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2003 SESSION
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That § 22.1-79.1 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
§ 22.1-79.1. Opening of the school year; approvals for certain alternative schedules.
A. Each local school board shall set the school calendar so that the first day students are required to attend school shall be after Labor Day. The Board of Education may waive this requirement on a showing of good cause.
B. For purposes of this section, "good cause" means:
1. A school division has been closed an average of eight days per year during
any five of the last ten 10 years because of severe weather conditions, energy
shortages, power failures, or other emergency situations;
2. A school division is providing, in the school year for which the waiver is sought, an instructional program or programs in one or more of its elementary or middle or high schools, excluding the electronic classroom, which are dependent on and provided in one or more elementary or middle or high schools of another school division that qualifies for such waiver. However, any waiver granted by the Board of Education pursuant to this subdivision shall only apply to the opening date for those schools where such dependent programs are provided; or
3. A school division is providing its students, in the school year for which
the waiver is sought, with an experimental or innovative program which requires
an earlier opening date than that established in subsection A of this section
and which has been approved by the Department of Education pursuant to the
regulations of the Board of Education establishing standards for accrediting
public schools. However, any waiver or extension of the school year granted by
the Board of Education pursuant to this subdivision or its standards for
accrediting public schools for such an experimental or innovative program shall
only apply to the opening date for those schools where such experimental or
innovative programs are offered generally to the student body of the school.
For the purposes of this subdivision, experimental or innovative programs shall
include instructional programs which that are offered on a year-round basis by
the school division in one or more of its elementary or middle or high schools.
C. Individual schools may propose, and local school boards may approve, pursuant to guidelines developed by the Board of Education, alternative school schedule plans providing for the operation of schools on a four-day weekly calendar, so long as a minimum of 990 hours of instructional time is provided for grades one through twelve and 540 hours for kindergarten. No alternative plan that reduces the instructional time in the core academics of English, mathematics, social studies, and science shall be approved.