(a) The department may

(1) establish, maintain, govern, operate, discontinue, and combine area, regional, and special schools;

(2) enter into contractual agreements with the Bureau of Indian Affairs or with a school district to share boarding costs of secondary school students;

(3) provide for citizenship night schools when and where expedient;

(4) provide for the sale or other disposition of abandoned or obsolete buildings and other state-owned school property;

(5) prescribe a classification for items of expense of school districts;

(6) acquire and transfer personal property, acquire real property, and transfer real property to federal agencies, state agencies, or to political subdivisions;

(7) enter into contractual agreements with school districts to provide more efficient or economical education services; reasonable fees may be charged by the department to cover the costs of providing services under an agreement, including costs for professional services, reproduction or printing, and mailing and distribution of educational materials;

(8) provide for the issuance of elementary and secondary diplomas to persons not in school who have completed the equivalent of an 8th or 12th grade education, respectively, in accordance with standards established by the department;

(9) apply for, accept, and spend endowments, grants, and other private money available to the state for educational purposes in accordance with AS 37.07 (Executive Budget Act);

(10) set student tuition and fees for educational and extracurricular programs and services provided and schools operated by the department under the provisions of (1) of this section and AS 14.07.020(a)(9), (11), and (12);

(11) charge fees to cover the costs of care and handling with respect to the acquisition, warehousing, distribution, or transfer of donated foods;

(12) establish and collect fees for the rental of school facilities and for other programs and services provided by the schools;

(13) develop a model curriculum and provide technical assistance for early childhood education programs;

(14) notwithstanding any other provision of this title, intervene in a school district to improve instructional practices under standards established by the department in regulation, including directing the

(A) employees identified by the department to exercise supervisory authority for instructional practices in the district or in a specified school;

(B) use of appropriations under this title for distribution to a district;

(15) notwithstanding any other provision of this title, redirect public school funding under AS 14.17 appropriated for distribution to a school district, after providing notice to the district and an opportunity for the district to respond, when

(A) necessary to contract for services to improve instructional practices in the district; or

(B) the district has failed to take an action required by the department to improve instructional practices in the district; if funding is redirected under this subparagraph, the department shall provide the redirected funding to the district when the department has determined that the required action is satisfactorily completed.

(b) The department may not require a school district to review textbooks, instructional materials, or curricula more frequently than once every 10 years.