SB 342

Under the current full-time Open Enrollment Program (OEP), a pupil may

apply to attend a public school in a school district other than the pupil's resident

school district if certain conditions are met. Current law establishes criteria that the

nonresident school district may use to determine whether to accept or reject a

nonresident pupil. A school board may consider the availability of space in the school

or program to which the nonresident pupil has applied, whether the pupil has been

expelled from school during the current or two preceding school years for certain

specified reasons, whether a disciplinary proceeding involving the pupil is pending,

and whether the pupil's individualized education program needs have been

evaluated by the resident school district or can be fulfilled in the nonresident school

district.

This bill provides that if the nonresident school board determines that a pupil

attending the school district under the OEP is habitually truant (absent from school

without an acceptable excuse for part or all of five or more school days during any

semester) during either semester in the current school year, the school board may

prohibit the pupil from attending the school district under the OEP in the succeeding

semester or school year.

The bill also allows a school board to include in its criteria for accepting or

rejecting an application from a nonresident pupil to attend the school district under

the OEP whether the school board determined that the pupil was habitually truant

from the school district during any semester of attendance at the school district in

the current or previous school year.

Current law allows the parent of a pupil whose application to attend a

nonresident school district was rejected to appeal the decision to the Department of

Public Instruction. Similarly, this bill allows an appeal from a decision to reject an

application, and from a decision to prohibit a pupil from attending the nonresident

school district in the succeeding semester or school year, based upon the pupil's

habitual truancy.