SECOND REGULAR SESSION
HOUSE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Reported from the Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education April 5, 2006 with recommendation that House Committee Substitute for House Bill No. 1939 Do Pass. Referred to the Committee on Rules pursuant to Rule 25(26)(f).
STEPHEN S. DAVIS, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To amend chapter 162, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to open enrollment.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Chapter 162, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 162.1030, to read as follows:
162.1030. 1. For the school year beginning July 1, 2007, and each succeeding school year, a parent or guardian residing in a public school district may enroll the parent's or guardian's child in a public school for kindergarten or grades above kindergarten in another school district in the manner provided in this section.
2. By January fifteenth of the preceding school year, the parent or guardian shall send notification to the district of residence and the receiving district, on forms prescribed by the department of elementary and secondary education, that the parent or guardian intends to enroll the parent's or guardian's child in a public school in another school district. If capacity is insufficient to enroll all pupils who submit a timely application, the public school district shall have an admissions process that assures all applicants of an equal chance of gaining admission except that preferences for admission of children whose siblings attend the school may be permitted. Whenever there is a federal court-ordered desegregation directive for a school district, enrollment options under this section are subject to the approval of the court of continuing jurisdiction, and the court order shall govern. If a parent or guardian fails to file the notification forms by the deadline of January fifteenth of the previous school year and one of the criteria defined in subsection 3 of this section exists for the failure to meet the deadline, or if the request is to enroll a child in a public school in another district in kindergarten or first grade if the child did not attend kindergarten at a public school or in any grade if a child is moving into Missouri or otherwise entering the public school system for the first time, the parent or guardian shall be permitted to enroll the child in the other district in the same manner as if the deadline had been met. The board of education of the receiving district shall enroll the pupil in a school in the receiving district for the following school year unless the receiving district by admitting the pupil would violate its class size standards under subsection 10 of this section. If the request is granted, the board shall transmit a copy of the form to the parent or guardian and the school district of residence within five days after board action, but not later than March first of the preceding school year. The parent or guardian may withdraw the request at any time prior to the start of the school year.
3. (1) After January fifteenth of the preceding school year and until the third Friday in July of that calendar year, the parent or guardian shall send notification to the district of residence and the receiving district, on forms prescribed by the department of elementary and secondary education, that good cause, as defined in subdivision (2) of this subsection, exists for failure to meet the January fifteenth deadline. The board of the receiving district shall take action to approve the request if good cause exists. A denial of a request by the board of a receiving district is not subject to appeal.
(2) For purposes of this section, "good cause" means a change in a child's residence due to a change in family residence, a change in a child's parents' marital status, a guardianship or custody proceeding, placement in foster care, adoption, participation in a substance abuse or mental health treatment program, or student health or safety concerns; or a change in the status of a child's resident district, such as removal of accreditation by the state board, permanent closure of a nonpublic school, or revocation of a charter school's charter as provided in section 160.405, RSMo. If the good cause relates to a change in status of a child's school district of residence, however, action by a parent or guardian must be taken to file the notification within forty-five days of the last official action relating to such status.
(3) If a parent believes that a receiving district is unreasonable in approving or disapproving applications submitted in accordance with this subsection, the parent may request that the department of elementary and secondary education review and take appropriate action.
4. Open enrollment applications filed after January fifteenth of the preceding school year that do not qualify for good cause as provided in subsection 3 of this section shall be subject to the approval of the board of the resident district and the board of the receiving district. The parent or guardian shall send notification to the district of residence and the receiving district that the parent or guardian seeks to enroll the parent's or guardian's child in the receiving district. A decision of either board to deny an application filed under this subsection involving repeated acts of harassment of the student or serious health condition of the student that the resident district cannot adequately address is subject to appeal to the state board, which shall exercise broad discretion to achieve just and equitable results that are in the best interest of the affected child or children.
5. A request under this section is for a period of not less than one year. If the request is for more than one year and the parent or guardian desires to have the pupil enroll in a different school or school district, the parent or guardian may petition the current receiving district by January fifteenth of the previous school year for permission to enroll the pupil in a different school or school district for a period of not less than one year. Upon receipt of such a request, the current receiving district board may act on the request to transfer to the other school district at the next regularly scheduled board meeting after the receipt of the request. The new receiving district shall enroll the pupil in a school in the district unless there is insufficient classroom space in the requested school or district. A pupil who has been in attendance in another district under this section may return to the district of residence and enroll at the semester break, once the parent or guardian has notified the district of residence and the receiving district in writing of the decision to enroll the pupil in the district of residence.
6. A pupil participating in open enrollment shall be counted, for state school foundation aid purposes, in the pupil's district of residence. A pupil's residence, for purposes of this section, means residency established under section 167.020, RSMo. Except for students residing in a K-8 district attending high school in a district pursuant to section 167.131, the board of the district of residence shall pay to the receiving district an annual amount equal to the product of the weighted average daily attendance of the district's resident pupils attending the receiving district school and the state adequacy target, multiplied by the dollar value modifier for the sending district, plus local tax revenues per weighted average daily attendance from the incidental and teachers' funds in excess of the performance levy as defined in section 163.011, RSMo, plus all other state aid attributable to such pupils, not exceeding the per pupil cost in the sending district or receiving district, whichever is less. The district of residence shall also pay to the receiving district any other federal or state aid that the district receives on account of such child.
7. If a request filed under this section is for a child requiring special education under section 162.670 to 162.999, the request to transfer to the other district shall only be granted if the receiving district maintains a special education instructional program which is appropriate to meet the child's educational needs and the enrollment of the child in the receiving district's program would not cause the size of the class in that special education instructional program in the receiving district to exceed the maximum class size established in rules adopted by the state board of education or federal guidelines for that program. For children requiring special education, a member of the child's individualized education program (IEP) team in the sending district shall be part of the IEP team in the receiving district for the initial IEP planning sessions, and the board of directors of the district of residence shall pay to the receiving district the actual costs incurred in providing the appropriate special education.
8. (1) If a parent or guardian of a child who is participating in open enrollment under this section moves to a different school district during the course of either district's academic year, the child's first district of residence shall be responsible for payment of the amount per pupil as calculated pursuant to subsection 6 of this section or special education costs to the receiving school district for the balance of the school year in which the move took place. The new district of residence shall be responsible for the payments during succeeding years.
(2) If a request to transfer is due to a change in family residence, or where the child resides as a result of a change in a child's parents' marital status, a guardianship proceeding, placement in foster care, adoption, or participation in a substance abuse or mental health treatment program, and the child who is the subject of the request is not currently using any provision of open enrollment, the parent or guardian of the child shall have the option to have the child remain in the child's original district of residence under open enrollment with no interruption in the child's educational program. If a parent or guardian exercises this option, the child's new district of residence is not required to pay the amount calculated in subsection 6 of this section until the start of the first full year of enrollment of the child.
(3) Payments shall be made to the receiving district at least twice a year.
9. Notwithstanding section 167.241, RSMo, relating to transportation of nonresident pupils, the parent or guardian is responsible for transporting the pupil without reimbursement. At the discretion of the receiving district based on availability of bus seats, the pupil may be transported by the parent to and from a point on a regular school bus route of the receiving district.
10. Every school district shall adopt a policy which defines the term "class size" for the purposes of open enrollment. The desirable level of teacher-pupil ratio promulgated by the department shall be used in formulating the policy but shall permit a district to use its current standards if the district's current standards are more stringent than the state desirable level. The policy may allow for a number of spaces to remain open to accommodate potential additional pupils who will reside in the district. The public school district shall make available to the public the number of open seats each year on a timely basis.
11. In a public school district that qualified for a small school grant pursuant to section 163.044, RSMo, for the 2006-07 school year, the addition of up to five percent average daily attendance attributable to open enrollment shall not disqualify the district for the grant, nor shall a decrease of less than five percent from the average daily attendance used to determine qualification for the grant for the 2006-07 school year that is attributable to open enrollment qualify a district for the grant.
12. If a pupil for whom a request to transfer has been filed with a district has been suspended or expelled in the sending district, the pupil shall not be permitted to transfer until the pupil has been reinstated in the sending district. Once the pupil has been reinstated, however, the pupil shall be permitted to transfer in the same manner as if the pupil had not been suspended or expelled by the sending district. However, if the pupil applies for reinstatement but is not reinstated in the sending district, the receiving district may deny the request to transfer, within the limits of sections 167.161 and 167.164, RSMo. The decision of the receiving district is not subject to appeal.
13. An application for open enrollment may be granted at any time with approval of the resident and receiving district.
14. For accountability purposes, the statewide assessment scores of pupils using open enrollment to attend a district other than their resident district shall be treated in the same manner as the scores of a resident pupil who enters the district.
15. To the extent practical based on available capacity, each public school district with multiple attendance centers serving the same grade level shall provide intradistrict open enrollment. A district’s intradistrict transfers shall receive priority over interdistrict transfers. Transportation for students requesting an intradistrict transfer shall be governed by the provisions of subsection 9 of this section.
16. To the extent practical based on available capacity, each public vocational-technical school shall provide open enrollment.
17. Any rule or portion of a rule, as that term is defined in section 536.010, RSMo, that is created under the authority delegated in this section shall become effective only if it complies with and is subject to all of the provisions of chapter 536, RSMo, and, if applicable, section 536.028, RSMo. This section and chapter 536, RSMo, are nonseverable and if any of the powers vested with the general assembly pursuant to chapter 536, RSMo, to review, to delay the effective date, or to disapprove and annul a rule are subsequently held unconstitutional, then the grant of rulemaking authority and any rule proposed or adopted after August 28, 2006, shall be invalid and void.
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