SCHOOL ADMISSIONS
The Tangipahoa Parish School Board shall require all children, including kindergarten, who wish to enroll public schools of the parish to meet pertinent eligibility requirements.
No student may be excluded from the appropriate school within the school district except by due process or failure to meet specifications of Board policies. The Board fully recognizes that providing equality of educational opportunities for all children requires objectivity. The Board is equally concerned that all admission policies adhere strictly to applicable legal requirements, e.g. health-related standards.
ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS
1. BIRTH CERTIFICATE – first time entry into school and all transfers.
The Board shall require all children to present their official birth certificate to the school principal in order to be registered for a school in this parish. A copy of the certificate will be placed in the student’s cumulative folder as a permanent record. Only records from an official register of vital statistics will be accepted.
If no birth certificate is presented at the time of registration, the application for an official birth certificate will be made available in the school office. Parents/guardians must pay the required fee and the school must mail the application to the Bureau of Vital Statistics for the parent. A copy of the application must be placed in the student’s cumulative folder until a copy of the official birth certificate replaces the application copy. If no birth certificate is presented or no application for the birth certificate is completed by the parent, the student will not be registered for school. The principal should forward notification to the Child Welfare and Attendance Officer.
A copy of the birth certificate must remain in the student’s cumulative folder throughout the student’s school life.
2. IMMUNIZATION REQUIREMENTS – first time entry into school and all transfers.
All persons entering a school in Tangipahoa Parish for the first time, including
pre-school, kindergarten, elementary and secondary, at the time of registration or entry shall present satisfactory evidence of immunity to or immunization against vaccine-preventable diseases according to a schedule approved by the office of public health, Department of Health and Hospitals, or shall present evidence of an immunization program in progress. A current immunization record as documented on a Health Department MCH 14 Immunization Certificate is the preferred record of documentation for the Tangipahoa Parish School System.
School principals and all teachers, including kindergarten, shall be responsible for checking students’ records to assure that the provisions of this section are enforced.
3.
SOCIAL SECURITY CARD
The Board shall require all children, including kindergarten, to present an original
social security card at the time of registration. A copy of the social security card will be placed in the student’s cumulative folder as a permanent record. The social security number will be applied to all documents and permanent records pertaining to each individual student as a method of identification. The social security number will be the student identification number.
If no social security card is presented at the time of registration, an application for a social security card will be made available in the school office and a state identification number shall be assigned to the student. A notice will be placed in the student’s cumulative folder that the application was made available to the parent. This notice will remain in the student’s cumulative folder for up to thirty (30) days when it must be replaced with a copy of the original social security card.
School principals and all teachers, including kindergarten, shall be responsible for checking students’ records to assure that the provisions of this section are enforced.
4. PROOF OF LEGAL DOMICILE RESIDENCE
Students must present to school officials evidence of being bona fide residents of the Parish, with limited exception. However, children temporarily residing within the jurisdiction of the Board who have no permanent address or who have been abandoned by their parents shall be admitted to school, except as may be allowed by statute.
a. Parents/legal guardians must give proof of legal domiciled residence, i.e.
Entergy meter or other electric meter deposit receipt with actual name of parents and location of residence. The domiciled residence should coincide with the parent/legal guardian’s 911 address. Consideration may be given where a single parent may be residing with a relative.
b. Each student shall provide the school his 911 address at the beginning of each school year. This information should be requested on the standard registration form.
c. On-site visitation of legal domiciled residence to verify that parents/legal guardians reside at the designated address may be completed where deemed necessary.
d. It shall be the responsibility of each principal to ascertain the physical residence of each student who registers at the school. The principal shall develop a plan where each child’s physical address will be recorded in the official records. If the principal suspects that a student may be attending a school out of his/her attendance zone, without proper permission, the principal shall make every effort to determine if the child resides in the district.
If the principal, based on this information, can make a decision regarding the appropriate attendance zone, he shall. The principal shall make every effort to handle the matter at the local level.
5.
HOMELESS STUDENTS/UNACCOMPANIED YOUTH
Homeless and
unaccompanied youth shall be enrolled according to Mckinney Vento requirements
and shall be referred to
6.
PRE-SCHOOL ROUND-UP
A pre-school round-up will be held prior to the school year for children registering for Pre-Kindergarten or Kindergarten. All documents cited under Admission Requirements shall be presented at the time of Pre-School Round-Up.
No child shall be registered at Pre-School Round-Up without the following documents:
a. Birth Certificate
b. Certified copy of Immunization Record – MCH 14 (White Card) preferred.
c. Social Security Card
d. Verification of Residence
7. PRESENT TO SCHOOLOFFICIALS, as a prerequisite to enrolling in
the first grade, evidence of having attended at least a full-day public or private kindergarten for a full school year; or satisfactorily passed academic readiness screening administered by the school system prior to the time of enrollment in first grade.
8. PRESENT TO SCHOOL OFFICIALS satisfactory evidence that at least one of the child’s parents or guardians has completed a parent orientation course conducted by a parish or city school board However, no child shall be denied entry into school because a parent or guardian has not attended an orientation session.
Students transferring should present to the school of entry a copy of the last report card if entering at the beginning of the school year and a copy of current records if entering during the school year.
Students will be temporarily placed according to academic records received at the time of entry. If no academic records are received, the student must receive temporary placement. Within five (5) schooldays, the principal must request the official transcript and other school records from the school(s) of the student’s prior enrollment.
A student whose transcript(s) and other records are not received within thirty (30) days shall be given placement test(s). The Pupil Performance Conference Committee will evaluate the results of the test(s) and recommend the placement of the student according to the results of the test(s).
A student transferring from a state approved school, in or out of the state, shall be allowed credit for work completed in the former school.
Students transferring from school situations that are not state approved or special home study programs will be given appropriate placement test(s). The Pupil Performance Conference Committee will evaluate the results of the test(s) and recommend the placement of the student according to the results of the test(s).
Legal documents from the Bureau of Vital Statistics or Courts must be provided to the school verifying a legal name change, adoptions, or correction of other information before any information contained on permanent records can be amended. A copy of the legal documents must also be placed in the cumulative folder as proof of the changes.
Except in special cases relating to the welfare of the community and its schools, or to individual cases of hardship, the Board shall not accept non-resident students. Upon proper application, accompanied by sufficient proof, the children of families who expect to become resident of Tangipahoa Parish during a given semester or who may be residing temporarily with the jurisdiction of the Board may be admitted to the school in the attendance zone in which they plan to reside at or after the beginning of the semester during which they expect to become residents. All school admission requirements apply to students in these cases.
PROVISIONS OF
COURT ORDER
The court order specifically states that each student shall attend a school in the district in which he resides. However, students may be assigned to other schools when there is a valid reason or under the Majority-Minority Rule and hardship circumstances. The residence of a child is that of their parents or court appointed guardians.
If a child is residing with his parents/court appointed guardians and does not have authorization either under the Majority-Minority or as a hardship circumstance, the child must attend school in the district in which he resides. Approval for Majority-Minority and hardship circumstances must be given by the school attendance officers and the Compliance Officer.
The Majority-Minority Rule allows a student to transfer from a school in which he is in the majority to a school in which he is in the minority. The student is allowed one transfer per year. Once a selection is made and approved, the child must remain at the school for the entire school year. After the first six weeks, transfers will not be approved under the Majority-Minority Rule.
ADMISSIONS OF
EXCEPTONAL STUDENTS
Exceptional
students who transfer for any reason from one approved public school to another
within the parish or from another
Exceptional students who transfer from out of state, migrant and/or private school must present documentation of regular, compensatory, specially designed or alternative to regular placement from the transferring school. Exceptional students shall be placed in the regular program until eligibility is determined. The verification of eligibility for special education placement must include:
(a) A review of the multi-disciplinary evaluation report to determine compliance with Bulletin 1508.
(1) Eligible students shall be referred to the Individual Education Plan Committee who shall meet and determine appropriate special education placement within thirty (30) calendar days.
(2) Ineligible students will be referred to the School Building Level Committee for processing in accordance with Bulletin 1508.
(b) Out of state transfers whose evaluation does not meet Bulletin 1508 but who exhibit a low-incidence disability condition will be placed on an interim I.E.P. for sixty days in order for the individual evaluation to be completed. Upon completion of the individual evaluation an initial I.E.P. will be completed if 1508 criteria is met.
When a previously identified exceptional student enters from a home study plan, that student’s evaluation will be reviewed by the Pupil Appraisal Personnel. If the evaluation is current (within the last three years) an I.E.P. meeting will be held within 30 calendar days to determine placement.
Students whose multi-disciplinary evaluation has expired (3 year timeline) shall be placed in the regular education program in accordance with local policy. The student shall be referred to the School Building Level Committee to initiate a reevaluation to determine need for special education and/or related services.
ADMISSIONS OF
EXPELLED STUDENTS
No student who has been expelled in accordance with state law from any school in the state shall be admitted to any school in the school system except upon the review and approval of the Board.
No
student who has been expelled from any school outside the state of
Revised: July, 1988
Revised: December, 1989
Revised: May, 1990
Revised: May, 1992
Revised: November, 1993
Revised: June, 1994
Revised: December, 1997
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