SUMMARY:

            This bill would amend Part 13 of Article 6 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the O.C.G.A to allow a public school student to attend any school in the local school system under certain conditions.  It also provides nepotism restrictions for eligibility for school board members and superintendents.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Parents would be able to enroll their children in the school of their choice in the local school system if the school had enough permanent space left for the children after its assigned students were enrolled, beginning with the 2009-2010 school year.
• Parents would be responsible for transportation.
• Systems would be required to establish a universal, streamlined process to implement the transfers and notify parents of the schools with available space for transfer by July 1, 2009.
• N/A for charter schools or newly opened schools for four years following the opening
• Students already attending a school other than the one to which they were assigned would be "grandfathered" in at the schools they currently attend.
• No person who has an immediate family member sitting on a local board of education or serving as the local school superintendent or as a principal, assistant principal, or system administrative staff in the local school system shall be eligible to serve as a member of such local board of education.
• No person shall be eligible to be appointed, employed, or to serve as superintendent of schools of any county or independent school system who has an immediate family member sitting on the local board of education for such school system or who has an immediate family member hired as or promoted to a principal, assistant principal, or system administrative staff on or after July 1, 2009, by that school system.