15-824

15-824. Admission of pupils of other school
districts; homeless children; tuition charges; definitions

A. The governing board of a school district shall admit pupils from another school
district or area as follows:

1. Upon the presentation of a certificate of educational convenience issued by the
county school superintendent pursuant to section 15-825.

2. For three hundred fifty or fewer pupils, to a high school without the
presentation of such certificate, if the pupil is a resident of a common school district
within this state that is not within a high school district and that does not offer
instruction in the pupil's grade. The three hundred fifty or fewer pupil limitation
prescribed in this paragraph does not apply to a small isolated school district as
defined in section 15-901. Tuition shall be charged as prescribed in subsection E of this
section for each pupil admitted pursuant to this paragraph, each pupil from a school
district that provides only financing for pupils who are instructed by another school
district and each pupil from a unified district that does not offer instruction in the
pupil's grade. The school membership of such pupils is deemed, for the purpose of
determining student count and for apportionment of state aid, to be enrollment in the
school district of the pupil's residence.

B. The residence of the person having legal custody of the pupil is considered the
residence of the pupil, except as provided in subsection C of this section and in section
15-825, subsection B.

C. The current residence of a homeless pupil who does not reside with the person
having legal custody of the pupil is considered to be the residence of the homeless pupil
if the person having legal custody of the pupil is a resident of the United States. For
the purposes of this subsection, "homeless pupil" means a pupil who has a primary
residence that is:

1. A supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide
temporary living accommodations.

2. An institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to
be institutionalized.

3. A public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular
sleeping accommodation for human beings.

D. The school enrollment of a pupil who is a resident of this state or who is
admitted to a school district under section 15-823, subsection B, C or E is deemed, for
the purpose of determining student count and for apportionment of state aid, to be
enrollment in the school district of actual attendance, except as provided in section
15-825, subsection A, paragraph 1 and subsection A, paragraph 2 of this section and
except for pupils for whom the superintendent of public instruction is charged tuition
pursuant to section 15-825, subsections B and D and section 15-976 or for whom another
school district is charged tuition as provided in subsections E and G of this section.

E. If tuition is required to be charged for pupils attending school in a school
district other than that of their residence, the tuition shall be determined and paid in
the following manner:

1. The number of high school pupils for which tuition may be charged to a common
school district that is not within a high school district is equal to the average daily
membership in the district of attendance from the common school district for the prior
fiscal year, except that for the first year in which a common school district not within
a high school district stops teaching high school subjects, the district of attendance
may charge tuition for the number of pupils which is equal to the average daily
membership for high school pupils in the common school district for the prior fiscal
year. This number may be adjusted if the common school district increases its revenue
control limit and district support level or recomputes its revenue control limit as
provided in section 15-948.

2. The tuition for pupils attending school in a school district other than that of
their residence, except pupils provided for by section 15-825, subsections B and D and
any pupils included in the definition of child with a disability in section 15-761, shall
not exceed the cost per student count of the school district attended, as determined for
the current school year. Tuition for pupils included in the definition of child with a
disability in section 15-761 shall not exceed the actual cost of the school attended for
each pupil as determined for the current year. The school district of attendance shall
not include in the cost per student count a charge for transportation if no
transportation is provided, and the charge for transportation shall not exceed the actual
costs of providing transportation for the pupils served, as prescribed in the uniform
system of financial records. The school district of attendance shall provide the school
district of residence with the final tuition charge for the current year and with an
estimate of the budget year's tuition charge by May 1 of the current year. The school
district of residence shall pay at least one-fourth of the total amount of the estimated
tuition by September 30, December 31 and March 31, and it shall pay the remaining amount
it owes after adjustments are made by June 30.

3. Notwithstanding paragraph 2 of this subsection and subsection G of this section,
if two school districts enter into a voluntary agreement for the payment of tuition, the
agreement shall specify the method for computing the tuition amount and the timing of the
payments. The agreement shall not be longer than five consecutive years. If two school
districts enter into an agreement and choose to renew the agreement, each renewal shall
not be longer than five consecutive years. The agreement shall specify that a parent or
legal guardian of a pupil affected by a tuition agreement entered pursuant to this
section or section 15-816.01 may choose not to send their pupil or pupils to a school
district or school that is a party to the agreement.

4. Tuition of pupils as provided in section 15-825, subsection D shall not exceed
the excess costs for group B children with disabilities in the cost study prescribed in
section 15-236 minus the amount generated by the equalization base as determined in
section 15-971, subsection A for these pupils. A school district may submit to the
superintendent of public instruction a record of actual excess costs to educate a group B
child with a disability if the costs are higher than the calculated excess costs or if a
pupil has been placed in a private school for special education services. The
superintendent shall determine if the additional costs will be paid, and if the costs are
paid, whether the additional costs will be paid by the state or the resident district.

5. The amount received representing contributions to capital outlay as provided in
subsection G, paragraph 1, subdivision (b) of this section shall be applied to the
capital outlay fund or the debt service fund of the school district.

6. The amount received representing contributions to debt service as provided in
subsection G, paragraph 1, subdivisions (c) and (d) of this section shall be applied to
the debt service fund of the school district if there is one. Otherwise such amount shall
be credited to the capital outlay fund of the school district.

F. A school district may submit to the superintendent of public instruction a
record of actual costs paid by the school district to educate a pupil who qualifies for a
certificate of educational convenience under section 15-825, subsection B. If the actual
costs for that pupil exceed the costs per student count computed pursuant to subsection G
of this section, the superintendent of public instruction shall reimburse the school
district for these additional costs subject to legislative appropriation.

G. For the purposes of this section:

1. "Costs per student count" means the sum of the following for the common or high
school portion of the school district attended, whichever is applicable to the pupil
involved, as prescribed in the uniform system of financial records:

(a) The actual school district expenditures for the regular education program
subsection of the maintenance and operation section of the budget divided by the school
district's student count for the common or high school portion of the school district,
whichever is applicable.

(b) The actual school district expenditures for the capital outlay section of the
budget as provided in sections 15-903 and 15-905 excluding expenditures for
transportation equipment and buildings if no transportation is provided and expenditures
for the acquisition of building sites, divided by the school district's student count for
the common or high school portion of the school district, whichever is applicable.

(c) The actual school district expenditures for debt service divided by the school
district's student count for the common or high school portion of the school district,
whichever is applicable.

(d) The result obtained in subdivision (c) of this paragraph shall not exceed:

(i) Seven hundred fifty dollars if the pupil's school district of residence pays
tuition for seven hundred fifty or fewer pupils to other school districts or one hundred
fifty dollars if the state pays tuition for seven hundred fifty or fewer pupils to a
school district pursuant to section 15-825, subsection D or section 15-976.

(ii) Eight hundred dollars if the pupil's school district of residence pays tuition
for one thousand or fewer, but more than seven hundred fifty, pupils to other school
districts or two hundred dollars if the state pays tuition for one thousand or fewer, but
more than seven hundred fifty, pupils to a school district pursuant to section 15-825,
subsection D or section 15-976.

(iii) The actual cost per student count if either the pupil's school district of
residence or the state pays tuition for more than one thousand pupils to other school
districts.

2. "Legal custody" means:

(a) Custody exercised by the natural or adoptive parents with whom a pupil resides.

(b) Custody granted by order of a court of competent jurisdiction to a person or
persons with whom a pupil resides unless the primary purpose for which custody was
requested was to circumvent the payment of tuition as provided in this section.