New York Laws
Article 9 - School Buildings and Sites
408 - Plans and Specifications of School Buildings Must Be Approved by Commissioner of Education.

§ 408. Plans and specifications of school buildings must be approved
by commissioner of education. 1. No schoolhouse shall hereafter be
erected, purchased, repaired, enlarged or remodeled nor shall the
advertisement for bids for the execution of the plans and specifications
for such schoolhouses be placed, in any school district except in a city
school district in a city having seventy thousand inhabitants or more,
at an expense which shall exceed one hundred thousand dollars, until the
plans and specifications shall have been submitted to the commissioner
of education and his approval endorsed thereon. Such plans and
specifications shall show in detail the ventilation, heating and
lighting of such buildings.

In the case of a school district in a city having seventy thousand
inhabitants or more, all the provisions previously set forth in this
subdivision shall apply, except that the commissioner may waive the
requirement for submission of plans and specifications and substitute
therefor the requirement for submission of an outline of such plans and
specifications for his review. Such outline shall be in a form which he
may prescribe from time to time.

In either case, the commissioner may, in his discretion, review plans
and specifications for projects estimated at an expense of less than one
hundred thousand dollars.

In the case of a school district in a city having a million
inhabitants or more, all of the provisions previously set forth in this
subdivision shall apply, except that such school district shall only be
required to submit an outline of the plans and specifications to the
commissioner of education for his information where a schoolhouse is to
be erected in conjunction with the development of a project to be
developed under the provisions of article two or five of the private
housing finance law and where both the school and the project are to
have rights or interests in the same land, regardless of the similarity
or equality thereof, including fee interests, easements, space rights or
other rights or interests.

2. The commissioner of education shall not approve the plans for the
erection or purchase of any school building or addition thereto or
remodeling thereof unless the same shall provide for heating,
ventilation, lighting, sanitation, storm drainage and health, fire and
accident protection adequate to maintain healthful, safe and comfortable
conditions therein and unless the county superintendent of highways or
commissioner of public works has been advised of the location of all
temporary and permanent entrances and exits upon all public highways and
the storm drainage plan which is to be used.

3. The commissioner shall approve the plans and specifications,
heretofore or hereafter submitted pursuant to this section, for the
erection or purchase of any school building or addition thereto or
remodeling thereof on the site or sites selected therefor pursuant to
this chapter, if such plans conform to the requirements and provisions
of this chapter and the regulations of the commissioner adopted pursuant
to this chapter in all other respects; provided, however, that the
commissioner of education shall not approve the plans for the erection
or purchase of any school building or addition thereto unless the site
has been selected with reasonable consideration of the following
factors; its place in a comprehensive, long-term school building
program; area required for outdoor educational activities; educational
adaptability, environment, accessibility; soil conditions; initial and
ultimate cost. In developing such plans and specifications, school
districts are encouraged to review the energy conservation and saving
best practices available from the department and the New York state
energy research and development authority.

4. No funds voted by a district meeting or other competent authority
in any school district to which the provisions of subdivision one of
this section are applicable, exceeding the amounts specified in such
subdivision, shall be expended by the trustees or board of education
until the commissioner of education shall certify that the plans and
specifications for the same comply with the provisions of this section.

5. In a city having a population of one million or more, all
designing, draughting and inspecting necessary in connection with the
construction, additions to, alterations and maintenance of schoolhouses
shall be performed by a bureau established and maintained for this
purpose under the board of education. The work of this bureau shall be
performed by civil service employees in the classified civil service
under the direction of the superintendent of school buildings, design
and construction, except that repairs, betterment and maintenance of
heating and ventilating plants and equipment, elevators and mechanical
equipment shall remain under the direction of the superintendent of
plant operation and maintenance. In a special case upon approval of the
board of estimate, such designing, draughting or inspecting may be
otherwise performed.

6. The commissioner may promulgate regulations relating to the
purchase of existing school buildings. Such regulations shall provide
for an appraisal of such buildings as school buildings and the land on
which they are situated as school sites by the commissioner of taxation
and finance, such estimates of the cost of renovation and construction
as may be necessary and limitations on the cost of acquisition and
renovation, in taking into consideration the age and condition of such
existing buildings, in relation to the estimated cost of constructing a
new building containing comparable facilities. Such regulations may also
require the prior approval of the commissioner of any renovations
proposed to be made to such existing school buildings.

7. The commissioner shall issue guidance informing all school
districts of the manner in which building aid may be utilized to support
district-operated universal prekindergarten programs pursuant to
sections thirty-six hundred two-e and thirty-six hundred two-ee of this
chapter.