2011 Louisiana Laws
Revised Statutes
TITLE 17 — Education
RS 17:1945 — Special schools and school districts

§1945. Special schools and school districts

A. The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education shall have jurisdiction and exercise supervision and control over the state's special schools for the blind, deaf, and orthopedically impaired. The Louisiana School for the Deaf, the Louisiana School for the Visually Impaired, and the Louisiana Special Education Center, hereinafter in this Section referred to as Board Special Schools, are residential schools established to provide such academic, vocational, and other related services as may be required.

B.(1) The Board Special Schools shall establish an annual enrollment deadline for admission to each of the respective schools. After a school's deadline, any other children with hearing, visual, or orthopedic impairments may enroll at the request of their parents, guardians, appointed custodians, or other legal surrogates if the school, as applicable, determines that there are sufficient resources to meet the needs of these children as well as the needs of the children enrolled prior to the enrollment deadline.

(2) The Board Special Schools may share services and functions, including but not limited to fiscal, human resources, maintenance, security, physical plant, food, transportation, admissions, diagnostics, and health services, to the extent that sharing such services and functions is not in conflict with federal laws and rules applicable to the education of students with exceptionalities.

C.(1) A special school district shall be established to provide special education and related services to any student with exceptionalities who is enrolled in any state-operated facility as a resident of the facility and to provide appropriate educational services to any eligible student enrolled in any state-operated health facility.

(2) The special school district shall be considered an education service agency administered by the Department of Education, with the approval of the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, subject to the limitations of such units which shall include no authority to levy tax.

(3) The services of the special school district shall be available to all eligible students herein described, regardless of their place of residence within the state.

(4) The special school district may enter into interagency agreements with other state agencies to provide appropriate educational services to any eligible student who is not a resident of a state-operated facility but who is in the care or custody of a public or private department, agency, or institution.

(5) The special school district may enter into interagency agreements with other state agencies to provide appropriate educational services to any eligible student regardless of age who is enrolled in any state-operated facility as a resident of the facility.

Acts 1977, No. 754, §1. Amended by Acts 1980, No. 258, §1, eff. June 30, 1980; Acts 1992, No. 458, §1, eff. June 20, 1992; Acts 1998, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 109, §1, eff. May 5, 1998; Acts 2008, No. 376, §1; Acts 2010, No. 325, §1.