between proposal and contingency is now large and predictable. Model it and say publicly what a defeat costs — the line between informing and campaigning is what a written task tests.

Three revenue sources

1. Real property tax — from assessed value; dominant in most districts.
2. State aid — formula-driven, designed to equalize what can be spent per child across communities of different wealth.
3. Other — federal aid, appropriated fund balance, tuition, interest, Medicaid, rentals.

The wealth dynamic: a low-wealth district depends more on state aid and raises less per point of tax effort. Two districts with identical tax rates can have very different per-pupil revenue — the equity argument in one sentence.

Equality (same dollars per pupil) · Equity (dollars adjusted so comparable outcomes are reachable) · Adequacy (enough to meet the standard). Foundation Aid rests on an adequacy logic.

Foundation Aid and expense-driven aids

• Foundation Aid — the principal general operating aid, enacted 2007 after Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State of New York. A foundation amount adjusted by a regional cost index and a pupil need index (poverty, English language learners, sparsity), less an expected local contribution based on income and property wealth.
• Frozen for years, then fully phased in as of 2023–24; independently reviewed in 2024 with factors adjusted in later budgets. confirm current Never state a foundation amount, poverty measure, save-harmless rule or aid total from memory — use the NYSED State Aid Handbook and the year’s enacted budget runs.
• Expense-driven aids reimburse a share of approved prior-year expenditure at a wealth-adjusted ratio: Transportation, Building, BOCES, Special Education High Cost / Private Excess Cost, and the instructional materials aids.
• Why it matters: today’s spending generates later revenue at a known ratio — the arithmetic behind buy/lease/BOCES decisions, and behind treating reimbursement as if it were immediate or complete.
• Combined wealth ratio — property plus income wealth per pupil against the state average; drives most aid ratios. Below 1.0 is below-average wealth.
• STAR reduces the homeowner’s bill; the state makes the district whole. confirm current Homeowners purchasing after the 2016 change generally receive the STAR credit, not the exemption.

The sequence

1. Need established from the building condition survey, the five-year capital facilities plan, enrollment projections and program requirements.
2. Voter approval — outside the Big 5, a proposition stating scope, maximum cost and financing.
3. Commissioner’s approval of plans and specifications through the NYSED Office of Facilities Planning. No project may be bid or begun without it.
4. Competitive bidding under GML §103, with Wicks Law separate specifications above the applicable threshold. confirm current Wicks thresholds vary by region.
5. Financing — serial bonds under the Local Finance Law, usually preceded by bond anticipation notes.
6. Building Aid reimburses a wealth-adjusted share of approved costs on an assumed amortization schedule; cost above the maximum cost allowance and ineligible scope are 100% local.

Failure modes & Smart Schools

• Assuming aid on unapproved scope — change orders expanding scope without approval are local dollars.
• Ignoring the capital levy exclusion — local capital debt sits outside the levy limit, which is why a capital proposition and the operating budget interact.
• Treating the referendum as the communication plan — capital votes are won on a documented condition survey, public prioritization and clear tax impact per representative home.
• Deferring maintenance converts an aidable capital expense into an unaidable emergency.

Smart Schools Bond Act. Approved by voters November 2014, authorizing $2 billion in general obligation bonds for classroom technology and connectivity, school-wide broadband and wireless, high-tech school safety, replacing transportable classroom units with permanent space, and pre-kindergarten classroom space. Districts draw against an allocation only with a Smart Schools Investment Plan approved by the Smart Schools Review Board (Director of the Budget, Commissioner, SUNY Chancellor). confirm current Check remaining allocation and current submission guidance.

The four audit roles

• Claims auditor — appointed by and reporting directly to the board. Audits each claim before payment: purchase order, authorization, receiving report, original invoice, clear description, and a finding that the expenditure is actual, necessary and reasonable. The treasurer may pay only against an approved warrant. May not be a board member, clerk, treasurer, superintendent, purchasing agent or their employee.
• Internal auditor — risk assessment and controls testing, reporting to the board through the audit committee, not to the business office. confirm current Very small districts have a statutory exemption — verify the threshold.
• Audit committee — board-appointed and advisory: helps select the external auditor, reviews the draft report and management letter with the auditor, receives internal audit reports and corrective action plans. Its power is giving the board a channel to the auditors that does not run through administration.
• External independent auditor — a CPA firm selected by competitive RFP at least every five years, reporting to the board, issuing the audit and a management letter. The board adopts a corrective action plan within 90 days and files it with NYSED.

Segregation of duties

Purpose: timely detection of fraud and of innocent error. Rule: no single person performs a transaction beginning to end.

• The same person cannot accept cash, record it, deposit it and reconcile the account.
• The requestor cannot be the approver; a knowledgeable secondary approver above a stated threshold.
• Bank statements reconciled monthly by someone with no cash receipt or disbursement duties.
• System access limited to job function, reviewed on role change, revoked at separation; vendor master file changes logged and reviewed by someone who cannot cut checks.
• Check stock and signature devices secured, with an independently reconciled sequential check log.
• Payroll changes require a payroll action notice traceable to board approval — never verbal.
• The board routinely reviews the treasurer’s cash report, budget and revenue status, fund balance projections and the warrant — and asks about variances.
• Small districts still segregate: compensate with board-level review, rotation, mandatory vacations and independent reconciliation.

Probation and tenure

• Four-year probation for teachers and building principals appointed on or after July 1, 2015.
• The APPR condition: tenure requires composite ratings of Effective or Highly Effective in at least three of the four preceding years, and an Ineffective rating in the final probationary year makes the person ineligible at that time.
• Jarema credit — prior regular substitute service in the same tenure area shortens probation up to the statutory maximum; miscomputing it is a classic way districts accidentally grant tenure.
• Tenure by estoppel: letting a probationer continue past the term without action can vest tenure by operation of law — why the tenure calendar is a central office responsibility.
• Denial of tenure may be for any lawful reason, on the superintendent’s recommendation, with required advance notice before the board votes. confirm current Notice rules differ by statute and district type.
• Probationers keep constitutional protection — no dismissal for union activity, protected speech or discrimination; a stigmatizing accusation can require a name-clearing hearing.
• confirm current Probationary terms for administrators other than building principals depend on the appointing statute for your district type.

Tenure areas and excessing

• Tenure is granted in a tenure area, not a job. Areas are defined by 8 NYCRR Part 30 — elementary, middle grades, academic secondary subjects, special subjects, special education, and the administrative areas.
• The 40% rule: a person devoting 40% or more of their time to a special subject tenure area must be appointed in that area. Assigning without regard to tenure area creates unintended tenure rights.
• Excessing: the person with the least seniority within the tenure area of the abolished position is excessed — seniority within the area, not district-wide.
• Preferred eligible list for seven years; the excessed employee must be offered a vacancy in the same or a similar tenure area before anyone else, judged on actual duties.
• Why you care: a reduction in force without a defensible seniority list is the most reversible personnel action a district takes; reinstatement with back pay is the standard remedy.

Civil Service Law Article 14

• The Public Employees’ Fair Employment Act (1967): public employees may organize and be represented, employers must negotiate in good faith, and strikes are prohibited. PERB administers representation, improper practices and impasse.
• Improper practices (§209-a). Employer: interfering with employee rights, dominating an employee organization, discriminating to discourage membership, bad-faith negotiation, and refusing to continue the terms of an expired agreement. Union: interfering with rights, bad-faith negotiation, causing or engaging in a strike.
• Strike penalties (§210): forfeiture of two days’ pay per day on strike; loss of dues deduction; contempt exposure.
• Mandatory vs. non-mandatory subjects. Terms and conditions of employment are mandatory; core educational policy decisions — curriculum content, creating or abolishing a program — are generally non-mandatory, though the impact on unit members is negotiable. Getting the line wrong produces an improper practice charge.

Triborough and impasse

• The Triborough Amendment (1982), §209-a.1(e): refusing to continue the terms of an expired agreement until a new one is negotiated is an improper practice — so salary step increments continue after expiration.
• Why it dominates New York bargaining. The union’s status quo is the expired contract plus steps, so time does not pressure it as in the private sector. With the tax cap, that is the central structural fact of a superintendent’s bargaining position — and why settlements are often multi-year and back-loaded.
• Impasse (§209): mediation → fact-finding with public, non-binding recommendations → for school districts, legislative determination: the board may hold a public hearing and take such action as it deems in the public interest.
• No binding interest arbitration for teachers in New York — that applies to police and fire.
• Negotiations are an executive-session topic (POL §105(1)(e)), but the ratification vote is public and the executed agreement is a public record.

Education Law §3012-d

• Covers classroom teachers and building principals; plans are collectively bargained and Commissioner-approved.
• Two categories: Student Performance (a required SLO, optional second measure) and Observations / School Visits against a state-approved rubric.
• HEDI: Highly Effective · Effective · Developing · Ineffective, combined through a matrix into a composite rating.
• Observers: the principal or another trained administrator plus an impartial, independent, trained evaluator; peer observation optional.
• Grades 3–8 ELA and math state assessment results shall not be required to be used in any manner.
• Consequences: an improvement plan after Developing or Ineffective; expedited §3020-a exposure on consecutive Ineffective ratings; and a general prohibition on assigning a student two consecutive years to teachers each rated Ineffective the prior year (waivable).

NYS-STEPS — §3012-e

• Created by Chapter 143 of the Laws of 2024: Standards-based Educator Evaluation and Professional Support.
• Locally designed plans — still bargained and Commissioner-approved — built on multiple measures of practice rather than a state-prescribed matrix.
• Decouples school leader evaluation from teacher evaluation.
• Requires alignment to the NYS Teaching and Educational Leadership Standards, including the Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework, with a Level 1–4 rating per standard rather than one composite.
• Transition: voluntary adoption beginning 2024–25; approved §3012-d plans may continue meanwhile; all districts must adopt a STEPS plan by June 30, 2032.
• For the exam: the SDL framework dates from 2008, so expect items keyed to the logic of evaluation — multiple measures, trained evaluators, inter-rater reliability, evaluation feeding professional development — rather than to a statute. Know both systems by name.

LRE and the continuum

• LRE means education with non-disabled peers to the maximum extent appropriate; removal only when education there with supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily.
• The continuum runs from consultant teacher and related services through integrated co-teaching, resource room and special classes to day and residential placement — and the district must operate enough of it that placement is a real decision.
• The district-level failure mode: placement patterns driven by which program the district happens to run in which building — what state LRE data reviews detect.
• Disproportionality: the state reviews districts for significant disproportionality by race and ethnicity in identification, placement and discipline; identification triggers a mandatory 15% comprehensive CEIS reservation and a policy review.

Due process — two tiers

• Impartial hearing officers are NYSED-certified and rotationally appointed; the district appoints from the list and pays the IHO.
• Resolution session within 15 days of the complaint; a 30-day resolution period; the decision is due within 45 days after that period ends, subject to properly granted extensions.
• Two tiers: an IHO decision is appealed to the State Review Officer, then to court. Most states abolished the second tier; New York did not.
• Pendency (stay-put) is automatic — the student stays in the then-current placement during proceedings without any showing of harm.
• Other routes: mediation at state expense and a state complaint to NYSED resolved within 60 days.
• Cost exposure: prevailing parents may recover attorney’s fees, and tuition reimbursement is available where the district’s program was inappropriate and the parents’ was appropriate. A budget line, not a theoretical risk.

Section 504 and ADA Title II

• 29 U.S.C. §794; regulations at 34 C.F.R. Part 104. Broader than IDEA — it reaches students, parents and employees, program accessibility, athletics, trips and district communications.
• Three prongs: an impairment that substantially limits a major life activity; a record of one; or being regarded as having one. The ADA Amendments Act broadened “substantially limits” and directs that mitigating measures (other than ordinary eyeglasses) are not considered.
• FAPE under 504 = regular or special education and related aids and services meeting individual needs as adequately as the needs of students without disabilities are met; implementing an IDEA IEP satisfies it.
• District duties most often missed: designate a 504 coordinator, publish a notice of nondiscrimination, and adopt grievance procedures for prompt and equitable resolution — recipient-level obligations, not building ones.
• Evaluation and placement by a group of knowledgeable persons using varied sources, with notice, record review, an impartial hearing and a review procedure.

MLL/ELL — CR Part 154

• Identification within 10 school days of initial enrollment — the Home Language Questionnaire, an individual interview in English and the home language, and the NYSITELL.
• Five levels: Entering · Emerging · Transitioning · Expanding · Commanding, with required Integrated ENL and Stand-alone ENL units of study scaling by level. confirm current Use the current Part 154-2 minutes table; do not quote minutes from memory.
• Bilingual education is required at scale: with 20 or more ELLs of the same grade level and home language in a building (or across two contiguous grades), the district must provide a bilingual education program — a staffing and program-siting decision, which is why it is a 104-0006/0007 issue and not only a curriculum issue.
• NYSESLAT annually; exiting is followed by two years of Former ELL monitoring and support.
• Parent rights: orientation and notification in the preferred language, the right to decline bilingual education (but not ENL service), and interpretation for meaningful participation — a Title VI obligation independent of Part 154.
• Part 154 drives certification demand, scheduling and a required district ELL/MLL plan; under-service is simultaneously a Title VI and a state compliance exposure.

DASA — Ed. Law Article 2

• Protected characteristics: race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practice, disability, sexual orientation, gender (including gender identity and expression), or sex.
• Harassment/bullying = creating a hostile environment by conduct, threats, intimidation or abuse, including cyberbullying.
• Each school designates a trained Dignity Act Coordinator, publicized to staff, students and families.
• Reporting clock: an employee who witnesses or receives a report orally notifies the principal, superintendent or designee no later than one school day and files a written report within two school days of the oral notification.
• The principal, superintendent, designee or DAC leads or supervises a thorough, prompt investigation and notifies law enforcement promptly where conduct may be criminal.
• Material incidents are reported annually to NYSED through the School Safety and Educational Climate collection — public, and a district-level accountability artifact.
• Your job: consistency across buildings. Wildly different incident counts between comparable schools usually mean different reporting practice, not different behavior.

McKinney-Vento and Title IX

Students in temporary housing — federal McKinney-Vento; New York Ed. Law §3209 and 8 NYCRR §100.2(x).

• Definition: lacking a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence — doubled up from loss of housing or economic hardship, shelters, motels, cars, places not designed for sleeping.
• School of origin or school of current location, on a best-interest determination made with the parent. Immediate enrollment without records, immunization records or proof of residency.
• The district pays for transportation to the school of origin, continuing for the remainder of the year after permanent housing is obtained. Each district designates a liaison; disputes require written notice and immediate enrollment pending resolution.
• Unaccompanied youth may enroll without parental consent or guardianship papers.

Title IX — 20 U.S.C. §1681; 34 C.F.R. Part 106. Covers sex-based harassment and violence, pregnancy discrimination, equal athletic opportunity and retaliation. Districts designate a Title IX Coordinator, publish a notice of nondiscrimination and adopt grievance procedures.

FERPA

• Rights belong to parents and transfer to the eligible student at age 18 or upon postsecondary enrollment, whichever comes first.
• Education records = records directly related to a student and maintained by the agency. Excluded: sole-possession records, law enforcement unit records, treatment records.
• Directory information may be disclosed if designated and noticed, with a family opt-out; it may not include an SSN or an ID usable alone for system access.
• Consent exceptions: school officials with a legitimate educational interest, a school where the student seeks to enroll, and a health or safety emergency.
• Inspection within a reasonable time, not more than 45 days; families may seek amendment, with a hearing if denied; annual notification of rights is required.

Ed. Law §2-d / 8 NYCRR Part 121

• Parents’ Bill of Rights for Data Privacy and Security — adopted, published on the website, and appended to every third-party contract involving personally identifiable information.
• Data Protection Officer — every educational agency must designate one.
• A data security and privacy policy aligned to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, adopted and published.
• Third-party contracts must include a data security and privacy plan and the contractor’s signed supplemental information: exclusive purposes of use, subcontractor oversight, contract term and data disposition at its end, how parents may challenge accuracy, and where and how data is stored and protected.
• Prohibited: selling PII or using it for marketing or commercial purposes.
• Annual training for officers and employees with access to PII.
• Breach notification: a contractor notifies the agency no more than 7 calendar days after discovery; the agency notifies affected parents, eligible students, teachers or principals no more than 60 calendar days from discovery and reports to NYSED’s Chief Privacy Officer.
• A complaint procedure with a stated response process; complaints may also go to the Chief Privacy Officer.

The designations

• CSI — Comprehensive Support and Improvement: broadly the lowest-performing 5% of Title I schools, high schools with a graduation rate at or below 67%, and former targeted-support schools that fail to improve. Identified by the state.
• TSI — one or more consistently underperforming subgroups.
• ATSI — a subgroup performing at or below the level that would place the school among the lowest-performing if all students performed that way.
• New York also publishes recognition categories and “Local Support” status.
• Accountability subgroups: All Students plus racial and ethnic groups, economically disadvantaged students, students with disabilities, and English language learners, subject to minimum n-size.
• confirm current Indicators, weightings, identification cycle and minimum n are set in the approved state ESSA plan and have been amended.

What the district owes

• Plan structure in New York: each identified school produces a School Comprehensive Education Plan (SCEP) from a needs assessment with stakeholder participation; a district with identified schools produces a District Comprehensive Improvement Plan (DCIP). CSI plans require district and state approval and are state-monitored; TSI plans are district-approved and district-monitored — a clean item stem.
• Resource equity review. Plans must identify and address resource inequities: staffing, funding, access to advanced coursework and experienced teachers across schools — analysis a superintendent can do and a principal cannot.
• Evidence-based interventions at the tiers ESSA defines. “We will implement a new program” is not a plan; the evidence tier and the implementation supports are.
• Support, not just supervision: a named central office liaison, differentiated professional learning, schedule and staffing flexibility, data access, and protection of the principal’s time.
• Receivership. Education Law §211-f makes the superintendent a receiver for persistently struggling and struggling schools — authority to develop an intervention plan, expand the day or year, convert to a community school, require staff to reapply and abolish positions, subject to a Community Engagement Team — with an independent receiver if improvement does not follow. confirm current Check whether any school is presently identified.

Transportation

• Statutory mileage limits: transport students in grades K–8 living more than 2 miles and grades 9–12 living more than 3 miles from school, up to 15 miles. Shorter minimums may be adopted by voter proposition.
• Nonpublic and charter students must be transported on the same basis within the mileage limits; a parent’s written request is due by April 1 for the following year, and an untimely request may generally be denied on cost grounds.
• Students with disabilities: special transportation is a related service written into the IEP — door-to-door, an aide, a lift bus, temperature control, shortened ride time. Not discretionary, not a mileage question.
• Students in temporary housing go to the school of origin regardless of ordinary mileage limits.
• Driver qualification under Vehicle and Traffic Law Article 19-A; buses are subject to DOT inspection on a fixed cycle.
• Transportation Aid reimburses a wealth-adjusted share of approved prior-year expense including approved bus purchases — so buy/lease/contract is an aid calculation, not just a cash calculation.
• confirm current New York enacted a zero-emission school bus requirement with purchase and fleet-conversion deadlines; the timeline has been amended.

Food service and emergency planning

• Federal programs. National School Lunch and Breakfast are USDA programs administered by NYSED Child Nutrition, carrying meal pattern requirements, Smart Snacks competitive-food rules and an administrative review cycle.
• The school lunch fund is a special revenue fund expected to be self-sustaining; general-fund subsidy of deficits and excess food service fund balance are both audit topics.
• Community Eligibility Provision lets high-poverty schools serve all meals at no charge based on an identified student percentage. confirm current New York moved toward statewide universal free school meals in recent budgets — confirm the current year’s funding, eligibility and claiming rules with NYSED Child Nutrition.
• Procurement: food bought with federal funds must satisfy both GML §103 and the Uniform Guidance, and a food service management company contract requires the state prototype contract and approval.
• Project SAVE safety planning: a district-wide school safety plan, which is public, and building-level emergency response plans, which are confidential and FOIL-exempt, including floor plans and blueprints.
• The district-wide safety team is appointed by the board; the building-level team is appointed by the principal and includes law enforcement. Plans are reviewed at least annually; the district-wide plan is available for public comment at least 30 days before adoption with at least one public hearing; building-level plans go to local law enforcement and the State Police within 30 days of adoption.
• Code of conduct (§2801): developed in collaboration with student, teacher, administrator and parent organizations, safety personnel and other staff; reviewed and updated annually with at least one public hearing; a plain-language summary given to students and mailed to parents before the school year; filed with the Commissioner within 30 days of adoption.
• Emergency management at district scale: an incident command structure matching the county’s, mutual-aid agreements, a communications plan with pre-drafted templates and a named spokesperson, continuity of operations (payroll, food, transportation, special education services) and after-action review. Name reunification, communication and continuity — not “call 911 and notify parents.”