41-2831. State educational system for committed youth; report

A. The director shall establish a state educational system for committed youth for the common and high school education of committed youth.

B. The director shall identify three persons who are qualified to serve as superintendent of the state educational system for committed youth. The director and the superintendent of public instruction shall agree on one of the three persons whom the director shall employ as superintendent to manage the educational system. The superintendent of the educational system shall employ teachers and other personnel as needed in accordance with chapter 4, article 4 of this title, subject to the approval of the director. All persons who are employed to work in the educational system including the superintendent shall hold the appropriate certificate prescribed by the state board of education in section 15-203, subsection A, paragraph 14.

C. The director shall cause to be implemented the course of study for youth who are enrolled in the state educational system for committed youth.

D. The director shall consider the inclusion of factors related to a pupil's academic progress and standards of behavior as part of the length of stay guidelines adopted as prescribed in section 41-2816.

E. The state educational system for committed youth shall provide appropriate education to all committed youth as required by state and federal law. If not otherwise required by law, the educational system shall provide an appropriate education to all committed youth who have not received a high school diploma or a high school certificate of equivalency.

F. On entrance of a youth to the state educational system for committed youth, the educational system shall administer a basic skills examination to the youth to determine the educational needs of the youth. A similar examination shall be administered on the youth's exit from the educational system to assess the youth's progress while enrolled in the educational system.

G. The department is entitled to receive equalization assistance for the costs of the state educational system for committed youth as provided in title 15, chapter 11.1.

H. The superintendent shall:

1. Keep records and provide information as the department of education requires to determine the appropriate amount of equalization assistance.

2. Prepare an annual financial report containing information similar to that provided by school districts in the report prescribed in section 15-904 in a format prescribed by the department of administration in consultation with the auditor general and submit the report to the governor, the speaker of the house of representatives, the president of the senate and the department of education by November 1. When submitting the report to the speaker and president, the superintendent shall send a copy of the report to the chairmen of the house and senate education committees and shall send a notice to all other legislators that the report is available on request.

3. Establish a system for communicating with each youth's school district of residence in order to facilitate the transfer of records, the determination of the most appropriate educational program and the transfer of educational credit.

I. The department of administration shall develop and maintain a special pay plan for teachers and other professional educational personnel within the state educational system for committed youth. The pay plan shall attempt to keep salaries at a comparable level to that of public school district personnel.

J. Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the director shall designate an educational program for youth on conditional liberty and, if it is in the best interests of the youth and the community, may assign a youth to a specific public or private educational program.