ยง 1604. Powers and duties of trustees
It shall be the duty of the trustees of a common school district, and they shall have the power:
20. To provide transportation, home-teaching or special classes, as defined under sections forty-four hundred one and forty-four hundred two of this chapter for physically or mentally handicapped and delinquent children. Such transportation, home-teaching or special classes, when provided pursuant to this subdivision, shall be granted to all such children irrespective of the school they legally attend.
21. To purchase and maintain, when authorized by a vote of the qualified voters of the school district, a motor vehicle or vehicles to be used for the transportation of the school children of the district. Such motor vehicle or vehicles may be leased to another school district when not needed for such transportation. Likewise when not so needed such motor vehicle or vehicles may be leased to a school district or a municipality as defined in section two of chapter five hundred fifty-six of the laws of nineteen hundred forty-five, for the purpose of transporting children and instructors in connection with (a) a recreation project or a youth service project operated by one or more municipalities or by a school district, if such project is authorized and approved by the state youth commission, or (b) a youth bureau or agency or activity or project of a county, town, city or village which is devoted to the welfare of youth therein or to providing leisure-time activities for youth or assistance to children, as authorized in section ninety-five of the general municipal law, or (c) one or more playgrounds and neighborhood recreation centers operated and maintained by one or more cities except New York, Buffalo and Rochester, counties except Erie and the counties within the city of New York, towns or villages, whether or not any school board or district joins in such operating and maintaining, as authorized in section two hundred forty-four-b of the general municipal law. In any case when such motor vehicle shall be leased as provided in this subdivision, public liability and property damage insurance, fire insurance and compensation insurance of drivers shall be provided and collision insurance shall be provided in the amount of the value of the vehicle, to protect the lessor. The additional cost of such insurance shall be paid by the lessee. No part of the costs and expenses resulting from operation, maintenance and repair of such vehicles during the leasing thereof shall be included in determining the amount of any form of state aid received by such school district.
* 21-a. To lease a motor vehicle or vehicles to be used for the transportation of the children of the district from a school district, board of cooperative educational services or county vocational education and extension board or from any other source, under the conditions specified in this subdivision. No such agreement for the lease of a motor vehicle or vehicles shall be for a term of more than one school year, provided that when authorized by a vote of the qualified voters of the district such lease may have a term of up to five years. Where the trustee or board of trustees enter into a lease of a motor vehicle or vehicles pursuant to this subdivision for a term of one school year or less, such trustee or board shall not be authorized to enter into another lease for the same or an equivalent replacement vehicle or vehicles, as determined by the commissioner, without obtaining approval of the qualified voters of the school district.
* NB Repealed September 1, 2017
21-b. a. The trustees are authorized to provide regional transportation services by rendering such services jointly with other school districts or boards of cooperative educational services. Such services may include pupil transportation between home and school, transportation during the day to and from school and a special education program or service or a program at a board of cooperative educational services or an approved shared program at another school district, transportation for field trips or to and from extracurricular activities, and cooperative school bus maintenance. b. The trustees are authorized to enter into a contract with another school district, a county, municipality, or the state office of children and family services to provide transportation for children, including contracts to provide such transportation as regional transportation services, provided that the contract cost is appropriate. In determining the appropriate transportation contract cost, the transportation service provider school district shall use a calculation consistent with regulations adopted by the commissioner for the purpose of assuring that charges reflect the true costs that would be incurred by a prudent person in the conduct of a competitive transportation business.
23. To contract with any person, corporation or other school district for the conveyance of pupils residing within the district, when authorized to do so under subdivision nineteen of section two thousand twenty-one, by vote of the inhabitants of the district entitled to vote, or to contract for the operation, maintenance and garaging of motor vehicles owned by the district, in accordance with such rules and regulations as such trustees may establish, consistent with the regulations of the commissioner of education. Upon authorization by a school district meeting, every such contract of transportation may be made for a period not exceeding five years, notwithstanding any provision of any other law inconsistent herewith.
41. Where the district has provided transportation to students enrolled in such district to a school sponsored field trip, extracurricular activity or any other similar event, it shall provide transportation back to either the point of departure or to the appropriate school in the district, unless the parent or legal guardian of a student participating in such event has provided the school district with written notice, consistent with district policy, authorizing an alternative form of return transportation for such student or unless intervening circumstances make such transportation impractical. In cases where intervening circumstances make transportation of a student back to the point of departure or to the appropriate school in the district impractical, a representative of the school district shall remain with the student until such student's parent or legal guardian has been (a) contacted and informed of the intervening circumstances which make such transportation impractical and (b) such student had been delivered to his or her parent or legal guardian.