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                             ENGROSSED HOUSE BILL 2549

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State of Washington              52nd Legislature             1992 Regular Session

By Representatives Peery, D. Sommers, Jacobsen, Scott and Rayburn

Read first time 01/20/92.  Referred to Committee on Education.Prohibiting school districts from establishing transfer fees for transfer students.

     AN ACT Relating to transfer fees for nonresident students; and amending RCW 28A.225.220.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

     Sec. 1.  RCW 28A.225.220 and 1990 1st ex.s. c 9 s 201 are each amended to read as follows:

     (1) Any board of directors may make agreements with adults choosing to attend school:  PROVIDED, That unless such arrangements are approved by the state superintendent of public instruction, a reasonable tuition charge, fixed by the state superintendent of public instruction, shall be paid by such students as best may be accommodated therein.

     (2) A district is strongly encouraged to honor the request of a parent or guardian for his or her child to attend a school in another district.

     (3) A district shall release a student to a nonresident district that agrees to accept the student if:

     (a) A financial, educational, safety, or health condition affecting the student would likely be reasonably improved as a result of the transfer; or

     (b) Attendance at the school in the nonresident district is more accessible to the parent's place of work or to the location of child care; or

     (c) There is a special hardship or detrimental condition.

     (4) A district may deny the request of a resident student to transfer to a nonresident district if the release of the student would adversely affect the district's existing desegregation plan.

     (5) For the purpose of helping a district assess the quality of its education program, a resident school district may request an optional exit interview or questionnaire with the parents or guardians of a child transferring to another district.  No parent or guardian may be forced to attend such an interview or complete the questionnaire.

     (6) School districts may not establish ((annual)) tuition or transfer fees for nonresident students enrolled under subsection (3) of this section and RCW 28A.225.225.  ((Until rules are adopted under section 202, chapter 9, Laws of 1990 1st ex. sess. for the calculation of the transfer fee, the transfer fee shall be calculated by the same formula as the fees authorized under section 10, chapter 130, Laws of 1969.  These fees, if applied, shall be applied uniformly for all such nonresident students except as provided in this section.  The superintendent of public instruction, from available funds, shall pay any transfer fees for low-income students assessed by districts under this section.  All transfer fees must be paid over to the county treasurer within thirty days of its collection for the credit of the district in which such students attend.))  Reimbursement of a high school district for cost of educating high school pupils of a nonhigh school district shall not be deemed a transfer fee as affecting the apportionment of current state school funds.