Section 20-2-294. Permanent classrooms; student commuting distance; reassignment; cost of transportation

   (a) It is the intent of the General Assembly that students receive academic instruction in permanent classrooms where possible and, further, that students be transported to schools that are within a reasonable distance from the student's place of residence. In order to allow for hardships imposed by inadequate classroom space and excessive distances, this Code section authorizes students to receive education services outside the school district in which they reside, subject to rules promulgated by the State Board of Education.

(b) The parent or guardian of a student enrolled in a public elementary or secondary school in this state may elect to request reassignment to a public school that is located within the school district in which the student resides other than the one to which the student has been assigned by the local board of education if the school to which the student has been assigned does not have available permanent classroom space in which the student can attend classes and a school within the district in which the student resides has permanent classroom space available. At any time during the school year in which a student is assigned to nonpermanent classroom facilities for instruction, the parent or guardian of a student may apply to the local board for reassignment.

(c) If the student's place of residence is located closer to a school other than the school assigned the student by the local board of education, regardless of the school district in which the closer school is located, and the distance or travel time to the school to which the student has been assigned is, in the determination of the State Board of Education, excessive, and the school which the student is applying to attend is the closest available public school offering a regular program to the student's residence and has available permanent classroom space, the State Board of Education may authorize the student to attend the closer school. State Quality Basic Education Program funds, including the local five mill share, allotted to the sending school system shall be reallotted to the receiving school system in an amount correlated to the number of transferred students. A request for reassignment shall be submitted in writing to the district offices of both the district in which the student resides and the district in which the student is requesting to attend school no later than seven days following the assignment of the student to a school and notification of assignment to the student's parent or guardian. Upon assignment of nonresident students, the school system that is providing services may elect to make application to the state for funds that represent the difference between the dollar amount per full-time equivalent student represented by the state program funds received and the total dollar amount per full-time equivalent student expended by the system for a similarly enrolled student; provided, however, that local transportation costs shall not be included in the amount requested. The Department of Education shall request funds in the midterm adjustment amount sufficient to provide for these costs after the amounts submitted have been adjusted to account for students moving between the same two school systems so as to subtract the base cost, represented as the lesser of the two local school system costs per full-time equivalent student amounts, from the greater amount.

(d) The responsibility for and cost of transporting the student to a school to which the student has been assigned under this Code section shall be that of the student. Nothing in this Code section shall be construed to interfere with desegregation plans in effect or any subsequent implementation thereof. Nothing in this Code section shall be construed to alter contractual relationships between two or more school systems.

Code 1981, § 20-2-294, enacted by Ga. L. 2000, p. 618, § 56.