§ 115C-250. Authority to expend funds for transportation of children with disabilities.
§ 115C‑250. Authorityto expend funds for transportation of children with disabilities.
(a) The State Board ofEducation and local boards of education may expend public funds fortransportation of children with disabilities who are unable because of theirdisability to ride the regular school buses and who have been placed inprograms by a local school board as a part of its duty to provide thesechildren with a free appropriate education under Article 9 of this Chapter. Atthe option of the local board of education with the concurrence of the StateBoard of Education, funds appropriated to the State Board of Education forcontract transportation of children with disabilities may be used to purchasebuses and minibuses as well as for the purposes authorized in the budget. TheState Board of Education shall adopt rules concerning the construction andequipment of these buses and minibuses.
The Departments of Health andHuman Services, Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and Correction mayalso expend public funds for transportation of children with disabilities whoare unable because of their disability to ride the regular school buses and whohave been placed in programs by one of these agencies as a part of thatagency's duty to provide these children with a free appropriate publiceducation under Article 9 of this Chapter.
If a local area mental healthcenter places a child with a disability in an educational program, the localarea mental health center shall pay for the transportation of the child who isunable due to the disability to ride the regular school buses to the program.
(b) Funds appropriatedfor the transportation of children with disabilities may be used to paytransportation safety assistants employed in accordance with G.S. 115C‑245(e)for buses to which children with disabilities are assigned. (1955, c. 1372, art. 21, s.6; 1973, c. 1351, s. 1; 1975, c. 678, ss. 9, 10; 1977, c. 830, s. 1; 1979, c.719, ss. 1‑4; 1979, 2nd Sess., c. 1156; 1981, c. 423, s. 1; c. 912, s. 1;1981 (Reg. Sess., 1982), c. 1282, s. 31; 1985, c. 479, s. 26(b); 1987, c. 769;1997‑443, s. 11A.118(a); 1998‑202, s. 4(n); 2000‑137, s.4(q); 2006‑69, s. 3(h).)