2023 New York Laws › EDN - Education › Title 1 - General Provisions › Article 13-A - Liberty Scholarships › 612 - Liberty Partnerships.

§ 612. Liberty  partnerships.  1.  The commissioner shall award grants
for the purpose of providing support services to  students  enrolled  in
public  and  non-public schools who are identified as having a high risk
of dropping out of school. Such awards shall be made  on  a  competitive
basis  to  degree-granting institutions of higher education or consortia
of degree-granting higher education  institutions  in  cooperation  with
school  districts  and  not-for-profit community-based organizations. In
addition, in areas of the state where no degree-granting institution  or
consortium  of  degree-granting  institutions  of  higher  education can
provide appropriate services to students,  the  commissioner  may  award
grants  to  not-for-profit  community-based organizations in cooperation
with school districts.
a.  All  grant  applications  shall  contain  the  following   program
elements:
(1) a program for identifying students who are at-risk of dropping out
as  measured  by  academic performance, attendance, discipline problems,
and other factors affecting school performance including but not limited
to teenage pregnancy or parenting, residence in a  homeless  shelter  or
temporary  living  arrangement, substance abuse, child abuse or neglect,
or limited English proficiency;
(2) a program for encouraging the use of volunteers  and  facilitating
parent  involvement  where possible and involvement of current or former
liberty scholarship recipients as peer or mentor counselors in programs;
and
(3) a program to provide  for  continuity  of  services  throughout  a
student's progression through secondary school.
b.  In  awarding  such grants, the commissioner shall give priority to
applications that:
(1) provide services to school districts  receiving  an  apportionment
under  subdivision twenty-five of section thirty-six hundred two of this
chapter;
(2) provide services to schools identified by the commissioner  as  in
need of assistance pursuant to the comprehensive assessment report;
(3) provide services to rural schools with students at risk;
(4)  replicate model programs of demonstrated effectiveness, including
models that provide for small group partnerships with low  student-staff
ratios.  The  commissioner  shall  identify  model  programs with proven
effectiveness and shall make such models available to grant applicants;
(5) demonstrate a high level of institutional commitment  to  programs
in  fields  relevant  to  counseling  and  mentoring,  including but not
limited to education, social work,  psychology  and  sociology  and  the
extent  to  which  such  institution  shall  involve faculty members and
graduate/professional students from such degree programs;
(6) the need for such services in the area the institution proposes to
serve; and
(7) the degree to which the institution  proposes  to  cooperate  with
school  districts  and  not-for-profit  community based organizations to
provide services and insure  continuity  of  such  services  until  such
students  graduate from high school or receive a high school equivalency
diploma.
c. Services for non-public school students shall be provided at  sites
other than sectarian non-public schools.
2.  Services.  Funds  available  under  this section shall be used for
compensatory and support services to  students  who  are  identified  as
being  at  risk of dropping out of school. Services to be provided under
this section may  include  skills  assessment,  tutoring,  academic  and
personal   counseling,   family   counseling   and  home  visits,  staff

development activities for personnel with direct responsibility for such
students and mentoring programs.
3.  Allowable costs. Allowable costs under this program shall include,
but not be limited to: salaries of program personnel, including graduate
student  stipends;  transportation  costs  for  students   and   program
personnel;  instructional  materials;  reimbursement to school districts
for release  time  granted  to  employees  while  participating  in  the
planning  and development of activities funded pursuant to this section;
training  of  program  personnel;  costs  related  directly  to  program
provisions,  including summer and weekend activities; and administrative
costs directly attributable to the program.
4. a. For school years commencing in  nineteen  hundred  eighty-nine--
ninety  and  thereafter,  the  amount  that  shall be made available for
funding liberty partnership grants shall be equal to four percent of the
base year enrollment of children in public and non-public schools in New
York state in grades seven through twelve,  as  computed  in  accordance
with  regulations of the commissioner, multiplied by seven hundred fifty
dollars, provided, however,  that  notwithstanding  the  foregoing,  the
amount  that  shall  be  made  available for funding liberty partnership
grants for the nineteen hundred  eighty-nine--ninety,  nineteen  hundred
ninety--ninety-one  and  nineteen  hundred ninety-one--ninety-two school
years shall be twenty-five  percent,  fifty  percent,  and  seventy-five
percent,  respectively,  of  the  amount to be provided pursuant to this
subdivision.
b. The grant recipients shall provide students at public and nonpublic
schools the opportunity to receive compensatory and support services  in
an  equitable manner consistent with the number and need of the children
in such schools.
5. Regulations. The  commissioner  shall  adopt  regulations  for  the
implementation of this section.
6.  Annual  report.  The  commissioner  shall prepare an annual report
evaluating the programs funded under this  section  and  under  sections
sixty-four  hundred fifty-four and sixty-four hundred fifty-five of this
chapter and making appropriate  recommendations.  The  report  shall  be
submitted  on  or  before December first, to the governor, the temporary
president of the senate and the speaker of the assembly.