Title 17. Education

Chapter 1. General School Law

Part II. Parish School Boards

Subpart B. Powers and Duties of School Boards and Parish Superintendents

17:100.1        Alternative educational programs; certain adjudicated students; students in the custody of the office of juvenile justice; funding; authority of the local school board to contract; inclusion in minimum foundation program; funding formula

A. (1) Any child who has been adjudicated delinquent or as a member of a family in need of services by a court or who is in the custody of the office of juvenile justice as a result of any such adjudication and is assigned by the office of juvenile justice to a community-based program or facility shall be counted by the city, parish, or other local public school board for the city or parish where such program or facility exists for purposes of the minimum foundation program and any other available state or federal funding for which the child is eligible. No other city, parish, or other local public school board shall include such a child in any count for purposes of the minimum foundation program or any other available state or federal funding for which the child may be eligible. Funds inuring to the city, parish, or other local public school board as a result of the presence of such children in its jurisdiction shall be used to provide educational services for such children. 

(2) Subject to the requirements of Subsection B of this Section, any city, parish, or other local public school board may contract for the provision of educational services for children described in Paragraph (1) of this Subsection. 

B. Private providers of alternative educational services shall be approved by the city, parish, or other local public school board and the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education as alternative schools pursuant to standards established by the state board before a contract as authorized by this Section may be entered into by the city, parish, or other local public school board. 

C. (1) An alternative school located in a secure care facility under the jurisdiction of the office of juvenile justice shall be considered a public elementary or secondary school and, as such, shall be included by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in the formula required by Article VIII, Section 13 of the Constitution of Louisiana used to determine the cost of a minimum foundation program of education in all public elementary and secondary schools. 

(2) Each student in such an alternative school shall be provided for and funded at one hundred percent of the state share per pupil amount as provided in the approved minimum foundation program formula for the city, parish, or other local public school system in which such student would otherwise have been enrolled, as contained in the budget letter approved by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and the board shall allocate such funds to the office of juvenile justice. 

(3) In addition to the allocation of the state share per pupil amount provided for in Paragraph (2) of this Subsection, the city, parish, or other local public school system in which the student would have otherwise been enrolled shall allocate and transfer to the office of juvenile justice an amount of money equal to the local share per pupil amount allocated by such system times the number of students enrolled in alternative schools located in secure care facilities under the jurisdiction of the office of juvenile justice who would have otherwise been enrolled in such local school system. The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education shall provide for the transfer of the local share per pupil amount from the appropriate city, parish, or other local public school system to the office of juvenile justice. 

(4) The office of juvenile justice shall expend all minimum foundation program funds allocated to it pursuant to this Subsection to operate the alternative schools located in secure care facilities under its jurisdiction. 

(5) The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, in collaboration with the office of juvenile justice, shall develop an equitable means by which to identify and determine the number of students eligible for funding each year pursuant to this Subsection. 

(6) The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education shall adopt necessary rules and regulations to assure that no funds provided through the minimum foundation program or any other state or federal program as provided in this Section shall supplant any other funding provided to the office of juvenile justice for the educational services for such children. 

D. It is the intent of the legislature that the expenditure of minimum foundation program funds and other state and federal funds for office of juvenile justice schools be subject to the same oversight and accountability as the expenditure of such funds for city, parish, and other local public school boards. 

Added by Acts 1960, 1st Ex.Sess., No. 17, §§ 1 to 4, emerg. eff. Nov. 8, 1960. Amended by Acts 1991, No. 725, § 1, eff. July 18, 1991; Acts 2005, No. 274, § 1, eff. June 29, 2005; Acts 2008, No. 565, § 2; Acts 2010, No. 131, § 1; Acts 2016, No. 500, § 3, eff. Aug. 1, 2016; Acts 2017, No. 97, § 1.