(1) When necessary to meet a student’s educational needs and interests, the parent or guardian with the approval of the resident district and the attending district may enroll the student in one of the proposed appropriate and accessible public alternative education programs or private alternative education programs of instruction or instruction combined with counseling registered with the Department of Education. If the child is determined to be eligible for special education under ORS 343.221 to 343.236 and 343.261 to 343.295, the program must be approved by the Department of Education prior to the placement of the student in the program. A student enrolled pursuant to this subsection or enrolled in an alternative education program on or after July 1, 1995, because the student’s educational needs and interests are best met through participation in such a program shall be considered enrolled in the schools of the district for purposes of the distribution of the State School Fund.
(2) The alternative education program in which the student enrolls with the districts’ approval shall notify the school district in which the student or the student’s parents or legal guardian, if any, resided at the time the student enrolled of the child’s enrollment and may bill the school district for tuition. The billing may be made annually or at the end of each term or semester of the alternative education program. For each full-time equivalent student enrolled in the alternative education program, the school district shall pay the actual cost of the program or an amount at least equivalent to 80 percent of the district’s estimated current year’s average per student net operating expenditure, whichever is lesser, in accordance with rules adopted by the State Board of Education. The alternative education program shall be accountable for the expenditures of all State School Fund and other local school support moneys, providing the school district with an annual statement of such expenditures.
(3) A private alternative education program that is registered with the Department of Education is not required to employ only licensed teachers or administrators. Teachers and administrators in such private programs shall not be considered employees of any district for purposes of ORS 342.173.
(4) A school district is not required to provide a public alternative education program if there are public or approved private alternative education programs that are appropriate and accessible to the student to which a student can be referred.
(5) Any Oregon teaching license is valid for teaching all subjects and grade levels in an alternative education program operated by a school district or education service district. [Formerly 339.620; 1995 c.656 §7; 1996 c.16 §3; 1997 c.164 §1; 1997 c.613 §3; 2001 c.490 §4]
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