(1) A public school may apply to the state board for
designation as an alternative education campus. The state board shall adopt rules
specifying the criteria and application process for a public school to be designated
an alternative education campus. The rules must include but need not be limited to:
(a) Criteria that a public school must meet to be designated an alternative
education campus, including but not limited to the following:
(I) Having a specialized mission and serving a special needs or at-risk
population;
(II) Being an autonomous public school;
(III) Having an administrator who is not under the supervision of an
administrator at another public school;
(IV) Having a budget separate from any other public school;
(V) Having nontraditional methods of instruction delivery; and
(VI) (A) Serving students who have severe limitations that preclude
appropriate administration of the assessments administered pursuant to section
22-7-1006.3;
(B) Serving a student population in which more than ninety percent of the
students have an individualized education program pursuant to section 22-20-108
or meet the definition of a high-risk student contained in subsection (1.5) of this
section, or any combination of these two criteria that equals at least ninety percent
of the student population; or
(C) Serving students who attend on a part-time basis and who come from
other public schools where the part-time students are counted in the enrollment of
the other public school; except that the results of the assessments administered
pursuant to section 22-7-1006.3 to all part-time students and high-risk students as
defined in subsection (1.5) of this section must be used in determining the levels of
attainment on the performance indicators for the public school for which the
student is counted for enrollment purposes;
(D) (Deleted by amendment, L. 2010, (SB 10-154), ch. 157, p. 541, � 1, effective
April 21, 2010.)
(b) A procedure for a district school board to request that the state board
designate a public school of the school district as an alternative education campus;
and
(c) (Deleted by amendment, L. 2009, (SB 09-163), ch. 293, p. 1520, � 2,
effective May 21, 2009.)
(d) A procedure for a district school board to appeal to the state board a
denial of a request for designation.
(1.2) Notwithstanding the requirement in subsection (1)(a)(VI)(B) of this
section, an alternative education campus that has a pupil enrollment of less than
two hundred fifty students shall not lose its designation if the campus met the
ninety percent threshold during the school year, did not fall below the ninety
percent threshold by more than three students during the subsequent year, and
again met the ninety percent threshold the following year.
(1.5) As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires, a high-risk student means a student enrolled in a public school who:
(a) Has been committed to the department of human services following
adjudication as a juvenile delinquent or is in detention awaiting disposition of
charges that may result in commitment to the department of human services;
(b) Has dropped out of school or has four excused or unexcused absences
from public school in any one month or ten excused or unexcused absences from
public school during any school year. Absences due to suspension or expulsion of a
student are considered absences for purposes of this paragraph (b).
(c) Has been expelled from school or engaged in behavior that would justify
expulsion;
(d) Has a documented history of personal drug or alcohol use or has a parent
or guardian with a documented substance use disorder;
(e) Has a documented history of personal street gang involvement or has an
immediate family member with a documented history of street gang involvement;
(f) Has a documented history of child abuse or neglect, has been adjudicated
a ward of the court, or has been involved in the foster care system;
(g) Has a parent or guardian in prison or on parole or probation or has
experienced the loss of a parent or sibling;
(h) Has a documented history of domestic violence in the immediate family;
(i) Has a documented history of repeated school suspensions;
(j) Is a parent or pregnant woman who is twenty-one years of age or younger;
(k) Is a migrant child, as defined in section 22-23-103 (2);
(l) Is a homeless child, as defined in section 22-1-102.5 (2)(a);
(m) Has a documented history of a mental health disorder or behavioral issue
or has experienced significant trauma; or
(n) Is over traditional school age for his or her grade level and lacks
adequate credit hours for his or her grade level.
(2) (a) A district school board for a public school that desires to be
considered an alternative education campus pursuant to this section shall file with
the state board a request for designation as an alternative education campus. The
request shall be in a form approved by the state board and shall contain sufficient
information to establish that the public school meets the requirements of the rules
adopted pursuant to paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of this section. The state board
shall approve the designation of alternative education campus for any public school
for which a request is filed pursuant to this subsection (2) that is found by the state
board to meet the requirements of the rules adopted pursuant to paragraph (a) of
subsection (1) of this section.
(b) Repealed.
(2.5) (a) The department shall annually review the performance of each
alternative education campus based on the criteria specified by rule of the state
board pursuant to section 22-11-210 (1)(b) and shall recommend to the commissioner
and the state board whether the alternative education campus shall adopt a
performance, improvement, priority improvement, or turnaround plan, as said plans
are described in sections 22-11-403 to 22-11-406. Based on the recommendations,
the state board, pursuant to section 22-11-210 (2), shall notify each alternative
education campus and its district school board, or the institute if the alternative
education campus is an institute charter school, of the type of plan the alternative
education campus shall adopt. In adopting its plan, each alternative education
campus shall comply with the provisions of sections 22-11-403 to 22-11-406, as
applicable.
(b) The district school board for an alternative education campus or the
institute, if the alternative education campus is an institute charter school, shall
specify the accreditation category for the alternative education campus in
accordance with the accreditation process adopted by the district school board or
the institute pursuant to section 22-11-307.
(c) Notwithstanding the provisions of section 22-11-503, the school
performance report for an alternative education campus shall include the
information specified by rule of the state board that will effectively communicate to
the parents of students enrolled in the alternative education campus and to the
public the performance of the alternative education campus and the performance
of students enrolled in the alternative education campus.
(d) (Deleted by amendment, L. 2009, (SB 09-163), ch. 293, p. 1520, � 2,
effective May 21, 2009.)
(e) Repealed.
(3) (a) Except as excluded pursuant to section 22-7-1006.3, the results of the
assessments administered pursuant to section 22-7-1006.3 to all part-time
students attending a school or a program that is designated an alternative
education campus pursuant to this section must be included in determining the
levels of attainment on the performance indicators achieved by the school to which
the student is assigned for enrollment purposes.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (a) of this subsection (3), for
a part-time student with an individualized education program pursuant to section
22-20-108, the school district in which the student is enrolled, or, in the case of a
board of cooperative services, the administrative unit, may designate either the
school of residency or the school of attendance as the school to which the
student's scores shall be assigned to determine levels of attainment on the
performance indicators.
(4) In the administration of a grant existing pursuant to this title 22, the
department of education shall allocate priority points to an alternative education
campus if the alternative education campus is eligible and satisfies the grant's
requirements.
(5) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an alternative education
campus may include in its pupil enrollment a high-risk student, as defined in this
section, who is twenty-one years of age or younger on the pupil enrollment count
day if the high-risk student has sufficient credits so that the student will be eligible
for a diploma by the end of the same school year.
(6) Beginning in September 2025, and each September thereafter, the
department of education shall prepare and post an annual report on enrollment
trends, student demographics, and student mobility in alternative education
campuses. The report must include, but need not be limited to:
(a) Year-round enrollment trends, including fluctuations beyond the official
October count date;
(b) A demographic breakdown of alternative education campus students,
including factors such as age, race and ethnicity, multilingual learners, and special
education status; and
(c) Data on student mobility, including transfers into and out of alternative
education campuses throughout the school year.