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1999 SESSION

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HB 2531 Opening of school year; waivers for good cause.

Introduced by: Roger J. McClure | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

Opening of school year; waivers for good cause. Adds to the three “good cause” scenarios for which the Board of Education grants waivers of the post-Labor Day school opening requirement, that “good cause” also exists when the Board of Education has determined, upon petition by a local school, that a waiver is in the best educational interests of the students of the school division. The Board is to consider the effect of any differences in opening days between contiguous school divisions.

Amendments adopted in 1998 (SB 425) delineated the three "good cause" situations that may justify a waiver: the applicant school division must (i) have been closed an average of eight days per year during any five of the last 10 years because of severe weather conditions or certain other emergency situations; (ii) be providing an instructional program or programs in one or more of its elementary, middle or high schools, excluding the electronic classroom, which are dependent on and provided in one or more elementary, middle or high schools of another school division that qualifies for such waiver (waiver applicable only to the opening date for those schools where the dependent programs are provided); or (iii) be providing an experimental or innovative program approved by the Department of Education pursuant to the Standards of Accreditation (waiver only applicable to the opening date for schools where the experimental or innovative programs are offered generally to the student body).


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