(105 ILCS 5/13-44.4) (from Ch. 122, par. 13-44.4)
Sec. 13-44.4.
Department of Corrections Reimbursement and Education
Fund; budget. All moneys received from the Common School Fund, federal aid and
grants, vocational and educational funds and grants, and gifts and grants by
individuals, foundations and corporations for educational purposes shall be
deposited into the Department of Corrections Reimbursement and Education
Fund in the State Treasury.
Moneys in the Department of Corrections Reimbursement and Education
Fund may be used, subject to appropriation, to pay the expense of
the schools and school district of the Department of Corrections together with
and supplemental to regular appropriations to the Department for educational
purposes, including, but not limited to, the cost of teacher salaries, supplies
and materials, building upkeep and costs, transportation, scholarships,
non-academic salaries, equipment and other school costs.
Beginning in 1972, the Board of Education shall, by November 15,
adopt an annual budget for the use of education moneys for the
next school year which it deems necessary to defray all necessary
expenses and liabilities of the district, and in such annual
budget shall specify the objects and purposes of each item and the amount
needed for each object or purpose. The budget shall contain a statement of
cash on hand at the beginning of the fiscal year, an estimate of the cash
expected to be received during such fiscal year from all sources, an estimate
of the expenditure contemplated for such fiscal year, and a statement of the
estimated cash expected to be on hand at the end of such year. Prior to the
adoption of the annual educational budget, this budget shall be submitted to
the Department of Corrections and the State Board of Education for
incorporation.
(Source: P.A. 90-9, eff. 7-1-97; 90-587, eff. 7-1-98.)
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(105 ILCS 5/13-45) (from Ch. 122, par. 13-45)
Sec. 13-45.
Other provisions of this Code shall not apply to the Department of Juvenile Justice School District being all of the following Articles and
Sections: Articles 3, 3A, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, those Sections of Article 10 in conflict with
any provisions of Sections 13-40 through 13-45, and Articles 11, 12, 15,
17, 18, 19, 19A, 20, 22, 24, 24A, 26, 31, 32, 33, and 34. Also Article 28 shall
not apply except that this School District may use any funds available from
State, Federal and other funds for the purchase of textbooks, apparatus and
equipment.
(Source: P.A. 98-689, eff. 1-1-15 .)
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(105 ILCS 5/13A-1)
Sec. 13A-1.
Legislative declaration.
The General Assembly finds and
declares as follows:
(a) The children of this State constitute its most |
| important resource, and in order to enable those children to reach their full potential, the State must provide them the quality public education that the Constitution of the State of Illinois mandates.
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(b) The State cannot provide its children with the
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| education they deserve and require unless the environment of the public schools is conducive to learning.
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(c) That environment cannot be achieved unless an
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| atmosphere of safety prevails, assuring that the person of each student, teacher, and staff member is respected, and that none of those people are subjected to violence, threats, harassment, intimidation, or otherwise confrontational or inappropriate behaviors that disrupt the educational atmosphere.
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(d) In most schools, although the disruptive students
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| who are the primary cause of inappropriate educational environments comprise a small percentage of the total student body, they nevertheless consume a substantial amount of the time and resources of teachers and school administrators who are required to address and contain that disruptive behavior.
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(e) Disruptive students typically derive little
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| benefit from traditional school programs and may benefit substantially by being transferred from their current school into an alternative public school program, where their particular needs may be more appropriately and individually addressed and where they may benefit from the opportunity for a fresh start in a new educational environment. At those alternative school programs, innovative academic and school-to-work programs, including but not limited to the techniques of work based learning and technology delivered learning, can be utilized to best help the students enrolled in those schools to become productive citizens.
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(f) Students need an appropriate, constructive
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| classroom atmosphere in order to benefit from the teacher's presentations. Students cannot afford the classroom disruptions and often become frustrated and angry at the inability of their teachers and schools to control disruptive students. As a result, they drop out of school too often. Furthermore, even if these students stay in school and graduate, they have been deprived by their disruptive classmates of the attention to their educational needs that their teachers would otherwise have provided, thereby diminishing their receiving the education and skills necessary to secure good jobs and become productive members of an increasingly competitive economic environment.
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(g) Parents of school children statewide have
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| expressed their rising anger and concern at the failure of their local public schools to provide a safe and appropriate educational environment for their children and to deal appropriately with disruptive students, and the General Assembly deems their concerns to be understandable and justified.
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(h) Every school district in the State shall do all
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| it can to ensure a safe and appropriate educational environment for all of its students, and the first, but not the only, step school districts must take to achieve that goal is to administratively transfer disruptive students from the schools they currently attend to the alternative school programs created by this Article. Those administrative transfers will also provide optional educational programs to best fit the needs of the transferred students.
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(i) Administrative transfers may prove more
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| productive for dealing with disruptive students than out-of-school suspensions or expulsions, which have been the subject of much criticism.
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(j) Because of the urgency of the problems described
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| in this Section, as well as their statewide impact, the State of Illinois bears the responsibility to establish and fully fund alternative schools as soon as possible, thereby providing school districts with an option for dealing with disruptive students that they do not now possess.
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(k) While school districts shall comply with all
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| applicable federal laws and regulations, they should do so consistent with the goals and policies stated in this Article. Further, this Article is intended to be consistent with all applicable federal laws and regulations.
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(l) An alternative school program established under
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| this Article is subject to the other provisions of this Code that apply generally in the public schools of this State and to the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder, except as otherwise provided in this Article.
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(m) The provisions of the Illinois Educational Labor
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| Relations Act apply to those alternative school programs that are created on or after the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1995.
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(Source: P.A. 89-383, eff. 8-18-95; 89-629, eff. 8-9-96 .)
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(105 ILCS 5/13A-3)
Sec. 13A-3.
Alternative schools.
(a) Except with respect to the Chicago public school system as provided in
Section 13A-11, beginning with the 1996-97 school year, there is hereby created
in this
State a system of alternative school education programs. At least one
alternative
school program
may be located within each educational service region or established jointly
by more than one regional office of education to serve more than one
educational service region.
(b) Each regional superintendent shall hold a public hearing, by December
1 of the school year following the effective date of this amendatory Act of
1995, to determine the need for an alternative school. The hearing shall be
held before the regional board. The regional
superintendent, after consulting with the district
superintendent of each school district located within the regional
superintendent's educational service region and the regional board, shall
determine the location and the need of
the alternative school within that region. In making this determination, the
regional superintendent shall consider the following:
(1) the possible utilization of existing buildings, |
| including but not limited to governmental buildings, that are, or could reasonably be made, usable as an alternative school;
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(2) which available option would be least costly; and
(3) distances that administratively transferred
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| students would need to travel and the costs of that travel.
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(c) Upon determination of the need for establishment of an alternative
school program, each school district located within the region shall
provide the
regional superintendent with a copy of the district's discipline policy and
procedure for effecting the suspension or expulsion of the students of that
district. Thereafter, the regional superintendent in cooperation with a
representative from each school district in the region shall establish and each
school district in the region shall adopt policies and procedures that shall
guide each district in the identification and placement of students in the
alternative school program.
(d) The regional superintendent shall locate the alternative school
program so that
it is as far away
from any other school buildings or school grounds in that educational service
region as circumstances
permit.
(e) With the approval of the State board, additional alternative school
programs may
be established in an educational service region. If the regional
superintendent determines that an additional alternative school is required in
the regional superintendent's educational service region, he or she may
petition the State board to
authorize one or more additional alternative school programs in
that region.
(f) In determining whether an additional alternative school program is
necessary and
appropriate for an educational service region requesting it, the State board
shall consider, among other factors, the following:
(1) the geographic size of the educational service
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| region and distances that students within that region must travel in order to attend the existing alternative school program;
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(2) the student population of schools comprising the
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| educational service region and the likely student population of all alternative school programs within that region if the petition is granted;
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(3) any other logistical considerations; and
(4) the costs necessitated by establishing an
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| additional alternative school in that educational service region.
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(g) In the event the State board grants a petition for an additional
alternative school program, then the State board, after consulting the
regional
superintendent, shall decide where the additional alternative school
program shall be
located within that region.
(Source: P.A. 89-383, eff. 8-18-95; 89-629, eff. 8-9-96.)
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(105 ILCS 5/13A-4)
Sec. 13A-4. Administrative transfers. (a) A student who is determined to be
subject to suspension or expulsion in the manner provided by Section 10-22.6
(or,
in the case of a student enrolled in the public schools of a school district
organized under Article 34, in accordance with the uniform system of discipline
established under Section 34-19) may be
immediately transferred to the alternative school program.
(b) Before the effective date of the transfer, the student's parents or guardians shall receive information about the alternative school program, including the specific nature of the curriculum, the number of students in the program, any available services, the program's disciplinary policies, a typical daily schedule, and any extracurricular activities that may be offered at the alternative school program. (c) At the earliest time following the effective date of the transfer, appropriate personnel from the sending school district and appropriate personnel of the alternative school program shall meet to develop an alternative educational plan for the student. The student and the student's parents or guardians shall be invited to this meeting. The alternative educational plan shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following: (1) The duration of the plan, including a date after |
| which the student will be returned to the regular educational program in the public schools of the transferring district.
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(2) The specific academic and behavioral components
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(3) A method and time frame for reviewing the
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| student's progress and for transitioning the student back to the regular educational program in the public schools of the transferring district on the date set forth in paragraph (1), including a transition meeting between the sending school district, the alternative school program, and the student's parent or guardian at least 30 days prior to the date after which the student will be returned to the regular educational program in the public schools of the transferring district.
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If the student or the student's parents or guardians are unable to attend the meeting required under this subsection (c), the appropriate personnel from the alternative school program shall offer a meeting within 30 days after the effective date of the transfer to the student and the student's parents or guardians to discuss and provide input on the student's alternative educational plan and shall provide a copy of the alternative educational plan to the student and the student's parents or guardians prior to the meeting.
(d) The date after which the student will return to the regular educational program in the public schools of the transferring district shall not be extended over the objection of the student's parent or guardian.
(e) The date after which the student will return to the regular educational program in the public schools of the transferring district may be extended upon written agreement by the transferring school district, the alternative school program, and the student's parent or guardian.
(f) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Article, if a student for whom an individualized education program has been developed under Article 14 is transferred to an alternative school program under this Article, that individualized education program shall continue to apply to that student following the transfer, unless modified in accordance with the provisions of Article 14.
(Source: P.A. 103-473, eff. 1-1-24 .)
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(105 ILCS 5/13A-8)
Sec. 13A-8. Funding.
(a) The State of Illinois shall provide funding for
the
alternative school programs within each educational service region and within
the Chicago public school system by line item appropriation made to the State
Board of Education for that purpose. This money, when appropriated, shall be
provided to the regional superintendent and to the Chicago Board of Education,
who shall establish a budget, including salaries, for their
alternative school programs.
Each program shall receive funding in the amount of $30,000 plus an amount
based on the ratio of the region's or Chicago's best 3 months' average daily
attendance in grades pre-kindergarten through 12 to the statewide totals of
these amounts. For purposes of this calculation, the best 3 months' average
daily attendance for each region or Chicago shall be calculated by adding to
the best 3 months' average
daily
attendance the number of low-income students identified in the most
recently available federal census multiplied by one-half times the percentage
of the
region's or Chicago's low-income students
to the State's total low-income students.
The State Board of Education shall retain
up to 1.1% of the appropriation to be used to provide technical assistance,
professional development, and evaluations for the programs.
(a-5) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Section, for the
1998-1999
fiscal year, the total amount distributed
under subsection (a) for an alternative school program shall be not less than
the total amount that was distributed under that subsection for that
alternative school program for the 1997-1998 fiscal year. If an alternative
school program is to receive a total distribution under subsection (a) for the
1998-1999 fiscal year that is less than the total
distribution that the program received under that subsection for the 1997-1998
fiscal year, that alternative school program shall also receive, from a
separate appropriation made for purposes of this subsection (a-5), a
supplementary
payment equal to the amount by which its total distribution under
subsection (a) for the 1997-1998 fiscal year exceeds the amount of the total
distribution that the alternative school program receives under that
subsection for the 1998-1999 fiscal year.
If the amount appropriated
for supplementary payments to alternative school programs under this subsection
(a-5)
is insufficient for that purpose, those supplementary payments shall be
prorated among the alternative school programs entitled to receive those
supplementary payments according to the aggregate amount of the appropriation
made for purposes of this subsection (a-5).
(b) An alternative school program shall be entitled to receive general
State aid as calculated in subsection (K) of
Section 18-8.05 or evidence-based funding as calculated in subsection (g) of Section 18-8.15 upon filing a claim as
provided therein. Any time that a student who is enrolled in an alternative
school program spends in work-based learning, community service, or a similar
alternative educational setting shall be included in determining the student's
minimum number of clock hours of daily school work that constitute a day of
attendance for purposes of calculating general State aid or evidence-based funding.
(c) An alternative school program may receive additional funding from its
school districts in such amount as may be agreed upon by the parties and
necessary
to support the program. In addition, an alternative school program is
authorized to accept and expend gifts, legacies, and grants, including but not
limited to federal grants, from any source for purposes directly related to the
conduct and operation of the program.
(Source: P.A. 100-465, eff. 8-31-17.)
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(105 ILCS 5/13A-11)
(Text of Section before amendment by P.A. 102-466 )
Sec. 13A-11. Chicago public schools.
(a) The Chicago Board of Education may
establish alternative schools within Chicago and may contract with third
parties for services otherwise performed by employees, including those in a
bargaining unit, in accordance with Sections 34-8.1, 34-18, and 34-49.
(b) Alternative schools operated by third parties within Chicago shall be
exempt from all provisions of this Code, except provisions concerning:
(1) student civil rights;
(2) staff civil rights;
(3) health and safety;
(4) performance and financial audits;
(5) the assessments required under Section 2-3.64a-5 |
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(6) Chicago learning outcomes;
(7) Sections 2-3.25a through 2-3.25j of this Code;
(8) the Inspector General; and
(9) Section 34-2.4b of this Code.
(Source: P.A. 98-972, eff. 8-15-14.)
(Text of Section after amendment by P.A. 102-466 )
Sec. 13A-11. Chicago public schools.
(a) The Chicago Board of Education may
establish alternative schools within Chicago and may contract with third
parties for services otherwise performed by employees, including those in a
bargaining unit, in accordance with Sections 34-8.1, 34-18, and 34-49.
(b) Alternative schools operated by third parties within Chicago shall be
exempt from all provisions of this Code, except provisions concerning:
(1) student civil rights;
(2) staff civil rights;
(3) health and safety;
(4) performance and financial audits;
(5) the assessments required under Section 2-3.64a-5
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(6) Chicago learning outcomes;
(7) Sections 2-3.25a through 2-3.25j of this Code;
(8) the Inspector General;
(9) Section 34-2.4b of this Code; and
(10) Article 26A and any other provision of this Code
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| concerning students who are parents, expectant parents, or victims of domestic or sexual violence, as defined in Article 26A.
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(Source: P.A. 102-466, eff. 7-1-25.)
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(105 ILCS 5/13B-5)
Sec. 13B-5.
Legislative findings and declarations.
The General Assembly
finds
and declares
the following:
(1) It is the responsibility of each school district |
| to provide educational support for every student to meet Illinois Learning Standards.
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(2) School districts need flexibility and financial
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| support to assist local schools in their efforts to provide students with educational and other services needed for students to successfully master the curriculum.
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(3) Alternative education in this State has
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| traditionally provided student-centered curriculum, social services, and other support needed to help students succeed.
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(4) Standards-based reform requires a comprehensive
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| approach to alternative education to ensure that every student has the opportunity to meet the State's rigorous learning standards.
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(5) While school districts operating alternative
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| learning opportunities programs must comply with all applicable State and federal laws and rules, these districts should do so in a manner consistent with the goals and policies stated in this Article.
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(Source: P.A. 92-42, eff. 1-1-02.)
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(105 ILCS 5/13B-25.20)
Sec. 13B-25.20. Requirements for the district plan. The district plan
must be consistent with
the school district's overall mission and goals and aligned with the local
school improvement plans of
each participating school. The district plan must include all of the
following:
(1) A description of the program, including the |
| students at risk of academic failure to be served, evidence of need, program goals, objectives, and measurable outcomes.
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(2) A staffing plan, including the experiences,
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| competency, and qualifications of licensed and nonlicensed staff and emphasizing their individual and collective abilities to work with students at risk of academic failure.
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(3) A description and schedule of support services
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| that will be available to students as part of their instructional program, including procedures for accessing services required for students on an as-needed basis.
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(4) How the district will use grant funds to improve
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| the educational achievement of students at risk of academic failure.
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(5) A detailed program budget that includes sources
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| of funding to be used in conjunction with alternative learning opportunities grant funds and a plan for allocating costs to those funds.
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(6) A plan that outlines how funding for alternative
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| learning opportunities will be coordinated with other State and federal funds to ensure the efficient and effective delivery of the program.
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(7) A description of other sources of revenue the
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| district will allocate to the program.
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(8) An estimate of the total cost per student for the
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| program and an estimate of any gap between existing revenue available for the program and the total cost of the program.
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(9) A description of how parents and community
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| members will be involved in the program.
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(10) Policies and procedures used by the district to
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| grant credit for student work satisfactorily completed in the program.
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(11) How the district will assess students enrolled
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| in the program, including how statewide testing for students in alternative learning opportunities settings will be addressed.
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(12) How students will be admitted to the program and
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| how students will make an effective transition back to the regular school program, as appropriate.
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(13) All cooperative and intergovernmental agreements
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| and subcontracts with eligible entities.
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(Source: P.A. 102-894, eff. 5-20-22.)
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