HB 1435 — Student transfers; provide greater access to open enrollment and remove requirement for home district approval of release.

Education COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR HOUSE BILL NO.

1435 (As Passed the House) AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 37-15-31, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REMOVE THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE SCHOOL BOARD OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF A CHILD'S RESIDENCE CONSENT TO THE RELEASE OF THE STUDENT FOR TRANSFER TO ANOTHER SCHOOL DISTRICT;

1435 *HR26/R1357CS**HR26/R1357PH* ~ OFFICIAL ~ G1/2 25/HR26/R1357CS25/HR26/R1357PH PAGE 1 (DJ\KW) TRANSFERRING STUDENT AT THE TRANSFEREE DISTRICT'S RATE;

(b) Upon receipt of such notice of petition for transfer, the school board of the transferee school district shall act on such request for transfer as soon as possible, and no later than thesixty next(60) regulardays meetingof receipt of the request by the transferee board, and a failure of such transferee board to act within such time shall constitute an approval of such request and approved enrollment by the school board of the transferee school district.

If such a transfer is approved or denied by the school board of the transferee school district,H. then such decision shall be final.

H.

1435 *HR26/R1357CS**HR26/R1357PH* ~ OFFICIAL ~ 25/HR26/R1357CS25/HR26/R1357PH PAGE 2(DJ\KW) (district, *then *such *c)decision * * * The transferee school district shall notify,be infinal writing,and thebinding schoolfor district from which the pupilduration or pupils are transferring of the receiptscholastic ofyear suchin transferwhich requestsuch withindecision awas reasonablemade. period of time, and the school board of the transferor school district shall spread the same upon its minutes.

( * * *c) * * * The transferee school district shall notify, in writing, the school district from which the pupil or pupils are transferring of the receipt of such transfer request within a reasonable period of time, and the school board of the transferor school district shall spread the same upon its minutes.

In the absence of such a provision, the responsibility for transporting the student to the transferee school district shall be that of the parent or guardian.

(g) Athletic eligibility for a school-age child who transfers to another school or school district pursuant to this subsection shall be determined in accordance with rules and regulations promulgated by the Mississippi High School Association H.

1435 *HR26/R1357CS**HR26/R1357PH* ~ OFFICIAL ~ 25/HR26/R1357CS25/HR26/R1357PH PAGE 3(DJ\KW) (g) Athletic eligibility for a school-age child who transfers to another school or school district pursuant to this subsection shall be determined in accordance with rules and regulations promulgated by the Mississippi High School Association governing student eligibility for any athletic extracurricular activities.

Such policy shall be based upon theH. employment needs of the district, implemented according to job classification groups and renewed each school year.

(c) The employer transferee school district shall notify in writing the school district from which the pupil or H.

1435 *HR26/R1357CS**HR26/R1357PH* ~ OFFICIAL ~ 25/HR26/R1357CS25/HR26/R1357PH PAGE 4(DJ\KW) pupils are transferring, and the schoolemployment boardneeds of the transferordistrict, schoolimplemented districtaccording shallto spreadjob theclassification samegroups uponand itsrenewed minutes.each school year.

(c) The employer transferee school district shall notify in writing the school district from which the pupil or pupils are transferring, and the school board of the transferor school district shall spread the same upon its minutes.

* * * The legal transfer of a student under this subsection shall include a provision for the transportation of the student by either the * * * parent or legal guardian or the student or the transfereeH. school district.

In the event that * * * the school board of the transferee * * * school district shall object to the transfer, * * * the parent or legal guardian shall have the right to appeal to the State Board of Education whose decision shall be H.

1435 *HR26/R1357CS**HR26/R1357PH* ~ OFFICIAL ~ 25/HR26/R1357CS25/HR26/R1357PH PAGE 5(DJ\KW) final.transferee school district.

1435 *HR26/R1357CS**HR26/R1357PH* ~ OFFICIAL ~ 25/HR26/R1357CS25/HR26/R1357PH PAGE 6(DJ\KW) number of students in the added territory who are transferred to the adjacent school district.

For purposes of this subsection, the term sibling includes any biological child, stepchild, adopted child, or foster child in temporary or permanent placement who resides in the same household of the parent or legal guardian who has a child lawfully transferred to another school district under the provisions of this section, provided that such sibling is transferred to the same school or district as the previously transferred sibling.

The transferee school district shall have the sole discretion to determine which school within the school district a student approved for transfer will be placed.

The local school boardsboard of each school district shall adopt policiespolicies, in its sole discretion, to govern the process for enrollment options pursuant to this section,section. including intradistrict transfers.

(b) In the development of its policies, each school board shall include a selection policy for requests for transfers of pupils to enroll in the school district, to ensure such H.

1435 *HR26/R1357CS**HR26/R1357PH* ~ OFFICIAL ~ 25/HR26/R1357CS25/HR26/R1357PH PAGE 7(DJ\KW) selections(b) areIn madethe throughdevelopment aof random,its unbiasedpolicies, processeach thatschool prohibitsboard shall prohibit an evaluation of whether a pupil should be enrolled based upon the pupil's academic or athletic performance.

The local school boardboard, shallin calculateits thesole capacitydiscretion, ofshall thecalculate schools in the districtcapacity for purposeseach ofschool thiswithin subdivisionthe indistrict a nonarbitrary manner in accordance with subsection (8) of this section.

However,School school districts may employ existing entrance criteria for specialized schools or programs if the criteria are uniformly applied to all individuals submitting transfer requests.

(7) For students transferring to a school located in a school district in which the student does not reside, the State Department of Education shall pay to the transferee school district (receiving school district) to which the student is transferred an amount equal to the total funding formula funds, allocated for each student transferring to a school district outside his or her district of residence.

Any such payments made under this subsection (5) by the State Department of Education to H.

1435 *HR26/R1357CS**HR26/R1357PH* ~ OFFICIAL ~ 25/HR26/R1357CS25/HR26/R1357PH PAGE 8(DJ\KW) payments made under this subsection (5) by the State Department of Education to a receiving school district must be made two (2) business days prior to the last working day of each month.

(8) (a) EachIn schooldetermining district must determine the maximumcapacity enrollment for each gradeschool levelwithin andthe individualized by school facilities,district whichpursuant shall then be used to determinesubsection space(6)(b) availableeach forschool transferdistrict requests,shall, andin whichits suchsole informationdiscretion, ondetermine capacity limitations shall be published on the schoolmaximum district'senrollment websitefor ateach agrade reasonablelevel timefor beforeeach theschool startwithin of the academicdistrict. school year.

The school district's enrollment options program, including capacity and grade level enrollment levels, determined by the school district shall be published on the school district's H.

1435 *HR26/R1357CS**HR26/R1357PH* ~ OFFICIAL ~ 25/HR26/R1357CS25/HR26/R1357PH PAGE 9(DJ\KW) Forwebsite secondaryat grades, a districtreasonable maytime usebefore corethe classroomstart sizeof per grade level as the standardacademic toschool determineyear. maximum enrollment.

(b)The Not less than four (4) times during the school year,district's eachdecision school district shall publicly post on itsenrollment websitelevels theshall spacebe availablefinal at each grade-level and atbinding. each school.

Space(b) availableNot less than two (2) times during the school year, each school district shall bepublicly post on its website the capacity for each school within the school district as determined bypursuant comparingto subsection (6)(b) and the maximum enrollment for each grade level for each school as determined pursuant to theparagraph number(a) of pupilsthis actuallysubsection. enrolled.

(c) Not less than fourtwo (4)(2) times during the school year, every school district shall report to the state reporting system the spacecapacity availablefor at each grade-level,school school,within the school district as determined pursuant to subsection (6)(b) and inthe maximum enrollment for each program,grade level for each school as determined pursuant to paragraph (a) of this subsection, the number of transfer requests, the number of accepted transferred pupils and the number of denied transfer requests.

The report shall include the number of participants, the number of deniedH. requests, and other relevant information.

The board shall also report this information to the Legislature no later than December 31 of each year.

H.

1435 *HR26/R1357CS**HR26/R1357PH* ~ OFFICIAL ~ 25/HR26/R1357CS25/HR26/R1357PH PAGE 10(DJ\KW) (10)denied Therequests, Stateand Boardother ofrelevant Educationinformation. shall not publish or release data of a school district if the number of students who requested a transfer is less than the minimum sample size necessary for prevention of the unlawful release of personally identifiable student data.

The board shall also report this information to the Legislature no later than December 31 of each year.