256.12 - SHARING INSTRUCTORS AND SERVICES.
256.12 SHARING INSTRUCTORS AND SERVICES.
1. The director, when necessary to realize the purposes of this
chapter, shall approve the enrollment in public schools for specified
courses of students who also are enrolled in private schools, when
the courses in which they seek enrollment are not available to them
in their private schools, provided the students have satisfactorily
completed prerequisite courses, if any, or have otherwise shown
equivalent competence through testing. Courses made available to
students in this manner shall be considered as compliance by the
private schools in which the students are enrolled with any standards
or laws requiring private schools to offer or teach the courses.
2. This section does not deprive the respective boards of public
school districts of any of their legal powers, statutory or
otherwise, and in accepting the specially enrolled students, each of
the boards shall prescribe the terms of the special enrollment,
including but not limited to scheduling of courses and the length of
class periods. In addition, the board of the affected public school
district shall be given notice by the department of its decision to
permit the special enrollment not later than six months prior to the
opening of the affected public school district's school year, except
that the board of the public school district may waive the notice
requirement. School districts and area education agency boards shall
make public school services, which shall include special education
programs and services and may include health services, services for
remedial education programs, guidance services, and school testing
services, available to children attending nonpublic schools in the
same manner and to the same extent that they are provided to public
school students. Service activities shall be similar to those
undertaken for public school students. Health services, special
education support, and related services provided by area education
agencies for the purpose of identifying children with disabilities,
assistance with physical and communications needs of students with
physical disabilities, and services of an educational interpreter may
be provided on nonpublic school premises with the permission of the
lawful custodian of the property. Other special education services
may be provided on nonpublic school premises at the discretion of the
school district or area education agency provider of the service and
with the permission of the lawful custodian of the property.
Students enrolled in nonpublic schools who receive services
pursuant to this subsection shall be weighted at the level provided
for in section 256B.9, subsection 1.
A local school district providing services pursuant to this
subsection shall submit an accounting to the department of education
by August 1 following the school year for the actual costs of the
special education programs and services provided. The department
shall review and approve or modify the accounting by September 1 and
shall notify the department of administrative services of the
approved accounting amount. The department of administrative
services shall adjust the September payment to the local school
district for the next fiscal year by the difference between the
amount generated by the weighting for the provision of services to
nonpublic school students, as provided in this subsection, and the
amount of the actual costs as reflected in the local school
district's accounting. Any amount paid by the department of
administrative services shall be deducted monthly from the state
foundation aid paid under section 257.16 during that fiscal year to
all school districts in the state. The portion of the total amount
of the approved accounting amount that shall be deducted from the
state aid of a school district shall be the same as the ratio that
the budget enrollment for the budget year of the school district
bears to the total budget enrollment in the state for that budget
year. Section History: Recent Form
86 Acts, ch 1245, § 1412; 93 Acts, ch 101, § 101; 94 Acts, ch
1161, §1; 98 Acts, ch 1096, §1; 2003 Acts, ch 145, §286; 2006 Acts,
ch 1152, §19
Referred to in § 256B.9, 273.2