Creates Dolly Parton's statewide imagination library program

Latest action Apr 28, 2026

Directs the office of children and family services to establish Dolly Parton's statewide imagination library program for encouraging children from birth to five years of age, inclusive, to develop a love of reading and learning; directs the office of children and family services to promote the statewide development of local Dolly Parton's Imagination Library programs; advance and strengthen local Dolly Parton's Imagination Library programs with the goal of increasing enrollment; recruit volunteers to assist in the development, promotion, and coordination of local Dolly Parton's Imagination Library programs; solicit donations, gifts, and other funding to financially support local Dolly Parton's Imagination Library programs; develop community engagement; develop, promote, and coordinate a public awareness campaign to make donors aware of the opportunity to donate to the affiliate programs and make the public aware of the opportunity to register eligible children to receive books through the program; administer the local match requirement and coordinate the collection and remittance of local program costs for books and mailing; and develop statewide marketing and communication plans; establishes the imagination library of New York fund.

Not chosen yet

Where it stands

Out of committee and scheduled for a vote by the full chamber.

Introduced
In committee
Up for a vote
Passed one chamber
Passed
Enacted

New York State Senate

Same as A5532, the matching bill in the Assembly.

Amends the Social Services Law.

Committee

Libraries · New York State Senate

Also referred to Libraries and Education Technology · New York State Assembly.

Purpose, from the sponsor's memo

Section one of the bill adds a new section 361 to social services law which creates the Dolly Parton's statewide imagination library of New York, to be administered by the office of children and family services. Section two of the bill creates the Imagination library of New York fund, moneys of which shall be used to provide age-appropriate books on a monthly basis, at home, to each child ages 0-5 registered in the program. Section three is the effective date.

Filed with the bill. Read it on nysenate.gov (opens in a new tab)

Recorded votes

Vote: Committee vote · Libraries
Senate LibrariesApr 28, 2026Result: passed
(7) (0) (0) (0)
Vote: Committee vote · Libraries
Senate LibrariesApr 8, 2025Result: passed
(7) (0) (0) (0)

Cosponsors

The sponsor's argument

Why Jeremy Cooney says this is needed

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is the flagship program of the Dolly-wood Foundation. This book gifting program provides high-quality, age-appropriate books to children from birth until their fifth birthday, at no cost to the family. Since the program started in 1995, 2.3 million children in five countries have received over 200 million books. Currently, the program partners with local 501(c) (3)s, where the Foun- dation covers the administrative costs and provides centralized publish- ing and distribution networks, and the local partners coordinate adver- tising the program, and managing sign ups. Children then receive a book every month until age five. This bill builds off of the great success of the Imagination Library, by creating a statewide Imagination Library program. Managed by the Office of Children and Family services, with costs split equally between the state and the Foundation, this program will bring the joys of reading To hundreds of thousands of children in the state. In the words of Dolly Parton herself: "Our place in all of this is pret- ty simple. We want to inspire a love of books. Kids will do what they love to do, and we want to inspire children to love books and reading! I want the child to feel the magic of a book arriving and the excitement of opening it up. This love of books will last a lifetime."

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.

Full history

Apr 28, 2026
Reported out of committee
REPORTED AND COMMITTED TO FINANCE
NY Senate
Jan 29, 2026
Amend (t) and Recommit to Libraries and Education Technology
AMEND (T) AND RECOMMIT TO LIBRARIES AND EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
NY Assembly
Jan 7, 2026
Referred to committee
REFERRED TO LIBRARIES
NY Senate
Jan 7, 2026
Referred to committee
REFERRED TO LIBRARIES AND EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
NY Assembly
Apr 8, 2025
Reported out of committee
REPORTED AND COMMITTED TO FINANCE
NY Senate

Show full history (3 earlier events)

Feb 28, 2025
Amend (t) and Recommit to Libraries
AMEND (T) AND RECOMMIT TO LIBRARIES
NY Senate
Feb 14, 2025
Referred to committee
REFERRED TO LIBRARIES AND EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
NY Assembly
Jan 23, 2025
Referred to committee
REFERRED TO LIBRARIES
NY Senate

About this record

Summary: The summary comes from NY Open Legislation, the New York State Senate's public record. For more, see How we handle summaries.
Cosponsors: The list shows the cosponsors who are on Agora, A to Z. The official record may list more.
Party colors: Parties are shown in the same neutral colors.
Source: From NY Open Legislation, the NY Senate and Assembly, and official rosters. This record was last updated Nov 2, 2026. About our data

Read the record

Read on NY Senate (opens in a new tab) The official record on nysenate.gov.

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